BERKELEY 

LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF 

CALIFORNIA 


Columbia  IhtftcrgttP 


* 

^ 


German  (ftoaturaai 


MEMOIRS 


OP    EMINENT 


TEACHERS  AND  EDUCATORS 


WITH 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 


GERMANY 


REPUBLISHED    PROM 

THE  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  EDUCATION. 

EDITED  BY  HENRY  BARNARD,  LL.  D. 


REVISED  EDITION. 


HARTFORD: 

BROWN     &     GROSS. 
1878. 


LIB. 

y  HViXHDRAWN 
FROM 

BARNARD  COLLEOE 

THE  ELLA  WEED  LIBRARY 


.4 


PREFACE. 


THE  following  volume  is  a  reproduction  of  the  Treatise  printed  in  1863, 
under  the  title  of  German  Educational  Reformers,  with  omissions  and 
additions  to  make  the  treatment  more  special  and  comprehensive  of  the 
great  teachers,  educators,  and  organizers  of  school  systems  in  Germany, 
from  the  sixth  to  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  omissions  are  the  chapters  on  Bacon,  Locke,  Montaigne,  Rousseau, 
and  Pestalozzi,  and  their  influence  on  German  education,  which  will  now 
be  found  in  the  separate  treatises  on  English,  French,  and  Swiss 
Pedagogy. 

The  additions  include  memoirs  of  the  early  Christian  Teachers  and 
Founders  of  Schools,  prior  to  the  fourteenth  century,  and  the  Organizers 
of  Public  Elementary  Schools,  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centu- 
ries, with  a  summary  view  of  the  present  Systems  and  Statistics  of 
Public  Instruction  in  the  German  States. 

HENRY  BARNARD. 

Hartford,  March  1,  1878. 


672 


GERMAN  EDUCATIONAL  BIOGRAPHY  :  Memoirs  of  Founders  and  Teach- 
ers, Organizers,  and  Reformers  of  Systems,  Institutions  and  Methods  of 
Instruction  in  Germany,  from  the  7th  to  the  19th  century.  Republished 
from  The  American  Journal  of  Education:  HENRY  BARNARD,  LL.D., 
Editor.  Revised  Edition.  Hartford:  Brown  &  Gross.  672  pages.  $3.50. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 
I.  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  TEACHERS,  from  696  to  1300 1-40 

WlLIBRORD  AND  WlNIFRED  AT  UTRECHT — WlNFRED  (ST.  BONIFACE)  AT  FULDA..  1 
CHARLEMAGNE  AND  ALCUIN — SEMINARIES — CLOISTER  AND  GRAMMAR  SCHOOLS..  5 

FULDA,  HATTO  AND  RABANUS — LUPUS  OF  FERRIERES — HAMO ^, 11 

PASCHASIUS  OF  OLD  CORBY — ANSCHARIUS  OF  NEW  CORBY 10 

BRUNO  OF  COLOGNE — DITMAR — BOPPO  AND  WOLFGANG  OF  WURTZBURG 20 

UDALRIC  OF  AUGSBURG — BERNWARD  OF  HILDESHEIM — TANGMAR 22 

BENNON  OF  MISNIA — MEINWERC  OF  PADERBORN — ADALBERT  OF  PRAGUE 24 

OTHLONUS  OF  ST.  EMMERAN — WILLIAM  OF  HIRSCHAU 26 

M ARiANrs — ALBERT  THE  GRSAT  »*F  OO^OGNE 30 

II.  HIERONYMIAN3  OR  BRETHREN  OF  THF  COMMON  LIFE,  from  1340  to  1500.  41-64 

orlRARD  GROOTK — JOHN  COLE — FLORENTJ'JS  RADEW1N 41 

C.ERARD  ZERBOLT— THOMAS-A-KEMP*S— FKNRY  DE  MESMES 46 

JOHN  WESSEL — TEA.CHER  o?  GRZEF  ^sf>  HEBREW — GOSWIN  OF  HARLON 50 

3.UDOI.F  AGRT.COL.:. — TEACHER  AT  HEIDELBERG — METHODS  OF  STUDY 53 

•    /t'Er.ANDER  HEGIUS  AT  WfiSSEL,  EMMERICH,  AND  DfiVENTER 59 

MURMELLIUS  AT  MUNSTER,  AND    ALCMAR,  CjESARIUS,  CODENIUS,  HORLENIUS..    60 

RUDOLF  LANGE  AT  MUNSTER — HERMANN  BUSCH  AT  WESSEL. 62 

III.  ERASMUS  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK,  1467  to  1536 65-80 

MEMOIR — SERVICE  TO  CLASSICAL  AND  BIBLICAL  LEARNING 79 

IV.  REUCHLIN  AND  THE  SCHLETTSTADT  SCHOOL,  1360 81-92 

SCHLETTSTADT  SCHOOL  AND  ITS  FIRST  RECTOR,  DRINGENBERG 81 

JACOB  WINPHELING — RECTOR  AT  HEIDELBERG — TEACHER  AT  STRASBURG 82 

JOHN  REUCHLIN — SERVICES  TO  GREEK  AND  HEBREW  STUDIES 84 

V.  RETROSPECT  OF  15TH  &  16TH  CENTURIES 91 

OLD  AND  NEW  STUDIES— MEDI/EVAL  AND  NEW  SCHOOL  BOOKS 91 

VI.  MARTIN  LUTHER  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK 97-160 

i.  EDUCATION— CONDITION  OF  THE  TRIVIAL  SCHOOLS 101 

MONASTIC  SCHOOL  AT  MAGDEBURG — LATIN  SCHOOL  AT  EISENACH 109 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ERFURT — PROFESSOR  AT  WITTENBERG 119 

n.  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS   131 

HOME  GOVERNMENT — DOMESTIC  TRAINING — PARENTAL  DUTY 131 

SCHOOLS — ADDRESS  TO  THE  TOWN  COUNCILS  OF  GERMANY — UNIVERSITIES....  139 

in.  SCHOOL  ORGANIZATIONS  OF  BUGENHAGEN  UNDER  LUTHER'S  DIRECTION 160 

VII.  PHILIP  MELANCTHON  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  WORK 161-184 

i.  EDUCATION  AT  PSFORSHEIM,  HEIDELBERG,  AND  TUBINGEN 161 

n.  ACTIVITY  AT  WITTENBERG— SCHOOL  PLAN  FOR  THURINGIA 169 

m.  MANUALS  OF  GRAMMAR,  LOGIC,  RHETORIC,  PHYSICS,  ETHICS 175 


GERMAN  TEACHERS— CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 
VIII.  FOUNDERS  OF  SCHOOLS  AND  METHODOLOGY  IN  16TH  CENTURY.. ..  185-266 

i.  VALENTINE  FRIKDLAND  TROTZENDORF,  1490-1556 185 

RECTOR  OF  THK  GOLDBERG  SCHOOL 185 

ii   JOHN  STURM,  1507-1589 193 

RECTOR  OF  GYMNASIUM  AT  STRASBUKG 193 

SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  DETAIL 195 

in.  MICHAEL  NEANDER,  1525-1595 225 

RECTOR  OF  THE  CLOISTER  SCHOOL  AT  ILFELD 226 

iv.  THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS 229 

LOYOLA — CONSTITUTIONS  RESPECTING  INSTRUCTION 229 

IX.  INFLUENCE  OF  LUTHER'S  ECCLESIASTICAL  REVOLUTION 267-272 

SCHOOLS  AS  THEY  WERE — UNIVERSITIES — EARLY  SCHOOL  CODES 267 

1  X.  EDUCATIONAL  REFORMERS  OF  THE  I7TH  &  18TH  CENTURIES 273-352 

i.  WOLFGANG  RATICH,  1571-1635 319 

EDUCATIONAL  WORK 324 

n.  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS,  1592-1635 347 

LABORS  IN  GERMANY,  HOLLAND,  SWEDEN,  AND  ENGLAND 349 

PEDAGOGICAL  PUBLICATIONS— STUDIES— GRADES  OF  SCHOOLS 354 

in.  DUKE  ERNEST  THE  Pious,  1643-1675 389 

THE  SCHOOL  METHOD — COMMON  SCHOOLS  OF  GOTHA 389 

iv.  AUGUSTUS  HKRMAN  FRANKE,  AND  THE  PIETISTS  1663-1727 407 

ORIGIN  OF  TEACHERS'  SEMINARIES 418 

v.  JOHN  JULIUS  HECKER,  AND  REALISTIC  INSTRUCTION,  1739-1797 431 

TECHNOLOGICAL  INSTITUTIONS 445 

vi.  JOHN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW,  1723-1780 457 

BASEDOW  AND  PESTALOZZI  COMPARED 491 

vii.  EBERHARD  VON  ROCHOW,  1734-1805 491 

vin.  DEVELOPMENT  OF  PRIMARY  SCHOOLS  AND  TEACHERS'  SEMINARIES 500 

XI    REFORMATORY  PHILOLOGISTS 521-578 

i.  JOHN  MATHER  GESNER,  1691-1761 521 

ii.  JOHN  AUGUST  ERNESTI,  1707-1781 530 

in.  JOHN  GEORGE  HAMANN,  1730-1888 533 

iv.  JOHN  GOTFRIED  HERDER,  1744-1803 557 

v.  FREDERICK  AUGUST  WOLF,  1759-1824 561 

vi.  CHRISTIAN  GOTTLOB  HEYNE,  1729-1812 574 

XII.  ORGANIZERS  OF  ELEMENTARY  INSTRUCTION 579-624 

i.  FREDERIC  II.,  SCHOOL  REFORMS  IN  PRUSSIA 579 

1.  GENERAL  REGULATIONS  OF  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS  AND  TEACHERS,  1763 —  593 

2.  REGULATIONS  OF  THE  CATHOLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  SILESIA,  1764 609 

ii.  MARIA  THERESA  AND  SCHOOL  REFORMS  IN  AUSTRIA 613 

1.  HIGHER  AND  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS,  1763 615 

2.  GENERAL  LAW  FOR  THE  SCHOOLS  OF  AUSTRIA,  1774 619 

XIII.  RESULTS— GERMAN  SYSTEMS  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION (J41-672 

i.  ELEMENTARY  INSTRUCTION '• 641 

ii.  SECONDARY  INSTRUCTION 651 

in   SUPERIOR  INSTRU<  TION 655 

iv.  SPECIAL  AND  PROFESSIONAL  INSTRUCTION 659 

INDEX... 673 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN   SCHOOLS  AND  TEACHERS. 


WILIBRORD — WINFRED. 

ABOUT  the  year  664,  an  English  piiest  named  Egbert,  who  had 
been  taught  at  Lindisfarne  by  Bishop  Colrnan,  was  studying  in  the 
monastery  of  Rathmelsigi,  in  Connaught,  Ireland,  formed  the  pur- 
pose of  planting  Christian  institutions  in  Friesland,  and  after  seven 
ineffectual  attempts,  inspired  Wilibrord,  who,  with  twelve  com- 
panions, proceeded  there,  and  as  bishop  of  Utrecht,  founded  a 
school  about  696,  to  which  he  afterwards  sent  thirty  young  Danes.  . 
He  was  joined  for  a  time  by  Winfred,  '  the  philosopher  of  Christ,' 
but  who  subsequently  extended  his  labors  into  Hesse  and  Thuringia. 
Winfred  was  born  in  Devonshire,  near  the  border  lands' of  English 
Saxony,  about  the  year  766.  He  studied  at  Exeter,  and  subse- 
quently in  the  school  of  Nutscell  in  Hampshire,  under  the  direction 
of  Abbot  Winbert.  Of  this  school  he  became  scholasticus,  and 
his  teaching  of  grammar,  poetry,  and  the  sacred  sciences,  drew  stu- 
dents from  all  the  southern  provinces.  But  his  zeal  to  preach  the 
Gospel  among  the  races  of  Germany,  from  whom  he  was  descended, 
took  him  even  to  Utrecht.  In  one  of  his  journeys  he  stopped  at 
Treves,  and  attached  to  him  a  grandson  of  the  daughter  of  King 
Dagobert,  Gregory  by  name,  a  boy  of  fifteen  years,  who  after- 
wards became  bishop  of  Utrecht,  on  the  death  of  Wilibrord,  and 
founded  the  Episcopal  seminary  of  that  place.  Of  this  school 
Luidger,  the  son  of  a  Friesland  noble,  was  an  alumnus.  He  after- 
wards studied  in  the  English  school  of  York,  then  under  Alcuin. 
When  the  latter  became  fixed  at  the  court  of  Charlemagne,  he  re- 
commended Luidger  for  the  first  bishop  of  Mimigardford,  which 
he  caused  to  be  changed  to  Minster,  or  Munster,  and  where  he 
founded  a  monastery  and  episcopal  school,  in  which  he  deposited 
the  books  he  had  brought  with  him  from  England. 

WINFRID   AS   ST.    BONIFACE. 

Winfred,  after  pursuing  his  apostolic  career  along  the  banks  of 
the  Rhine  and  the  Danube,  was  summoned  to  Rome,  and  there 
consecrated  bishop  of  the  German  nation,  and  took  the  name  of 
Boniface.  He  applied  to  the  bishops  and  abbots  of  England  for 


2  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS. 

assistance,  and  was  joined  by  a  band  of  missioners,  among  whom 
was  Burchard,  Lullus,  Wilibald,  and  Winibald,  who  formed  a  com- 
munity, wherever  they  labored.  In  addition  to  the  church  and  epis- 
copal schools  at  Utrecht,  Treves,  Ordorp,  Munster,  &c.,  Boniface 
established  schools  at  Fritislar  and  Fulda  (in  744),  and  just  before 
his  violent  death,  he  wrote  to  King  Pepin,  asking  protection  for 
such  of  his  disciples  as  were  engaged  in  the  work  of  educating 
(magistic  infanticum),  as  they  were  principally  foreigners.  In  748 
Boniface  established  several  congregations  of  ladies  under  the  aus- 
pices of  English  women,  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  education 
of  girls — Lioba  at  Bischoffsheim,  and  Walburga  at  Hildesheim. 

In  747,  the  Council  of  Cloveshoe  was  held,  at  the  instigation 
of  Boniface,  who  had  then  received  the  pallium  from  the  hands 
of  Pope  Gregory  III.,  together  with  the  authority  of  Papal  Legate 
and  Vicar  over  the  bishops  of  France  and  Germany— his  own  seal 
being  at  Mentz,  and  his  jurisdiction  as  archbishop  extending  from 
Utrecht  to  the  Rhetian  Alps.  In  this  council,  whose  proceedings 
were  inspired  by  the  archbishop  of  Mentz,  there  was  much  action 
touching  on  schools  and  instruction.  Bishops,  abbots,  and  abbesses, 
must  diligently  see  that  all  their  people  learn  to  read,  and  that 
boys  are  brought  up  so  as  to  be  useful  to  the  church  of  God,  and 
are  not  overworked  in  bodily  labors.  Sunday  was  to  be  strictly 
observed  as  a  day  of  freedom  {freolsunff),  even  for  the  serfs,  lasting 
from  noontide  on  Saturday  to  the  dawn  of  light  on  Monday  morn- 
ing. In  church  schools  every  one  must  learn  the  psalter  by  heart, 
and  the  .chant  must  conform  exactly  to  the  custom  of  the  Roman 
church.  Mass  priests  must  always  have  a  school  of  learners,  for 
which  they  shall  make  no  demand  of  any  thing  from  their  parents, 
beyond  what  they  may  give  of  their  own  will.  This  decree  was 
first  issued  in  the  Council  of  Vaison  in  529,  and  was  re-enacted  in 
the  same  words  at  Orleans  and  at  Vercilli.  Boniface  was  cruelly 
slaughtered  at  Dokkum,  in  East  Friesland,  but  his  body  was  res- 
cued, and  borne  to  Mentz,  and  afterwards  to  Fulda,  where,  in  a 
crypt  still  preserved  in  the  chapel  of  the  monastery  founded  by 
him,  his  ashes  have  reposed  undisturbed  in  the  revolutions  of  a 
thousand  years. 

PEPTN    AND    CHARLEMAGNE. 

Pepin  extended  his  protection  to  the  schools  and  teachers  which 
Boniface  had  established  in  Germany.  After  his  death  in  768,  and 
his  son  Carleman  in  771,  Charlemagne  became  master  of  all  the 
Frankish  territories,  and  extended  the  boundaries  of  his  empire 
from  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  to  the  banks  of  the  Elsa,  and  from 
the  Danube  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  SUPERIOR  INSTRUCTION.  ^ 

CIVILIZATION   AND   EDUCATION   IN   THE   BRITISH   ISLES. 

High  up  in  the  North,  above  the  continent  of  Europe,  lay  two  sister  islands, 
a.mple  in  size,  happy  in  soil  and  climate,  and. beautiful  in  the  face  of  the  coun- 
try. Alas !  that  the  passions  of  man  should  alienate  from  one  another,  those 
whom  nature  and  religion  had  bound  together !  So  far  away  were  they  from 
foreign  foes,  that  one  of  them  the  barbarians  had  never  reached,  and  though  a 
solitary  wave  of  their  invasion  has  passed  over  the  other,  it  was  not  destined 
to  be  followed  by  a  second  for  some  centuries.  In  those  days  the  larger  of  the 
two  was  called  Britannia,  the  lesser  Hiberuia.  The  latter  was  early  the  seat 
of  a  flourishing  church,  abounding  in  the  fruits  of  sanctity,  learning,  and  zeal; 
the  former,  at  least  its  southern  half,  had  formed  part  of  the  Empire,  had  par- 
taken both  of  its  civilization  and  its  Christianity,  but  had  lately  been  occupied, 
with  the  extermination  of  its  population,  by  the  right  wing  of  the  great  bar- 
baric host  which  was  overrunning  Europe. 

"During  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries,"  says  Dr.  Dollinger,  "  the  Church 
of  Ireland  stood  in  the  full  beauty  of  its  bloom.  The  spirit  of  the  gospel  ope- 
rated amongst  the  people  with  a  vigorous  and  vivifying  power ;  troops  of  holy 
men,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  ranks  of  society,  obeyed  the  counsel  of 
Christ,  and  forsook  all  things,  that  they  might  follow  Him.  There  was  not  a 
country  of  the  world,  during  this  period,  which  could  boast  of  pious  founda- 
tions or  of  religious  communities  equal  to  those  that  adorned  this  far  distant 
island.  Among  the  Irish,  the  doctrines  of  the  Christian  Religion  were  pre- 
served pure  and  entire ;  the  names  of  heresy  or  of  schism  were  not  known  to 
them;  and  in  the  Bishop  of  Rome  they  acknowledged  and  venerated  the  Su- 
preme Head  of  the  Church  on  earth,  and  continued  with  him,  and  through  him 
with  the  whole  Church,  in  a  never  interrupted  communion.  The  schools  in  the 
Irish  cloisters  were  at  this  time  the  most  celebrated  in  all  the  West;  and  in  ad- 
dition to  those  which  have  been  already  mentioned,  there  flourished  the  Schools 
of  St.  Finiari  of  Clonard,  founded  in  530,  and  those  of  Cataldus,  founded  in 
640.  Whilst  almost  the  whole  of  Europe  was  desolated  by  war,  peaceful  Ire- 
land, free  from  the  invasions  of  external  foes,  opened  to  the  lovers  of  learning 
and  piety  a  welcome  asylum.  The  strangers,  who  visited  the  island,  not  only 
from  the  neighboring  shores  of  Britain,  but  also  from  the  most  remote  nations 
of  the  Continent,  received  from  the  Irish  people  the  most  hospitable  reception, 
a  gratuitous  entertainment,  free  instruction,  and  even  the  books  that  were  nec- 
essary for  their  studies.  Thus  in  the  year  536,  in  the  time  of  St.  Senanus, 
there  arrived  at  Cork,  from  the  Continent,  fifteen  monks,  who  were  led  thither 
by  their  desire  to  perfect  themselves  in  the  practices  of  an  ascetic  life  under 
Irish  directors,  and  to  study  the  Sacred  Scriptures  in  the  school  established 
near  that  city.  At  a  later  period,  after  the  year  650,  the  Anglo-Saxons  in  par- 
ticular passed  over  to  Ireland  in  great  numbers  for  the  same  laudable  purposes. 
On  the  other  hand,  many  holy  and  learned  Irishmen  left  their  own  country  to 
proclaim  the  faith,  to  establish  or  to  reform  monasteries  in  distant  lands,  and 
thus  to  become  the  benefactors  of  almost  every  nation  in  Europe." 

Such  was  St.  Columba,  who  is  the  Apostle  of  the  Northern  Picts  in  the  sixth 
century ;  such  St.  Fridolin  in  the  beginning  of  the  same  century,  who,  after 
long  labors  in  France,  established  himself  on  the  Rhine ;  such  the  far-famed 
Columbanus,  who,  at  its  end,  was  sent  with  twelve  of  his  brethren  to  preach  in 
France,  Burgundy,  Switzerland,  and  Lombardy,  where  he  died.  All  these 


4  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SUPERIOR  INSTRUCTION. 

great  acts  and  encouraging  events  had  taken  place,  ere  yet  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  was  converted  to  the  faith,  or  at  least  while  it  was  still  under  education 
for  its  own  part  in  extending  it ;  and  thus  in  the  contemporary  or  previous  la- 
bors of  the  Irish,  the  Pope  found  an  encouragement,  as  time  went  on,  boldly 
to  prosecute  that  conversion  and  education  of  the  English,  which  was  begin- 
ning with  such  good  promise,  in  the  labors  of  the  Irish  missionaries. 

"  The  foundation  of  many  English  sees,"  says  Dollinger,  "  is  due  to  Irish 
men ;  the  Northumbrian  diocese  was  for  many  years  governed  by  them,  and  the 
abbey  of  Lindisfarne,  which  was  peopled  by  Irish  monks  and  their  Saxon  dis- 
ciples, spread  far  around  it  its  all-blessing  influence.  These  holy  men  served 
God  and  not  the  world ;  they  possessed  neither  gold  nor  silver,  and  all  that 
they  received  from  the  rich,  passed  through  their  hands  into  the  hands  of  the 
poor.  Kings  and  nobles  visited  them  from  time  to  time,  only  to  pray  in  their 
churches,  or  to  listen  to  their  sermons ;  and  as  long  as  they  remained  in  the 
cloisters,  they  were  content  with  the  humble  food  of  the  brethren.  Wherever 
one  of  these  ecclesiastics  or  monks  came,  he  was  received  by  all  with  joy ;  and 
whenever  he  was  seen  journeying  across  the  country,  the  people  streamed 
around  him  to  implore  his  benediction  and  to  hearken  to  his  words.  The 
priests  entered  the  villages  only  to  preach  or  to  administer  the  sacraments;  and 
so  free  were  they  from  avarice,  that  it  was  only  when  compelled  by  the  rich 
and  noble,  that  they  would  accept  lands  for  the  erection  of  monasteries.  Thus 
has  Bede  described  the  Irish  bishops,  priests,  and  monks  of  Northumbria,  al- 
though so  displeased  with  their  custom  of  celebrating  Easter.  Many  Anglo- 
Saxons  passed  over  to  Ireland,  where  they  received  a  most  hospitable  recep- 
tion in  the  monasteries  and  schools.  In  crowds,  numerous  as  bees,  as  Aldhelm 
writes,  the  English  went  to  Ireland,  or  the  Irish  visited  P]ngland,  where  the 
Archbishop  Theodore  was  surrounded  by  Irish  scholars.  Of  the  most  cele- 
brated Anglo-Saxon  scholars  and  saints,  many  had  studied  in  Ireland ;  among 
these  were  St.  Egbert,  the  author  of  the  first  Anglo-Saxon  mission  to  the  pagan 
continent,  and  the  blessed  Willebrod,  the  Apostle  of  the  Frieslanders,  who  had 
resided  twelve  years  in  Ireland.  From  the  same  abode  of  virtue  and  of  learn- 
ing, came  forth  two  English  priests,  both  named  Ewald,  who  in  690,  went  as 
messengers  of  the  gospel  to  the  German  Saxons,  and  received  from  them  the 
crown  of  martyrdom.  An  Irishman,  Mailduf,  founded,  in  the  year  670,  a 
school,  which  afterwards  grew  into  the  famed  Abbey  of  Malmesbury ;  among 
his  scholars  was  St.  Aldhelm,  afterwards  Abbot  of  Malmesbury,  and  first  bishop 
of  Sherburne  or  Salisbury,  and  whom,  after  two  centuries,  Alfred  pronounced 
to  be  the  best  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  poets." 

The  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  are  the  glory  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church, 
as  are  the  sixth  and  seventh  of  the  Irish.  As  the  Irish  missionaries  traveled 
down  through  England,  France,  and  Switzerland,  to  lower  Italy,  and  attempted 
Germany  at  the  peril  of  their  lives,  converting  the  barbarian,  restoring  the 
lapsed,  encouraging  the  desolate,  collecting  the  scattered,  and  founding  churches, 
schools,  and. monasteries,  as  they  went  along;  so,  amid  the  deep  pagan  woods 
of  Germany  and  round  about,  the  English  Benedictine  plied  his  axe  and  drove 
his  plough,  planted  his  rude  dwelling,  and  raised  his  rustic  altar  upon  the  ruins 
of  idolatry,  and  then  settling  down  as  a  colonist  upon  the  soil,  began  to  sing 
his  chants  and  to  copy  his  old  volumes,  and  thus  to  lay  the  slow  but  sure 
foundations  of  the  new  civilization. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  SUPERIOR  INSTRUCTION. 


SCHOOLS  OF  CHARLEMAGNE.* 

When  Charlemagne  arose  upon  the  Continent,  the  special  mission  of  the  two 
islands  was  at  an  end ;  and  accordingly  Ragnor  Lodbrog  with  his  Danes  then 
began  his  descents  upon  their  coasts.  Yet  they  were  not  superseded,  till  they 
had  formally  handed  over  the  tradition  of  learning  to  the  schools  of  France, 
and  had  written  their  immortal  names  on  one  and  the  same  page  of  history. 
The  Anglo-Saxon  Alcuin  was  the  first  Rector,  and  the  Irish  Clement  the 
second,  of  the  Studium  of  Paris.  In  the  same  age  the  Irish  John  was  sent  to 
found  the  school  of  Pavia ;  and,  when  the  heretical  Claudius  of  Turin  exulted 
over  the  ignorance  of  the  devastated  Churches  of  the  Continent,  and  called 
the  Synod  of  Bishops,  who  summoned  him,  "a  congregation  of  asses,"  it  was 
no  other  than  the  Irish  Dungall,  who  met  and  overthrew  the  presumptuous 
railer.  *  *  * 

Under  Charlemagne,  secular  teaching  was  united  to  sacred,  and  the  Church, 
which  had  before  hardly  recognized  the  education  of  the  laity,  but  confined  itself 
mainly  to  the  clergy  arid  their  ecclesiastical  education,  took  supervision  of  both,  of 
lay  students  and  of  profane  learning.  Charlemagne  indeed  betook  himself  to  the 
two  Islands  of  the  North  for  a  tradition ;  Alcuin,  an  Englishman,  was  at  the  head 
of  his  educational  establishments;  he  came  to  France,  not  with  sacred  learn- 
ing only,  but  with  profane ;  he  set  up  schools  for  laity  as  well  as  clergy ;  but 
whence  was  it  that  he  in  turn  got  the  tradition  which  he  brought  ?  His  his- 
tory takes  us  back  to  that  earlier  age,  when  Theodore  of  Tarsus,  Primate  of 
England,  brought  with  him  thither  from  Rome  the  classics,  and  made  Greek 
and  Latin  as  familiar  to  the  Anglo-Saxons  as  their  native  tongue.  Alcuin  was 
the  scholar  of  Bede  and  Egbert ;  Egbert  was  educated  in  the  York  school  of 
Theodore,  and  Bede  in  that  of  Benedict  Biscop  and  of  John  precentor  of  the 
Vatican  Basilica.  Here  was  the  germ  of  the  new  civilization  of  Europe,  which 
was  to  join  together  what  man  had  divided,  to  adjust  the  claims  of  Reason  and 
of  Revelation,  and  to  fit  men  for  this  world  while  it  trained  them  for  another. 
Charlemagne  has  the  glory  of  commencing  this  noble  work;  and,  whether  his 
school  at  Paris  be  called  a  University  or  not,  he  laid  down  principles  of  which 
a  University  is  the  result,  in  that  he  aimed  at  educating  all  classes,  and  under- 
took all  subjects  of  teaching. 

In  the  first  place,  however,  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  Episcopal  Semi- 
naries, which  seem  to  have  been  institutions  of  the  earliest  times  of  Chris- 
tianity, though  they  had  been  in  great  measure  interrupted  amid  the  dissolution 
of  society  consequent  upon  the  barbarian  inroads,  as  various  passages  in  these 
Essays  have  already  suggested.  His  restoration  lasted  for  four  centuries,  till 
Universities  rose  in  their  turn,  and  indirectly  interfered  with  the  efficiency  of 
the  Seminaries,  by  absorbing  them  into  the  larger  institution.  This  inconve- 
nience was  set  right  at  a  later  period  by  the  Council  of  Trent,  whose  wise  regu- 
lations were  in  turn  the  objects  of  the  jealousy  of  the  Josephism  of  the  last 
century,  which  used  or  rather  abused  the  University  system  to  their  prejudice. 
The  present  policy  of  the  Church  in  most  places  has  been  to  return  to  the 
model  both  of  the  first  ages  and  of  Charlemagne. 

To  these  Seminaries  he  added,  what  I  have  spoken  of  as  his  characteristic  in- 
stitution, grammar  and  public  schools,  as  preparatory  both  to  the  Seminaries 

*  NEWMAN'S  Rise  and  Progress  of  Universities.     Schools  of  Charlemagne. 


6  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SUPERIOR  INSTRUCTION. 

and  to  secular  professions.  Not  that  they  were  confined  to  grammar,  for  they 
recognized  the  trivium  and  quadrivium ;  but  grammar,  in  the  sense  of  litera- 
ture, seems  to  have  been  the  principle  subject  of  their  teaching.  These  schools 
were  established  in  connection  with  the  Cathedral  or  the  Cloister ;  and  they  re- 
ceived ecclesiastics  and  the  sons  of  the  nobility,  though  not  to  the  exclusion 
of  the  poorer  class. 

Charlemagne  probably  did  not  do  much  more  than  this ;  though  it  was  once 
the  custom  to  represent  him  as  the  actual  founder  of  the  University  of  Paris. 
But  great  creations  are  not  perfected  in  a  day ;  without  doing  every  thing 
which  had  to  be  done,  he  did  many  things,  and  opened  the  way  for  more.  It 
will  throw  light  upon  his  position  in  the  history  of  Christian  education,  to  quote 
a  passage  from  the  elaborate  work  of  Bulasus,  on  the  University  of  Paris, 
though  he  not  unnaturally  claims  the  great  Emperor  as  its  founder,  maintain- 
ing that  he  established,  not  only  the  grammar  or  public  schools  already  men- 
tioned, but  the  higher  Studia  Generalia. 

It  is  observable  that  Charles,  in  seeking  out  masters,  had  in  view,  not  merely 
the  education  of  his  own  family,  but  of  his  subjects  generally,  and  of  all  lovers 
of  the  Christian  Religion ;  and  wished  to  be  of  service  to  all  students  and  cul- 
tivators of  the  liberal  arts.  It  is  indeed  certain  that  he  sought  out  learned 
men  and  celebrated  teachers  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  induced  them  to 
accept  his  invitation  by  rewards  and  honors,  on  which  Alcuin  lays  great  stress. 
'I  was  well  aware,  my  Lord  David,'  he  says,  'that  it  has  been  your  praise- 
worthy solicitude  ever  to  love  and  to  extol  wisdom ;  and  to  exhort  all  men  to 
cultivate  it,  nay,  to  incite  them  by  means  of  prizes  and  honors ;  and  out  of 
divers  parts  of  the  world  to  bring  together  its  lovers  as  the  helpers  of  your 
good  purpose ;  among  whom  you  have  taken  pains  to  secure  even  me,  the 
meanest  slave  of  that  holy  wisdom,  from  the  extremes!  boundaries  of  Britain.' 

It  is  evident  hence,  that  Charles's  intention  was  not  to  found  any  common 
sort  of  schools,  such,  that  is,  as  would  have  required  only  a  few  instructors, 
but  public  schools,  open  to  all,  and4 possessing  all  kinds  of  learning.  Hence  the 
necessity  of  a  multiplicity  of  Professors,  who  from  their  number  and  the  re- 
moteness of  their  homes  might  seem  a  formidable  charge,  not  only  to  the  court, 
or  to  one  city,  but  even  to  his  whole  kingdom.  Sucli  is  the  testimony  of  Egin- 
hart,  who  says:  'Charles  loved  foreigners,  and  took  great  pains  to  support 
them ;  so  that  their  number  was  a  real  charge,  not  to  the  Palace  alone,  but 
even  to  the  realm.  Such,  however,  was  his  greatness  of  soul,  that  the  burden 
of  them  was  no  trouble  to  him,  because  even  of  great  inconveniences  the  praise 
of  munificence  is  a  compensation.' 

Charles  had  in  mind  to  found  two  kinds  of  schools,  less  and  greater.  The 
less  he  placed  in  Bishops'  palaces,  canons'  cloisters,  monasteries,  and  elsewhere ; 
the  greater,  however,  he  established  in  places  which  were  public,  and  suitable 
for  public  teaching ;  and  he  intended  them,  not  only  for  ecclesiastics,  but  for 
the  nobility  and  their  children,  and  on  the  other  hand  for  poor  scholars  too ;  in 
short,  for  every  rank,  class,  and  race. 

He  seems  to  have  had  two  institutions  before  his  mind,  when  he  contem- 
plated this  object;  the  first  of  them  was  the  ancient  schools.  Certainly,  a  man 
of  so  active  and  inquiring  a  mind  as  Charles,  with  his  intercourse  with  learned 
persons  and  his  knowledge  of  mankind,  must  have  been  well  aware  that  in 
former  ages  these  two  kinds  of  schools  were  to  be  found  everywhere;  the  one 
kind  few  in  number,  public,  and  of  great  reputation,  possessed  moreover  of 
privileges,  and  planted  in  certain  conspicuous  and  central  sites.  Such  was  the 
Alexandrian  in  Egypt,  the  Athenian  in  Greece ;  such  under  the  Roman  em- 
perors, the  schools  of  Rome,  of  Constantinople,  of  Berytus,  which  are  known 
to  have  been  attended  by  multitudes,  and  amply  privileged  by  Theodosius, 
Justinian,  and  other  princes ;  whereas  the  other  kind  of  schools,  which  were 
far  more  numerous,  were  to  be  found  up  and  down  the  country,  in  cHies, 
towns,  villages,  and  were  remarkable  neither  in  number  of  students  nor  in  n**nae. 

The  other  pattern  which  was  open  to  Charles  was  to  be  found  in  the  p«c- 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  SUPERIOR  INSTRUCTION.  7 

tice  of  monasteries,  if  it  really  existed  there.  The  Benedictines,  from  the  very 
beginning  of  their  institution,  had  applied  themselves  to  the  profession  of  lite- 
rature, and  it  has  been  their  purpose  to  have  in  their  houses  two  kinds  of 
school,  a  greater  or  a  less,  according  to  the  size  of  the  house ;  and  the  greater 
they  wished  to  throw  open  to  all  students,  at  a  time  when  there  were  but  few 
laymen  at  all  who  could  teach,  so  that  externs,  seculars,  laymen,  as  well  as 
clerics,  might  be  free  to  attend  to  them.  However,  true  as  it  was  that  boys, 
who  were  there  from  childhood  intrusted  to  the  monks,  bound  themselves  by 
no  vow,  but  could  leave  when  they  pleased,  marry,  go  to  court,  or  enter  the 
army,  still  a  great  many  of  the  cleverest  of  them  were  led,  either  by  the  habits 
which  they  acquired  from  their  intercourse  with  their  teachers,  or  by  their  per- 
suasion, to  embrace  the  monastic  life.  And  thus,  while  the  Church  in  conse- 
quence gained  her  most  powerful  supports,  the  State,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
wanting  in  men  of  judgment,  learning,  and  experience,  to  conduct  its  affairs. 
This  led  very  frequently  to  kings  choosing  monks  for  civil  administration,  be- 
cause no  others  were  to  be  found  capable  of  undertaking  it. 

Charles  then,  consulting  for  the  common  good,  made  literature  in  a  certain 
sense  secular,  and  transplanted  it  from  the  convents  to  the  royal  palace ;  hi  a 
word,  he  established  in  Paris  a  'Universal  School  like  that  at  Rome. 

Not  that  he  deprived  monks  of  the  license  to  teach  and  profess,  though  he 
certainly  limited  it,  from  a  clear  view  that  that  variety  of  sciences,  human  and 
profane,  which  secular  academies  require,  is  inconsistent  with  the  profession 
and  devotion  of  ascetics ;  and  accordingly,  in  conformity  to  the  spirit  of  their 
institute,  it  was  his  wish  that  the  lesser  schools  should  be  set  up  or  retained  in 
the  Bishops'  palaces  and  monasteries,  while  he  prescribed  the  subjects  which 
they  were  to  teach.  The  case  was  different  with  the  schools  which  are  higher 
and  public,  which,  instead  of  multiplying,  he  confined  to  certain  central  and 
celebrated  spots,  not  more  than  to  three  in  his  whole  empire — Paris,  and  in 
Italy,  Pavia  and  Bologna. 

But,  after  all,  it  was  not  in  an  Emperor's  power,  though  he  were  Charle- 
magne, to  carry  into  effect  in  any  case,  by  the  resources  peculiar  to  himself,  so 
great  an  idea  as  a  University.  Benefactors  and  patrons  may  supply  the  frame- 
work of  a  Studium  Generale ;  but  there  must  be  a  popular  interest  and  sym- 
pathy, a  spontaneous  cooperation  of  the  many,  the  concurrence  of  genius,  and 
a  spreading  thirst  for  knowlelge,  if  it  is  to  live.  Centuries  passed  before  these 
conditions  were  supplied,  and  then  at  length  about  the  year  1200  a  remarkable 
intellectual  movement  took  place  in  Christendom ;  and  to  it  must  be  ascribed 
the  development  of  Universities,  out  of  the  public  or  grammar  schools,  which 
I  have  already  described.  No  such  movement  could  happen,  without  the  rise 
of  some  deep  and  comprehensive  philosophy ;  and,  when  it  rose,  then  the  ex- 
isting Trivium  and  Quadrivium  became  the  subjects,  and  the  existing  seats  of 
learning  the  scene,  of  its  victories ;  and  next  the  curiosity  and  enthusiasm, 
which  it  excited,  attracted  larger  and  larger  numbers  to  places  which  were 
hitherto  but  local  centers  of  education.  Such  a  gathering  of  students,  such  a 
systematizing  of  knowledge,  are  the  notes  of  a  University. 

The  increase  of  members  and  the  multiplication  of  sciences  both  involved 
changes  in  the  organization  of  the  schools  of  Charlemagne ;  and  of  these  the 
increase  of  members  came  first.  Hitherto  there  had  been  but  one  governor 
over  the  students,  who  were  but  few  at  the  most,  and  came  from  the  neighbor- 
hood; but  now  the  academic  body  was  divided  into  Nations,  according  to  the 
part  of  Europe  from  which  they  joined  it,  and  each  Nation  had  a  head  of  its 
own,  under  the  title  of  Procurator  or  Proctor.  There  were  traces  of  this  di- 
vision, as  we  have  seen  in  a  former  chapter,  in  Athens ;  where  the  students 
were  arranged  under  the  names  of  Attic,  Oriental,  Arab,  and  Po'ntic,  with  a 
protector  for  each  class.  In  like  manner,  in  the  University  of  Paris,  there 


8  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SUPERIOR  INSTRUCT^,... 

were  four  nations,  first,  the  French,  which  included  the  middle  and  south  of 
France,  Spain,  Italy,  and  Greece;  secondly,  the  English,  which,  besides  the 
two  British  Islands,  comprehended  Germany  and  Scandinavia;  thirdly,  the 
Norman ;  and  fourthly,  the  Picards,  who  carried  with  them  the  inhabitants  of 
Flanders  and  Brabant.  Again,  in  the  University  of  Vienna,  there  were  also 
four  nations, — Austria,  the  Rhine,  Hungary,  and  Bohemia.  Oxford  recognized 
only  two  Nations ;  the  north  English,  which  comprehended  the  Scotch ;  and 
the  south  English,  which  comprehended  the  Irish  and  Welsh.  The  Proctors 
of  the  Nations  both  governed  and  represented  them ;  the  double  office  is  still 
traceable,  unless  the  recent  Act  of  Parliament  has  destroyed  it,  in  the  modern 
constitution  of  Oxford,  in  which  the  two  Proctors  on  the  one  hand  represent 
the  Masters  of  Arts  in  the  Hebdomadal  Board,  and  on  the  other  have  in  their 
hands  the  discipline  of  the  University. 

And  as  Nations  and  their  Proctors  arose  out  of  the  metropolitan  character 
of  a  University,  to  which  students  congregated  from  the  farthest  and  most 
various  places,  so  are  Faculties  and  Deans  of  Faculties  the  consequence  of  its 
encyclopaedic  profession.  According  to  the  idea  of  the  institutions  of  Charle- 
magne, each  school  had  its  own  teacher,  who  was  called  Rector,  or  Master,  In 
Paris,  however,  where  the  school  was  founded  in  St.  Genevieve's,  the  Chan- 
cellor of  that  Church  became  the  Rector,  and  he  kept  his  old  title  of  Chancellor 
in  his  new  office.  Elsewhere  the  head  of  the  University  was  called  Provost. 
However,  it  was  not  every  one  who  would  be  qualified  to  profess  even  the 
Seven  Sciences,  of  which  the  old  course  of  instruction  consisted,  though  the 
teaching  was  only  elementary,  and  to  become  the  Rector,  Chancellor,  or  Prov- 
ost, of  the  University ;  but,  when  these  sciences  became  only  parts  of  a  whole 
system  of  instruction,  which  demanded  in  addition  a  knowledge  of  philosophy, 
scholastic  theology,  civil  and  canon  law,  medicine,  natural  history,  and  the 
Semitic  languages,  no  one  person  was  equal  to  the  undertaking.  The  Rector 
fell  back  from  the  position  of  a  teacher  to  that  of  a  governor ;  and  the  instruc- 
tion was  divided  among  a  board  of  Doctors,  each  of  whom  represented  a  special 
province  in  Science.  This  is  the  origin  of  Deans  of  Faculties;  and,  inasmuch 
as  they  undertook  among  themselves  one  of  those  departments  of  academical 
duty,  which  the  Chancellor  or  Rector  had  hitherto  fulfilled,  they  naturally  be- 
came his  Council.  In  some  places  the  Proctors  of  the  Nations  were  added. 
Thus,  in  Vienna  the  Council  consisted  of  the  Four  Deans  of  Faculties,  and  the 
Four  Proctors. 

As  Nations  preceded  Faculties,  we  may  suppose  that  Degrees,  which  are 
naturally  connected  with  the  latter,  either  did  not  enter  into  the  original  pro- 
visions of  a  University,  or  had  not  the  same  meaning  as  afterwards.  And  this 
seems  to  have  been  the  case.  At  first  they  were  only  testimonials  that  a  resi- 
dent was  fit  to  take  part  in  the  public  teaching  of  the  place ;  and  hence,  in  the 
Oxford  forms  still  observed,  the  Vice-Chancellor  admits  the  person  taking  a 
degree  to  the  "lectio"  of  certain  books.  Degrees  would  not  at  that  time  be 
considered  mere  honors  or  testimonials,  to  be  enjoyed  by  persons  who  at  once 
left  the  University  and  mixed  in  the  world.  The  University  would  only  con- 
fer them  for  its  own  purposes;  and  to  its  own  subjects,  for  the  sake  of  its  own 
subjects.  It  would  claim  nothing  for  them  external  to  its  own  limits  ;  and,  if 
so,  only  used  a  power  obviously  connate  with  its  own  existence.  But  of 
course  the  recognition  of  a  University  by  the  State,  not  to  say  by  other  Uni- 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  SUPERIOR  INSTRUCTION. 


9 


versities,  would  change  the  import  of  degree,  and,  since  such  recognition  has 
commonly  been  granted  from  the  first,  degrees  have  seldom  been  only  what 
they  were  in  their  original  idea ;  but  the  formal  words  by  which  they  are  de- 
noted, still  preserve  its  memory.  As  students  on  taking  degrees  are  admitted 
"legere  et  disputare,"  so  are  they  called  "  Magistri,"  that  is,  of  the  schools; 
and  "  Doctors,"  that  is,  teachers,  or  in  some  places  "  Professors,"  as  the  let- 
ters S.T.P.  show,  used  instead  of  D.D. 

I  conclude  by  enumerating  the  characteristic  distinctions,  laid  down  by 
Bulreus,  between  the  public  or  grammar  schools  founded  by  Charlemagne,  and 
the  Universities  into  which  eventually  some  of  them  grew,  or,  as  he  would 
say,  which  Charlemagne  also  founded. 

First,  he  says,  they  differ  from  each  other  ratione  disciplines.  The  Scholae 
Minores  only  taught  the  Trivium  (viz.,  Grammar,  Logic,  Rhetoric,)  and  the 
Quadrivium  (viz.,  Geometry,  Astronomy,  Arithmetic,  and  Music,)  the  seven 
liberal  Arts ;  whereas  the  Scholae  Majores  added  Medicine,  Law,  and  Theology. 

Next,  ratione  loci;  for  the  Minores  were  man}7-  and  everywhere,  but  the  Ma- 
jores only  in  great  cities,  and  few  in  number.  I  have  already  remarked  on  the 
physical  and  social  qualifications  necessary  for  a  place  which  is  to  become  the 
seat  of  a  great  school  of  learning:  Bulaeus  observes,  that  the  Muses  were  said 
to  inhabit  mountains,  Parnassus  or  Helicon,  spots  high  and  healthy  and  se- 
cured against  the  perils  of  war,  and  that  the  Academy  was  a  grove ;  though  of 
course  he  does  not  forget  that  the  place  must  be  accessible  too,  and  in  the  high- 
way of  the  world.  "That  the  c\iy  of  Paris,"  he  says,  "is  ample  in  size, 
largely  frequented,  healthy  and  pleasant  in  site,  there  can  be  no  doubt." 
Frederic  the  Second  spoke  the  general  sentiment,  when  he  gave  as  a  reason  for 
establishing  a  University  at  Naples,  the  convenience  of  the  sea-coast  and  the 
fertility  of  the  soil.  "We  are  informed  by  Matamorus,  in  his  account  of  the 
Spanish  Universities,*  that  Salamanca  was  but  the  second  site  of  its  Univer- 
sity, which  was  transferred  thither  from  Palencia  on  account  of  the  fertility  of 
the  neighborhood,  and  the  mildness  of  its  climate.  And  Mr.  Prescott  speaks 
of  Alcala  being  chosen  by  Cardinal  Ximenes  as  the  site  for  his  celebrated 
foundations,  because  "  the  salubrity  of  the  air,  and  the  sober,  tranquil  com- 
plexion of  the  scenery,  on  the  beautiful  borders  of  the  Henares,  seemed  well 
suited  to  academic  study  and  meditation." 

The  third  difference  between  the  greater  and  lesser  schools  lies  ratione  fun- 
datorum.  Popes,  Emperors,  and  Kings,  are  the  founders  of  Universities ;  lesser 
authorities  in  Church  and  State  are  the  founders  of  Colleges  and  Schools. 

Fourthly,  ratione  privikgiorum.  The  very  notion  of  a  University,  I  believe, 
is,  that  it  is  an  institution  of  privilege.  I  think  it  is  Bulaeus  who  says,  "  Stu- 
dia  Generalia  can  not  exist  without  privileges,  any  more  than  the  body  without 
the  soul.  And  in  this  all  writers  on  Universities  agree."  He  reduces  those 
privileges  to  two  heads,  "  Patrocinium  "  and  "Prsemium ;"  and  these,  it  is  ob- 
vious, may  be  either  of  a  civil  or  an  ecclesiastical  nature.  There  were  for- 
merly five  Universities  endowed  with  singular  privileges :  those  of  Rome,  of 
Paris,  of  Bologna,  of  Oxford,  and  of  Salamanca ;  but  Antony  a  Wood  quotes 
an  author  who  seems  to  substitute  Padua  for  Rome  in  this  list. 

Lastly,  the  greater  and  lesser  schools  differ  ratione  regiminis.     The  head  of 
a  College  is  one ;  but  a  University  is  a  "  respublica  litteraria." 
*  Hispnn.  Illustr.  t.  p.  2,  801. 


10  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS. 

DUNGAL   AND    CLEMENT. 

Two  Irish  scholars,  Dungal  and  Clement,  arrived  in  France  soon  after  the  re- 
tirement  of  Alcuin  from  court — who  on  landing  excited  curiosity  by  crying 
aloud,  Wisdom  to  sell !  Who'll  buy  ?  Charlemagne  attached  them  both  to  his 
service — Clement  at  Paris,  where  he  soon  was  put  in  charge  of  the  Palatine 
School,  and  Dungal  at  Pavia,  where  he  opened  a  school  in  the  monastery  of 
St.  Augustine,  and  in  811  addressed  a  letter  to  the  emperor  on  the  solar 
eclipse,  which  was  predicted  for  the  next  year.  Clemen^  seems  to  have  been 
deeply  imbued  with  the  learned  mysticism  of  the  school  of  Toulouse,  and  in  a 
treatise  on  the  eight  parts  of  speech,  which  is  still  preserved,  quotes  the  rules 
of  the  grammarian  Virgil,  and  the  writings  of  the  noble  doctors  Glengus,  Gal- 
bungus,  Eneas,  and  the  rest.  Alcuin  complained  much  of  the  disorder  intro- 
duced into  the  studies  of  the  court  school  after  his  departure.  'I  left  them 
Latins,'  he  exclaimed,  '  arid  now  I  find  them  Egyptians.'  This  was  a  double 
hit  at  the  gibberish  of  the  twelve  Latiuites,  which  Alcuin  could  not  abide,  and 
at  the  hankering  which  the  Irish  professors  always  displayed,  both  in  science 
and  theology,  for  the  teaching  of  the  school  of  Alexandria,  many  of  them  hav- 
ing embraced  the  peculiar  views  of  the  Neo-Platonists.  The  Egyptians,  how- 
ever, found  a  welcome  at  the  court  of  Charlemagne  in  spite  of  their  eccen- 
tricities ;  for  there  no  one  was  ever  coldly  received  who  could  calculate 
eclipses,  or  charm  the  ears  of  the  learned  monarch  with  Latin  hexameters. 
And  it  is  perhaps  to  one  of  these  Irish  professors  that  we  must  attribute  those 
verses  preserved  by  Martene,  and  professing  to  be  written  by  an  '  Irish  exile,' 
which  contain  such  agreeable  flattery  of  the  Frankish  sovereign  and  of  his 
people,  and  which  were  presented  to  the  emperor  as  he  held  one  of  those 
solemn  New-year  courts,  at  which  his  subjects  vied  one  with  another  in  offer- 
ing him  jewels,  tissues,  horses,  and  bags  of  money. 

The  School  of  the  Palace  declined  under  the  management  of  Clement,  and 
of  his  successor  Claud,  bishop  of  Turin,  and  during  the  reign  of  Louis  le  De- 
bonnaire.  It  revived  under  Charles  the  Bald,  when  it  was  much  resorted  to  by 
Irish  and  English  scholars, 

JOHN   SCOTUS   ERIGENA. 

John  Scotus  Erigena,  born  in  Ireland  in  796,  and  educated  at  York  and  Lin- 
disfarne,  resorted  to  Paris  in  826,  where  he  was  placed  by  Charles  the  Bald 
over  the  Palatine  school.  He  had  early  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  Greek, 
and  embraced  the  doctrines  of  the  Neo-Platonic  school.  His  translation  of  the 
works  of  St.  Denys  the  Arcopagite,  astonished  the  scholars  at  Rome,  who 
looked  upon  all  beyond  the  Alps  as  barbarians.  In  his  philosophical  treatise, 
De  Natura  Rerum,  he  sets  forth  the  doctrines  of  the  Greek  Platonists,  and 
flings- defiance  at  his  adversaries  at  Rome.  "They  are  all  deceived,  owing  to 
their  ignorance  of  liberal  studies.  They  have  none  of  them  studied  Greek,  and 
with  a  knowledge  of  the  Latin  language  alone,  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  un- 
derstand the  distinctions  of  science."  In  855,  certain  propositions  drawn  from 
his  writings  were  condemned  as  heretical  by  the  Council  of  Valence.  He 
withdrew  from  the  school  in  865,  on  the  remonstrance  of  Pope  Nicholas  I.,  on 
the  ground  of  the  perversion  of  his  authority  by  the  enemies  of  the  church. 
He  retired  to  England,  where,  according  to  some  historians,  he  taught 
mathematics  and  astronomy  at  Oxford,  and,  to  others,  opened  a  school  at 
Malmsbury. 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS.  11 

FULDA. — HATTO    AND    RABANUS. 

The  Abbey  of  Fulda,  where  the  monks  were  organized  into  a  community 
under  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict,  was  one  of  the  earliest  to  carry  out  the  educa- 
tional work  begun  by  Alcuin  at  Aix  and  Tours.  Two  of  the  younger  brothers 
were  selected  to  study  with  the  great  master  at  Tours — Hatto  and  Rabanus, 
who  resorted  to  him  in  802.  The  name  of  Maurus  was  bestowed  by  Alcuin 
on  his  favorite  disciple,  and  was  afterwards  retained  by  Rabauus  in  addition  to 
his  own.  He  studied  both  sacred  and  profane  sciences,  as  appears  from  the 
letter  he  addressed  many  years  later  to  his  old  schoolfellow,  Haimo,  bishop  of 
Halberstadt,  in  which  he  reminds  him  of  the  pleasant  days  they  had  spent  to- 
gether in  studious  exercises,  reading,  not  only  the  Sacred  books,  and  the  ex- 
positions of  the  Fathers,  but  also  investigating  all  the  seven  liberal  arts.  In 
813,  being  then  twenty-five  years  of  age,  Rabanus  was  recalled  to  Fulda,  by 
the  abbot  Ratgar,  and  placed  at  the  head  of  the  school,  with  the  strict  injunc- 
tion that  he  was  to  follow  in  all  things  the  method  of  his  master  Alcuin.  The 
latter  was  still  alive,  and  addressed  a  letter  to  the  young  preceptor,  which  is 
printed  among  his  other  works,  and  is-  addressed  to  '  the  boy  Maurus,'  in  which 
he  wishes  him  good  luck  with  his  scholars.  His  success  was  so  extraordinary 
that  the  abbots  of  other  monasteries  sent  their  monks  to  study  under  him,  and 
were  eager  -to  obtain  his  pupils  as  professors  in  their  own  schools.  The  Ger- 
man nobles  also  gladly  confided  their  sons  to  his  care,  and  he  taught  them  with 
wonderful  gentleness  and  patience.  He  carried  out  the  system  which  had 
been  adopted  by  Alcuin  of  thoroughly  exercising  his  scholars  in  grammar  be- 
fore entering  on  the  study  of  the  other  liberal  arts.  'All  the  generations  of 
Germany,'  says  Trithemius,  'are  bound  to  celebrate  the  praise  of  Rabanus,  who 
first  taught  them  to  articulate  the  sound  of  Greek  and  Latin.'  At  his  lectures 
every  one  was  trained  to  write  equally  well  in  prose  or  verse  on  any  subject 
placed  before  him,  and  was  afterwards  taken  through  a  course  of  rhetoric, 
logic,  and  natural  philosophy,  according  to  the  capacities  of  each. 

Every  variety  of  useful  occupation  was  embraced  by  the  monks ;  while  some 
were  at  work  hewing  down  the  old  forest  which  a  few  years  before  had  given 
shelter  to  the  mysteries  of  Pagan  worship,  or  tilling  the  soil  on  those  numerous 
farms  which  to  this  day  perpetuate  the  memory  of  the  great  abbey  in  the 
names  of  the  towns  and  villages  which  have  sprung  up  on  their  site,  other 
kinds  of  industry  were  kept  up  within  doors,  where  the  visitor  might  have  be- 
held a  huge  range  of  workshops  in  which  cunning  hands  were  kept  constantly 
busy  on  every  description  of  useful  and  ornamental  work  in  wood,  stone,  and 
metal.  It  was  a  scene,  not  of  artistic  dileltanteism,  but  of  earnest,  honest  la- 
bor, and  the  treasurer  of  the  abbey  was  charged  to  take  care  that  the  sculp- 
tors, engravers,  and  carvers  in  wood,  were  always  furnished  with  plenty  to  do. 
Passing  on  to  the  interior  of  the  building  the  stranger  would  have  been  intro- 
duced to  the  scriptorium,  over  the  door  of  which  was  an  inscription  warning 
the  copyists  to  abstain  from  idle  words,  to  be  diligent  in  copying  good  books, 
and  to  take  care  not  to  alter  the  text  by  careless  mistakes.  Twelve  monks  al- 
ways sat  here  employed  in  the  labor  of  transcription,  as  was  also  the  custom 
at  Hirsauge,  a  colony  sent  out  from  Fulda  in  830,  and  the  huge  library  which 
was  thus  gradually  formed,  survived  till  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, when  it  was  destroyed  in  the  troubles  of  the  thirty  years'  war.  Not  far 


12  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS. 

from  the  scriptorium  was  the  interior  school,  where  the  studies  were  carried  on 
with  an  ardor  and  a  largeness  of  views,  which  might  have  been  little  expected 
from  an  academy  of  the  ninth  century.  Our  visitor,  where  he  from  the  more 
civilized  south,  might  well  have  stood  in  mute  surprise  in  the  midst  of  these 
fancied  barbarians,  whom  he  would  have  found  engaged  in  pursuits  not  unwor- 
thy of  the  schools  of  Rome.  The  monk  Probus  is  perhaps  lecturing  on  Virgil 
and  Cicero,  and  that  with  such  hearty  enthusiasm  that  his  brother  professors 
accuse  him,  in  good-natured  jesting,  of  ranking  them  with  the  saints.  Else- 
where disputations  are  being  carried  on  over  the  Categories  of  Aristotle,  and 
an  attentive  ear  will  discover  that  the  controversy  which  made  such  a  noise  in 
the  twelfth  century,  and  divided  the  philosophers  of  Europe  into  the  rivalx  sects 
of  the  Nominalists  and  Realists,  is  perfectly  well  understood  at  Fulda,  though 
it  does  not  seem  to  have  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  school.  To  your  delight, 
if  you  be  not  altogether  wedded  to  the  dead  languages,  you  may  find  some  en- 
gaged on  the  uncouth  language  of  their  fatherland,  and,  looking  over  their 
shoulders,  you  may  smile  to  see  the  barbarous  words  which  they  are  cataloguing 
in  their  glossaries ;  words,  nevertheless,  destined  to  reappear  centuries  hence  in 
the  most  philosophic  literature  of  Europe.  Fulda  derived  its  scholastic  tra- 
ditions from  Alcuin  and  Bede,  and  could  not  neglect  the  vernacular. 

In  the  midst  of  this  world  of  intellectual  life  and  labor,  Rabanus  continued 
for  some  years  to  train  the  first  minds  of  Germany,  and  counted  among  his  pu- 
pils the  most  celebrated  men  of  the  age,  such  as  Lupus  of  Ferrieres,  Walafrid 
Strabo,  and  Ruthard  of  Hirsange,  the  latter  of  whom  was  the  first  who  read 
profane  letters  to  the  brethren  of  his  convent  'after  the  manner  of  Fulda.' 
Lupus  was  a  monk  of  Ferrieres,  where  he  had  been  carefully  educated  by  the 
abbot  Aldric,  who  was  a  pupil  of  Sigulf,  and  had  acted  for  some  time  as  as- 
sistant to  Alcuin  in  the  school  of  Tours.  Aldric  afterwards  became  archbishop 
of  Sens,  and  sent  Lupus  to  complete  his  education  at  Fulda,  under  Rabanus. 
Like  all  the  scholars  of  Ferrieres,  Lupus  had  a  decided  taste  for  classical  litera- 
ture ;  the  love  of  letters  had  been,  to  use  his  own  expression,  innate  in  him 
from  a  child,  and  he  was  considered  the  best  Latinist  of  his  time.  His  studies 
at  Fulda  were  chiefly  theological,  and  he  applied  to  them  with  great  ardor, 
without,  however,  forgetting  '  his  dear  humanities.'  It  would  even  seem  that 
he  taught  them  at  Fulda,  thus  returning  one  benefit  for  another.  The  monas- 
tery was  not  far  from  that  of  Seligenstadt,  where  Eginhard,  the  secretary  and 
biographer  of  Charlemagne,  was  their  abbot.  A  friendship,  based  on  simi- 
larity of  tastes,  sprang  up  between  him  afnd  Lupus,  and  was  maintained  by  a 
correspondence,  much  of  which  is  still  preserved.  Lupus  always  reckoned 
Eginhard  as  one  of  his  masters ;  not  that  he  directly  received  any  lessons  from 
him,  but  on  account  of  the  assistance  which  the  abbot  rendered  him  by  the 
loan  of  valuable  books.  In  one  of  his  earliest  letters  to  this  good  friend  he 
begs  for  a  copy  of  Cicero's  '  Rhetoric,'  his  own  being  imperfect,  as  well  as  for 
the  'Attic  Nights '  of  Aulus  Gellius,  which  were  not  then  to  be  found  in  the 
Fulda  library.  In  another  letter,  he  consults  him  on  the  exact  prosody  of  cer- 
tain Latin  words,  and  begs  him  to  send  the  proper  size  of  the  Uncial  letters 
used  in  manuscripts  of  that  century. 

Among  the  fellow-students  of  Lupus  at  this  time  was  Walafrid  Strabo,  a 
man  of  very  humble  birth,  whose  precocious  genius  had  early  made  him  known 
in  the  world  of  letters.  In  spite  of  the  unfortunate  personal  defect  which 


EARLY   CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS.  13 

earned  him  his  surname,  "Walafrid's  Latin  verses  had  gained  him  respect  among 
learned  men  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  and  they  are  favorably  noticed  even  by  critics 
of  our  own  time.  He  had  received  his  early  training  in  the  monastery  of 
Reichnau,  the  situation  of  which  was  well  fitted  to  nurture  a  poetic  genius. 
His  masters  had  been  Tetto  and  Wettin,  the  latter  of  whom  was  author  of  that 
terrible  '  Vision  of  Purgatory '  which  left  an  indelible  impress  on  the  popular 
devotion  of  Christendom.  From  Reichnau  he  was  sent  by  his  superiors  to 
study  at  Fulda,  where  he  acquired  a  taste  for  historical  pursuits,  and  is  said  to 
have  assisted  in  the  compilation  of  the  annals  of  the  monastery.  It  was  out 
of  the  Fulda  library  that  he  collected  the  materials  for  his  great  work,  the 
G'oss,  or  Commentary  on  the  Text  of  Scripture,  gathered  from  the  writings  of 
the  Fathers.  It  received  many  additions  and  improvements  from  subsequent 
writers,  and,  for  more  than  six  hundred  years,  continued  to  be  the  most  popu- 
lar explanation  of  the  Sacred  text  in  use  among  theologians.  Returning  to 
Reichnau,  Walafrid  was  appointed  to  the  office  of  scholasticus,  and  filled  it 
with  such  success  as  fairly  to  establish  the  reputation  of  that  monastic  school. 
Ermanric,  one  of  his  pupils,  says  of  him,  that  to  the  end  of  his  life  he  contin- 
ued to  exhibit  the  same  delightful  union  of  learning  and  simplicity  which  had 
endeared  him  to  his  masters  and  schoolfellows.  Even  after  he  was  appointed 
abbot,  he  found  his  chief  pleasure  in  study,  teaching,  and  writing  verses,  and 
would  steal  away  from  the  weightier  cares  of  his  office  to  take  a  class  in  his 
old  school  and  expound  to  them  a  passage  of  Yirgil.  Neither  old  age  nor 
busy  practical  duties  dried  up  the  fount  of  Abbot  Walafrid's  inspiration,  and 
we  find  him  in  his  declining  years  writing  his  poem  entitled  '  Hortulus,'1  wherein 
he  describes  with  charming  freshness  of  imagery,  the  little  garden  blooming 
beneath  the  window  of  his  cell,  and  the  beauty  and  virtue  of  the  different 
flowers  which  he  loved  to  cultivate  with  his  own  hands. 

Another  of  the  Fulda  scholars  contemporary  with  those  named  above,  was 
Otfried,  a  monk  of  Weissemburg,  who  entered  with  singular  ardor  into  the 
study  of  the  Tudesque  dialect.  Rabanus  himself  devoted  much  attention  to 
this  subject,  and  composed  a  Latin  and  German  glossary  on  the  books  of  Scrip- 
ture, together  with  some  other  etymological  works,  among  which  is  a  curious 
treatise  on  the  origin  of  languages.  Otfried  took  up  his  master's  favorite  pur- 
suits with  great  warmth,  and  the  completion  of  Charlemagne's  German  gram- 
mar is  thought  to  be  in  reality  his  work,  though  generally  assigned  to  Rabanus. 
On  retiring  to  his  own  monastery,  where  he  was  charged  with  the  direction  of 
the  school,  he  continued  to  make  the  improvement  of  his  native  language  the 
chief  object  of  his  study.  A  noble  zeal  prompted  him  to  produce  something 
in  the  vernacular  idiom  which  should  take  the  place  of  those  profane  songs, 
often  of  heathen  origin,  which  had  hitherto  been  the  only  production  of  the 
German  muse. 

The  character  of  Rabanus  may  be  gathered  from  that  of  his  pupils.  He  was 
in  every  respect  a  true  example  of  the  monastic  scholar,  and  took  St.  Bede  for 
the  model  on  which  his  own  life  was  formed.  All  the  time  not  taken  up  with 
religious  duties  he  devoted  to  reading,  teaching,  writing,  or  '  feeding  himself 
on  the  Divine  Scriptures.'  The  best  lesson  he  gave  his  scholars  was  the  ex- 
ample of  his  own  life,  as  Eginhard  indicates  in  a  letter  written  to  his  son,  then 
studying  as  a  novice  at  Fulda.  '  I  would  have  you  apply  to  literary  exercises,' 
he  says,  '  and  try  as  far  as  you  can  to  acquire  the  learning  of  your  master, 


14  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS. 

whose  lessons  are  so  clear  and  solid.  But  specially  imitate  his  holy  life.  .  .  . 
For  grammar  and  rhetoric  and  all  human  sciences  are  vain  and  even  injurious 
to  the  servants  of  God,  unless  by  Divine  grace  they  know  how  to  follow  the  law 
of  God;  for  science  puffeth  up,  but  charity  buildeth  up.  I  would  rather  see 
you  dead  than  inflated  with  vice.' 

Nevertheless,  the  career  of  Rabanus  was  far  from  being  one  of  unruffled  re- 
pose, and  the  history  of  his  troubles  presents  us  with  a  singular  episode  in 
monastic  annals.  The  abbot  Ratgar  was  one  of  those  men  whose  activity  of 
mind  and  body  was  a  cross  to  every  one  about  him.  He  could  neither  rest 
himself  nor  suffer  anybody  else  to  be  quiet.  The  ordinary  routine  of  life  at 
Fulda,  with  its  prodigious  amount  of  daily  labor,  both  mental  and  physical,  did 
not  satisfy  the  requirements  of  his  peculiar  organization.  He  had  a  fancy  for 
rearranging  the  whole  discipline  of  the  monastery,  and  was  specially  desirous 
of  providing  himself  with  more  splendid  buildings  than  those  which  had  been 
raised  by  the  followers  of  the  humble  Sturm.  Every  one  knows  that  the  pas- 
sion for  building  has  in  it  a  directly  revolutionary  element ;  it  is  synonymous 
with  a  passion  for  upsetting,  destroying,  and  reducing  every  thing  to  chaos. 
Hence,  the  monks  of  Fulda  had  but  an  uncomfortable  time  of  it,  and  what  was 
worse,  Ratgar  was  so  eager  to  get  his  fine  buildings  completed,  that  he  not 
only  compelled  his  monks  to  work  as  masons,  but  shortened  their  prayers  and 
masses,  and  obliged  them  to  labor  on  festivals.  Rabanus  himself  could  claim 
no  exemption  ;  he  had  to  exchange  the  pen  for  the  trowel ;  and  to  take  away 
all  possibility  of  excuse,  Ratgar  deprived  him  of  his  books,  and  even  of  "the 
private  notes  which  he  had  made  of  Alcuin's  lectures.  Rabanus  was  too  good 
a  monk  to  protest  against  his  change  of  employment,  and  carried  his  bricks 
and  mortar  as  cheerfully  as  ever  he  had  applied  himself  to  a  copy  of  Cicero ; 
but  he  did  not  conceive  it.  contrary  to  religious  obedience  humbly  to  protest 
against  the  confiscation  of  his  papers,  and  attempted  to  soften  the  hard  heart 
of  his  abbot  with  a  copy  of  verses. 

The  building  grievance  at  last  grew  to  such  a  pitch,  that  the  monks  in  de- 
spair appealed  to  Charlemagne,  who  summoned  Ratgar  to  court  to  answer 
their  charges,  and  appointed  a  commission  of  bishops  and  abbots  to  inquire 
into  the  whole  matter.  Their  decision  allayed  the  discord  for  a  time,  and  so 
long  as  the  emperor  lived,  Ratgar  showed  his  monks  some  consideration.  But 
no  sooner  was  he  dead  than  the  persecution  recommenced,  and  Rabanus,  again 
deprived  of  his  books  arid  papers,  seems  to  have  consoled  himself  by  making  a 
pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem.  The  abbot,  however,  raised  again  such  a  storm  that 
a  new  commission  was  appointed  by  the  emperor  (Louis).  On  its  report,  Rat- 
gar  was  deposed,  and  Eigil,  a  disciple  of  Sturm,  elected  in  his  place.  Under 
his  gentle  administration  the  peace  of  the  community  was  restored,  and  Raba- 
nus resumed  his  teaching,  which  he  soon  after  gave  up  (except  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures), on  becoming  the  successor  of  Eigil  in  822.  The  notes  of  his  oral  in- 
struction on  the  chief  duties  of  ecclesiastics  and  the  rites  of  the  church  were 
afterwards  revised  and  arranged  in  the  Treatise  De  Institutione  Ctericorum,  an 
invaluable  monument  of  the  faith  and  practice  of  the  Church  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury. It  treats  in  three  books  of  the  Sacraments,  the  Divine  office,  the  feasts 
and  fasts  of  the  Church,  and  the  learning  necessary  for  ecclesiastics,  concluding 
with  instructions  and  rules  for  the  guidance  of  preachers.  On  the  last  subject 
he  observes  that  three  things  are  necessary  in  order  to  become  a  good  preacher; 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS.  15 

first,  to  be  a  good  man  yourself,  that  you  may  be  able  to  teach  others  to  be  so; 
secondly,  to  be  skilled  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the  interpretations  of  the 
Fathers ;  thirdly,  and  above  all,  to  prepare  for  the  work  of  preaching  by  that 
of  prayer.  As  to  the  studies  proper  to  ecclesiastics,  he  distinctly  requires  them 
to  be  learned  not  only  in  the  Scriptures,  but  also  in  the  seven  liberal  arts,  pro- 
vided only  that  these  are  treated  as  the  handmaids  of  theology,  and  he  explains 
his  views  on  this  subject  much  in  the  same  way  as  Bede  had  done  before  him. 
In  847,  Rabanus  was  raised  to  the  archiepiscopal  see  of  Mentz,  and  died  in 
856,  leaving  his  books  to  the  abbeys  of  Fulda,  and  St.  Alban's  of  Mentz. 

LUPUS   OF   FERRIERES. 

Lupus  became  abbot  of  the  monastery  in  856,  but  continued  to  teach  and 
labor  for  his  school — particularly  in  collecting  a  noble  library.  He  took  extra- 
ordinary pains  in  seeking  for  his  treasures  even  in  distant  countries,  in  causing 
them  to  be  transcribed,  and  sometimes  in  lovingly  transcribing  them  himself. 
His  interesting  correspondence  contains  frequent  allusions  to  these  biblio- 
graphical researches.  At  one  time  he  asks  a  friend  to  bring  him  the  '  Wars 
of  Catiline  and  of  Jugurtha '  by  Sallust,  and  the  '  Verrines  of  Cicero.'  At 
another,  he  writes  to  Pope  Benedict  III.,  begging  him  to  send  by  two  of  his 
monks,  about  to  journey  to  Rome,  certain  books  which  he  could  not  obtain  in 
his  own  country,  and  which  he  promises  to  have  speedily  copied  and  faithfully 
returned.  They  are,  the  'Commentaries  of  St.  Jerome  on  Jeremias,'  'Cicero 
de  Oratore,'  the  twelve  books  of  Quintilian's  Institutes,  and  the  '  Commentary 
of  Donatus  on  Terence.'  With  all  his  taste  for  the  classics,  however,  Lupus 
had  too  much  good  sense  not  to  see  the  importance  of  cultivating  the  barbarous 
dialects,  and  sent  his  nephew  with  two  other  noble  youths  to  Prom,  to  learn 
the  Tudesque  idiom.  In  his  school  he  made  it  his  chief  aim  to  train  his  pupils, 
not  only  in  grammar  and  rhetoric,  but  also  in  the  higher  art  of  a  holy  life. 
The  monastic  seminaries  were  proverbially  schools  of  good  living  as  well  as 
good  learning,  rede  faciendi  d  bene  dicendi,  as  Mabillon  -expresses  it ;  and 
there  was  nothing  that  Lupus  had  more  at  heart  than  the  inculcation  of  this 
principle,  that  the  cultivation  of  head  and  heart  must  go  together.  '  We  too 
often  seek  in  study,'  he  writes  in  his  epistle  to  the  monk  Ebradus,  'nothing  but 
ornament  of  style ;  few  are  found  who  desire  to  acquire  by  its  means  purity  of 
manners,  which  is  of  far  greater  value.  We  are  very  much  afraid  of  vices  of 
language,  and  use  every  effort  to  correct  them,  but  we  regard  with  indifference 
the  vices  of  the  heart.'  His  favorite  Cicero  had  before  his  time  lifted  a  warn- 
ing voice  against  the  capital  error  of  disjoining  mental  from  moral  culture,  and 
in  the  Christian  system  of  the  earlier  centuries  they  were  never  regarded  apart. 

Lupus  was  not  too  great  a  scholar  to  condescend  to  labor  for  beginners,  and 
drew  up,  for  the  benefit  of  his  pupils,  an  abridgment  of  Roman  history,  in 
which  he  proposes  the  characters  of  Trajan  and  Theodosius  for  the  study  of 
Christian  princes.  He  was  wont  to  boast  of  his  double  descent  from  Alcuin, 
as  being  a  pupil  of  Sigulf  and  Rabanus,  both  of  them  disciples  of  the  great 
master.  His  own  favorite  scholar  Heiric,  or  Henry  of  Auxerre,  indulged  in  a 
similar  morsel  of  scholastic  pride.  He  had  studied  under  both  Lupus  and 
Haimo  of  Halberstadt,  the  former  schoolfellow  of  Rabanus,  at  St.  Martin  of 
Tours.  Haimo  seems  to  have  lectured  for  some  time  at  Ferrieres,  and  Heiric 
tells  us  in  some  not  inelegant  verses  that  it  was  the  custom  of  the  two  peda- 


16  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS. 

gogues  to  give  their  pupils  a  very  pleasant  sort  of  recreation,  relating  to  them 
whatever  they  had  found  in  the  course  of  their  reading  that  was  worthy  of  re- 
membrance, whether  in  Christian  or  Pagan  authors.  Heiric,  who  was  some- 
what of  an  intellectual  glutton,  and  had  a  craving  for  learning  of  all  sorts  and 
on  all  imaginable  subjects,  made  for  himself  a  little  book,  in  which  he  diligently 
noted  down  every  scrap  that  fell  from  the  lips  of  his  masters.  This  book  he 
subsequently  published,  and  dedicated  to  Hildebold,  bishop  of  Auxerre. 
Heiric  himself  afterwards  became  a  man  of  letters ;  he  was  appointed  scholas- 
ticus  of  St.  Germain's  of  Auxerre,  and  was  instrusted  with  the  education  of 
Lothaire,  son  of  Charles  the  Bald,  as  we  learn  from  the  epistle  addressed  to 
that  monarch  which  he  prefixed  to  his  Life  of  St.  Germanus,  in  which  he  speaks 
of  the  young  prince,  recently  dead,  as  in  years  a  boy,  but  in  mind  a  philoso- 
pher. Another  of  his  pupils  was  the  famous  Remigius  of  Auxerre,  who,  to- 
wards the  end  of  the  ninth  century,  was  summoned  to  Rheims  by  archbishop 
Fulk,  to  reestablish  sacred  studies  in  that  city,  and  worked  there  in  concert 
with  his  former  schoolfellow,  Hucbald  of  St.  Amand,  who  attained  a  curious 
sort  of  reputation  by  his  poem  on  bald  men,  each  line  of  which  began  with  the 
letter  C.  the  whole  being  intended  as  a  compliment  to  Charles  the  Bald.  Fulk 
himself  became  their  first  pupil,  and  after  thoroughly  restoring  the  school  of 
Rheims,  Remigius  passed  on  to  Paris,  where  we  shall  have  occasion  to  notice 
him  among  the  teachers  of  the  tenth  century.  From  his  time  the  schools  of 
Paris  continued  to  increase  in  reputation  and  importance  till  they  developed 
into  the  great  university  which  may  thus  be  distinctly  traced  through  a  pedi- 
gree of  learned  men  up  to  the  great  Alcuin  himself.  This  genealogy  of  peda- 
gogues is  of  no  small  interest,  as  showing  the  efforts  made  in  the  worst  of 
times  to  keep  alive  the  spark  of  science,  and  the  persistence  with  which,  in 
spite  of  civil  wars  and  Norman  invasions,  the  scholastic  traditions  of  Alcuin 
were  maintained. 

PASCHASIUS   RADPERT  OP  OLD   CORBY. 

The  school  attached  to  the  monastery  of  Corby  (under  Adalhard,  a  prince  of 
the  blood  royal),  was  chosen  by  Charlemagne  for  the  training  of  Saxon  youth 
to  act  as  missionaries  on  their  return  to  their  own  country.  The  master  chosen 
for  the  task  of  rearing  these  future  missionaries  was  Paschasius  Radpert,  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  his  time.  Originally  of  very  humble  birth,  he 
owed  his  education  to  the  charity  of  £he  nuns  of  Soissons,  who  first  received 
the  desolate  child  into  their  own  out-quarters,  and  then  sent  him  to  some 
monks  in  the  same  city,  under  whose  tuition  he  acquired  a  fair  amount  of 
learning,  and  addicted  himself  to  the  study  of  Virgil,  Horace,  Cicero,  and  Ter- 
ence. He  never  forgot  the  kindness  of  his  early  benefactresses,  and  in  after 
years  dedicated  his  Treatise  on  the  Virginity  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  to  the  good 
nuns,  styling  himself  therein  their  alumnus,  or  foster-son. 

After  receiving  the  tonsure  in  early  youth,  Paschasius,  whose  tastes  for 
Terence  and  Cicero  rather  predominated  at  that  time  over  his  relish  for  more 
sacred  studies,  abandoned  his  first  inclination  for  the  cloister,  and  lived  for 
some  years  a  secular  life.  Touched  at  last  by  divine  grace,  he  entered  the 
abbey  of  Old  Corby,  and  there  made  his  profession  under  the  abbot  Adalhard. 
All  the  ardor  he  had  previously  shown  in  the  pursuit  of  profane  literature  he 
now  applied  to  the  study  of  the  Divine  Scriptures.  Yet  he  only  devoted  to 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS. 


17 


study  of  any  kind  those  '  furtive  hours,'  as  he  calls  them,  which  he  was  able 
to  steal  from  the  duties  of  regular  discipline,  and  was  never  seen  so  happy  as 
when  engaged  in  the  choral  office  or  the  meaner  occupations  of  community 
life.  Such,  then,  was  the  master  chosen  by  Adalhard  for  the  responsible  office 
of  scholasticus,  and  a  very  minute  account  is  left  us  of  his  manner  of  discharg- 
ing its  duties.  Every  day  he  delivered  lectures  on  the  sacred  sciences,  besides 
preaching  to  the  monks  on  Sundays  and  Festivals.  His  thorough  familiarity 
with  the  best  Latin  authors  appears  from  the  frequent  allusions  to  them  which 
occur  in  his  writings.  Quotations  from  the  classic  poets  drop  from  his  pen,  as 
it  were,  half  unconsciously,  and  we  are  told  that  he  continued  to  keep  up  his 
acquaintance  with  them,  so  far  as  was  necessary  for  teaching  others.  But  his 
own  study  was  now  chiefly  confined  to  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the  Fathers; 
and  among  the  latter,  his  favorites  were  St.  Augustine,  St.  Jerome,  St.  Am- 
brose, St.  John  Chrysostom,  Bede,  and  St.  Gregory  the  Great.  'He  did  not 
approve,'  says  his  biographer,  'of  the  diligence  displayed  by  some  men  of  the 
time  in  explaining  and  meditating  on  profane  authors.  In  a  passage  which 
occurs  in  the  preface  to  his  exposition  of  St.  Matthew's  Gospel,  he  blames  those 
lovers  of  secular  learning  '  who  seek  various  and  divers  expounders'  that  so 
they  may  attain  to  the  understanding  of  beautiful  lies  concerning  shameful 
things,  arid  who  will  not  pass  over — I  do  not  say  a  single  page,  but  a  single 
line  or  syllable,  without  thoroughly  investigating  it,  with  the  utmost  labor  and 
vigilance,  while  at  the  same  time  they  utterly  neglect  the  Sacred  Scriptures. 

Few  were  more  keenly  alive  than  he  to  the  charms  of  polite  literature, 
neither  did  he  at  all  condemn  its  use  within  proper  limits,  even  among 
cloistered  students.  It  would,  indeed,  have  been  a  difficult  matter  to  have 
eradicated  the  love  of  the  beautiful  from  the  heart  of  Paschasius.  He  pos- 
sessed it  in  every  shape,  and  was  not  merely  a  poet,  but  a  musician  also. 
In  one  of  his  writings  he  lets  fall  an  observation  which  might  be  taken  for  a 
prose  rendering  of  a  verse  of  Shelley's,  although  the  Christian  scholar  goes 
beyond  the  infidel  poet,  and  does  not  merely  describe  the  sentiment  which  all 
have  felt,  but  traces  it  to  its  proper  source.  Shelley  complains  that — 

Our  sincerest  laughter 

With  some  pain  is  fraught; 
Our  sweetest  songs  are  those  that  tell  of  saddest  thought. 

Paschasius  explains  the  mystery :  '  There  is  no  song  to  be  found  without  a 
tone  of  sadness  in  it ;  even  as  here  below  there  are  no  joys  without  a  mixture 
of  sorrow;  for  songs  of  pure  joy  belong  only  to  the  heavenly  Sion,  but 
lamentation  is  the  property  of  our  earthly  pilgrimage.'  His  musical  tastes 
were  perfectly  shared  and  understood  by  his  master  St.  Adalhard,  whose  sensi- 
bility to  the  influence  of  melodious  sounds  is  spoken  of  by  his  biographer, 
Gerard.  Even  during  his  residence  at  the  court  of  Charlemagne,  it  is  said  of 
him  that '  he  was  always  so  full  of  a  sweet  intention  towards  God,  that  if 
while  assisting  at  the  royal  council  he  heard  the  sound  of  some  chance  melody, 
he  had  it  not  in  his  power  to  refrain  from  tears,  for  all  sweet  music  seemed  to 
remind  him  of  his  heavenly  country.'  In  fact,  it  can  not  be  denied  that  the 
men  of  the  dark  ages  had  a  singular  susceptibility  of  temperament,  and  that 
the  monastic  type  in  particular  exhibited  a  remarkable  union  of  strength 
with  tenderness,  of  practical  sense  with  poetic  sensibility. 

The  importance  they  attached  to  music  as  an  essential  branch  of  education 
2 


18  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS. 

is  not,  however,  to  be  attributed  so  much  to  any  peculiar  sensitiveness  of  or- 
ganization as  to  the  fact  that  they  inherited  the  traditions  of  the  ancients,  and 
with  them  had  learned  to  look  on  music  as  a  science  intimately  associated  with 
the  knowledge  of  divine  things.  They  were  the  true  descendants  of  those 
holy  fathers  of  olden  time,  concerning  whom  the  Son  of  Sirach  tells  us  that 
'  they  sought  out  musical  tunes  and  published  Canticles  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
were  rich  in  virtue,  studying  beautifulness,  and  living  at  peace  in  their  houses.' 
The  narrative  of  the  early  English  schools  which  counted  it  their  chief  glory 
to  have  been  instructed  in  sacred  chant  by  a  Roman  choir  master,  will  suf- 
ficiently have  illustrated  the  fact  that  music  held  a  very  prominent  place  in  the 
system  of  education  which  held  sway  in  the  early  centuries;  and  the  theory  on 
which  this  high  esteem  was  based  will  nowhere  be  found  better  explained  than 
in  the  writings  of  Rabanus.  'Musical  discipline,1  he  says,  'is  so  noble  and 
useful  a  thing,  that  without  it  no  one  can  properly  discharge  the  ecclesiastical 
office.  For  whatsoever  in  reading  is  correctly  pronounced,  and  whatsoever  in 
chanting  is  sweetly  modulated,  is  regulated  by  a  knowledge  of  this  discipline ; 
and  by  it  we  nof  only  learn  how  to  read  and  sing  in  the  church,  but  also 
rightly  perform  every  rite  in  the  divine  service.  Moreover,  the  discipline  of 
music  is  diffused  through  all  the  acts  of  our  life.  For  when  we  keep  the  com- 
mandments of  God,  and  observe  His  law,  it  is  certain  that  our  words  and  acts 
are  associated  by  musical  rhythm  with  the  virtues  of  harmony.  If  we  observe 
a  good  conversation,  we  prove  ourselves  associated  with  this  discipline ;  but 
when  we  act  sinfully,  we  have  in  us  no  music.' 

ANSCHARIUS   OF    NEW    CORBY. 

Anscharius  was  one  of  those  chosen  to  colonize  the  monastery  of  New 
Corby,  the  mention  of  which  requires  a  few  words  of  explanation.  The 
foundation  of  this  daughter-house  was  the  great  work  of  St.  Adalhard,  who  so 
soon  as  his  young  Saxons  were  sufficiently  trained  in  learning  and  monastic 
discipline,  consulted  them  on  the  possibilities  of  their  obtaining  a  suitable  site 
for  a  foundation  in  their  native  land.  After  many  difficulties  had  been  raised 
and  overcome,  ground  was  procured,  and  the  building  of  the  abbey  was 
begun.  Adalhard  repaired  thither  to  superintend  operations  in  company  with 
Paschasius  and  his  own  brother  Wala,  who,  brought  up  like  himself  as  a 
soldier  and  courtier,  had  in  former  years  held  military  command  in  Saxon}-, 
and  won  the  affections  of  the  people  by  his  wise  and  gentle  rule.  When  the 
Saxons  saw  their  old  governor  among  them  again  in  the  monastic  habit, 
nothing  could  exceed  their  wonder  and  delight ;  they  ran  after  him  in  crowds, 
looking  at  him,  and  feeling  him  with  their  hands  to  satisfy  themselves  that  it 
was  really  he,  paying  no  attention  whatever  to  the  presence  of  the  abbot  of 
any  other  of  his  companions.  The  first  stone  of  the  new  abbey  was  laid  on 
September  26,  822 ;  Old  Corby  made  over  to  the  new  colony  all  the  lands  held 
by  the  community  in  Saxony;  the  Emperor  Louis  gave  them  a  charter,  and 
some  precious  relics  from  his  private  chapel,  and  in  a  few  years  that  great 
seminary  was  completed  which  was  destined  to  carry  the  light  of  faith  and 
science  to  the  pagan  natives  of  the  farther  north.  It  would  be  hard  to  say 
which  of  the  two  Corbies  held  the  highest  place  in  monastic  history ;  a  noble 
emulation  existed  between  them,  each  trying  to  outstrip  the  other  in  the  per- 
fection of  monastic  discipline.  New  Corby,  in  her  turn,  became  the  mother- 
house  of  a  vast  number  of  German  colonies. 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOLARS.  19 


ST.    BRUNO   AT   COLOGNE.* 

ST.  BRUNO  was  the  younger  brother  of  the  Emperor,  Otho  the  Great,  and 
like  him  a  pupil  of  Heraclius  of  Liege.  His  education  began  at  Utrecht,  where 
he  was  sent  at  the  mature  age  of  four  to  commence  his  studies  under  the  good 
abbot  Baldric.  Utrecht  had  never  entirely  lost  its  scholastic  reputation 
since  the  days  of  St.  Gregory.  Only  a  few  years  before  the  birth  of  Bruno,  the 
see  had  been  filled  by  St.  Radbod,  a  great-grandson  of  that  other  Radbod,  duke 
of  Oriesland,  who  had  so  fiercely  opposed  the  preaching  of  St.  Boniface.  Rad- 
bod the  bishop,  however,  was  a  very  different  man  from  his  savage  ancestor ; 
he  was  not  only  a  pious  ecclesiastic,  but  an  excellent  scholar,  for  he  had  been 
educated  in  the  Palatine  school  of  Charles  the  Bald,  under  the  learned  Mannon, 
whose  heart  he  won  by  his  facility  in  writing  verses,  and  the  cares  of  the  epis- 
copate never  induced  him  altogether  to  neglect  the  Muses.  Besides  a  great 
number  of  poems  which  he  wrote  during  his  residence  at  Utrecht,  we  have  a 
Latin  epigram,  which  he  improvised  at  the  moment  of  receiving  the  Holy  Viat- 
icum, and  which  is  perhaps  as  worthy  of  being  preserved  as  the  dying  epigram 
of  the  Emperor  Hadrian.* 

Esuries  Te,  Christe  Deus,  sitis  atque  videndi 

Jam  moilo  carnales  me  vetat  esse  dapes. 
Da  mihi  Te  vesci,  Te  potum  haurire  salutis, 

Unicus  ignota?  Tu  cibus  esto  via? ; 
Et  quern  longa  fames  errantem  ambedit  in  orbe 

Hunc  satia  vultu.  Patris  Imngo,  Tuo. 

In  consequence  of  the  encouragement  given  to  learning  by  so  many  of  its 
bishops,  Utrecht  became  the  fashionable  place  of  education,  and  it  had  grown 
a  sort  of  custom  with  the  German  sovereigns  to  send  their  sons  thither  at  an 
early  age.  Little  Bruno  made  rapid  progress  both  in  Greek  and  Latin  litera- 
ture ;  he  particularly  relished  the  works  of  Prudentius,  which  he  learnt  by 
heart ;  never  let  himself  be  disturbed  by  his  noisy  companions,  and  took  great 
care  of  his  books.  Indeed,  the  only  thing  that  ever  moved  him  to  anger  was 
the  sight  of  any  one  negligently  handling  a  book.  His  reading  included  some- 
thing of  all  sorts;  historians,  orators,  poets,  and  philosophers — nothing  came 
amiss.  He  had  native  Greeks  to  instruct  him  in  their  language,  and  became 
so  proficient  in  it  as  afterwards  to  act  as  interpreter  for  his  brother  to  the 
Greek  ambassador  who  frequented  the  German  court.  "With  all  this  he  did  not 
neglect  the  sacred  sciences,  and  a  certain  Isaac,  a  Scotch,  or  rather  Irish -pro- 
fessor, who  taught  at  Utrecht,  spoke  of  him  as  not  merely  a  scholar,  but  a 
saint.  The  monk  Ditmar,  one  of  his  school-fellows,  himself  afterwards  cele- 
brated in  the  literary  world  by  his  chronicle  of  the  royal  house  of  Saxony, 
bears  witness  to  the  habits  of  piety  which  adorned  the  very  childhood  of  the 
young  prince.  'Every  morning,'  he  says,  'before  he  left  his  room  to  go  to  the 
school,  he  would  be  at  his  prayers,  while  the  rest  of  us  were  at  play.'  A  cer- 
tain tone  of  exaggeration  is  not  unfrequently  indulged  in  by  early  writers 
when  extolling  the  subjects  of  their  biographies  as  prodigies  of  every  literary 
excellence,  but  the  description  left  us  of  Bruno's  intellectual  achievements  does 
not  admit  of  being  understood  as  mere  figures  of  speech.  His  love  of  reading 
was  almost  a  passion.  He  read  every  thing,  '  even  comedies,'  says  his  bi- 
ographer, who  seems  a  little  scandalized  at  the  fact,  but  explains  that  he  at- 
tended only  to  the  style,  and  neglected  the  matter.  To  complete  the  picture 
*  Christian  Schools  and  Scholars,  Vol.  I.,  p.  346. 


20  EARLY  CHRISTIAN   SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOLARS. 

of  Bruno's  school-days,  it  must  be  added  that  he  was  an  excellent  manager  of 
his  time,  and  always  made  the  most  of  his  morning  hours,  a  good  habit  he  re- 
tained through  life.  I  will  say  nothing  of  his  early  career  as  the  reformer  of 
Lauresheim  Abbey ;  he  was  still  young  when  his  brother  Otho  succeeded  to 
the  throne,  and  at  once  summoned  Bruno  to  Court,  charging  him  with  the  task 
of  erecting  there  a  Palatine  academy,  after  the  model  of  that  of  Charlemagne. 
Nothing  was  better  suited  to  Bruno's  wishes  and  capacity,  and  he  began  at 
once  to  teach  the  entire  curriculum  of  the  liberal  arts  to  a  crowd  of  noble  pu- 
pils. Whatever  was  most  beautiful  in  the  historians  and  poets  of  Greece  or 
Rome,  he  made  known  to  his  disciples,  and  not  content  with  the  labor  entailed 
on  him  by  his  own  lectures,  he  did  not  allow  the  professors  whom  he  chose  to 
assist  him,  to  commence  theirs  till  he  had  previously  conferred  with  them  on 
the  subjects  they  were  about  to  explain. 

In  953,  Bruno,  in  spite  of  his  youth,  was  demanded  by  the  clergy  and  people 
of  Cologne  for  their  archbishop,  and  being  consecrated,  he  at  once  entered  on  a 
career  of  gigantic  labors,  everywhere  re-establishing  ecclesiastical  discipline 
and  social  order  throughout  a  province  long  wasted  by  war  and  barbaric  inva- 
sions. His  political  position,  moreover,  imposed  on  him  yet  more  extensive 
caves ;  for  Otho,  who  called  him  his  second  soul,  when  summoned  into  Italy, 
created  his  brother  duke  of  Lorraine,  and  imperial  lieutenant  in  Germany. 
The  dukedom  of  Lorraine  at  that  time  included  all  the  country  from  the  Alps 
to  the  Moselle,  which  now,  therefore,  acknowledged  Bruno  as  its  actual  sov- 
ereign. But  these  multiplied  dignities  and  the  accumulation  of  business  which 
they  entailed,  did  not  quench  Bruno's  love  of  study.  Whenever  he  traveled, 
whether  in  the  visitation  of  his  diocese,  or  when  accompanying  his  brother's 
court,  he  always  carried  his  library  with  him,  ;  as  if  it  had  been  the  ark  of  the 
Lord,'  says  the  monk  Rotger,  who,  moreover,  remarks  that  this  library  was 
stored  both  with  sacred  and  profane  authors,  for,  like  a  good  householder,  he 
knew  how  to  bring  out  of  his  treasury  things  new  and  old.  Nothing  ever  pre- 
vented his  finding  time  for  reading,  and  he  excited  every  one  about  him  to  cul- 
tivate similar  tastes,  specially  his  nephew  Otho,  who  was  for  some  time  his  pu- 
pil. Indeed,  Rotger  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  archbishop  felt  a  certain 
want  of  confidence  in  those  who  had  no  attraction  to  study;  meaning  probably 
to  those  unlettered  clerks,  who  cared  not  to  acquire  the  learning  proper  to  their 
sacred  calling.  Of  these  there  was  no  lack  in  Lorraine ;  but  Bruno  effected  a 
great  change  in  the  condition  of  that  afflicted  province,  by  appointing  good 
bishops,  healing  feuds,  reforming  monasteries,  and  making  men  love  one  an- 
other in  spite  of  themselves.  In  all  these  good  works  he  was  assisted  by  the 
learning  and  martial  valor  of  Ansfrid,  count  of  Lorraine,  who  was  well  read 
both  in  law  and  Scripture,  and  who  used  his  sword  exclusively  to  repress  pil- 
lage, and  defend  the  helpless.  This  feudal  noble  of  the  Iron  Age  spent  all  his 
leisure  hours  in  study,  arid  when  at  last  he  embraced  the  ecclesiastical  state, 
and  at  the  entreaties  of  the  emperor  accepted  a  bishopric,  he  was  able  to  lay 
his  sword  on  the  altar,  and  render  witness  that  it  had  never  been  drawn  in  an 
unjust  cause. 

BOPPO   OF   WURTZBURG.— WOLFGANG. 

Bruno's  example  made  a  great  stir  in  Germany,  and  moved  many  bishops  to 
exert  themselves  in  the  work  of  reform.  Boppo,  bishop  of  Wurtzburg,  sent  to 
Rome  for  a  celebrated  master  named  Stephen,  and  with  his  help  the  episcopal 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOLARS.  21 

seminary  was  restored,  and  soon  boasted  of  a  '  crowd  of  students,  and  a  great 
store  of  books.'  Among  other  pupils  educated  under  Master  Stephen  were  two 
friends,  named  Wolfgang  and  Henry.  Wolfgang  was  a  student  of  Bruno's 
type,  possessing  an  avidity  for  all  sorts  of  learning ;  and  though  he  began  his 
school  life  at  seven,  he  is  said  in  a  few  years  not  only  to  have  acquired  an  ex- 
tensive acquaintance  with  the  letter  of  the  Scriptures,  but  to  have  penetrated 
into  the  pith  and  marrow  of  their  mystical  sense.  His  father  had  thought  it 
sufficient  to  place  him  under  a  certain  priest,  to  receive  a  very  scanty  ele- 
mentary education,  but  Wolfgang  entreated  that  he  might  be  sent  to  Reichenau, 
which  then  enjoyed  a  high  reputation ;  and  here  he  first  met  with  his  friend 
Henry.  Henry  was  the  younger  brother  of  Bishop  Boppo,  and  easily  per- 
suaded Wolfgang  to  migrate  with  him  to  Wurtzberg,  for  the  sake  of  studying 
under  the  famous  Master  Stephen.  It  soon  appeared,  however,  that  the  dis- 
ciple was  more  learned  than  the  master,  and  when  the  Wurtzburg  students 
found  Master  Stephen's  lectures  very  dull,  or  very  obscure,  they  were  in  the 
habit  of  applying  to  Wolfgang,  who  possessed  that  peculiar  gift  of  perspicacity 
which  marked  him  from  his  boyhood  as  called  to  the  functions  of  teaching. 
Moreover,  he  was  so  kind,  and  so  willing  to  impart  his  knowledge,  that  his 
companions  declared  he  made  daylight  out  of  the  darkest  matters ;  when  Ste- 
phen's prosy  abstruseness  had  fairly  mystified  them,  five  words  from  Wolfgang 
seemed  like  the  Fiat  lux,  and  these  observations  reaching  the  ears  of  Stephen, 
had  the  proverbial  fate  of  all  comparisons.  At  last,  one  day,  when  Wolfgang 
was  surrounded  by  a  knot  of  his  school-fellows,  who  entreated  him  to  expound 
a  passage  in  Marcian  Capella,  Master  Stephen,  moved  to  jealous  anger,  forbade 
Wolfgang  any  longer  to  attend  the  lectures.  This  ungenerous  command 
obliged  him  to  continue  his  studies  alone,  but  he  seems  to  have  lost  little  by 
being  deprived  of  the  benefit  of  an  instructor,  whom  he  had  already  far  out- 
stripped in  learning. 

Henry  and  Boppo  were  both  of  them  relatives  of  Otho,  who,  in  956,  caused 
the  former  to  be  raised  to  the  archbishopric  of  Treves.  Henry  insisted  on  car- 
rying his  friend  with  him  into  his  new  diocese,  and  wished  to  load  him  with 
benefices  and  honors,  all  of  which,  however,  Wolfgang  refused.  He  would  ac- 
cept of  no  other  employment  than  that  of  teaching  youth,  for  which  he  knew 
his  aptitude,  and  which  he  heartily  loved;  and,  in  the  true  spirit  of  a  Christian 
teacher,  he  chose  to  discharge  this  office  gratuitously,  not  as  a  means  of  pri- 
vate gain,  but  as  a  work  for  souls,  even  supporting  many  of  his  scholars  out  of 
his  own  purse.  He  cared  as  much  for  their  spiritual  as  their  intellectual  prog- 
ress, and  set  them  the  example  of  a  holy  and  mortified  life.  The  archbishop, 
is  despair  at  not  being  able  to  promote  him  as  he  desired,  at  last  got  him  to  ac- 
cept the  office  of  dean  to  a  certain  college  of  canons.  Wolfgang  did  not  allow 
the  dignity  to  be  a  nominal  one,  but  obliged  his  canons  to  embrace  community 
life,  and  to  commence  a  course  of  sacred  studies,  assuring  them  that  the  sus- 
tenance of  the  inner  man  is  as  necessary  as  that  of  the  body.  Archbishop 
Henry  dying  in  964,  Wolfgang,  who  had  only  remained  at  Treves  out  of  affec- 
tion to  him,  prepared  to  return  into  Swabia,  which  was  his  native  country. 
But  Bruno  had  his  eye  on  him,  and  inviting  him  to  Cologne,  offered  him  every 
dignity,  even  the  episcopate  itself,  if  he  would  only  remain  in  his  duchy.  Wolf- 
gang, though  he  persisted  in  refusing  to  accept  any  promotion,  felt  himself 
obliged  to  pass  some  time  at  the  prince-bishop's  court,  and  testified  afterwards 


22  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOLARS. 

to  the  fact  of  his  great  sanctity.  Finding  that  he  could  not  move  the  resolu- 
tion of  his  friend,  Bruno  at  last  reluctantly  allowed  him  to  return  to  Swabia, 
where  he  remained  only  just  long  enough  formally  to  renounce  his  hereditary 
possessions,  after  which  he  withdrew  to  Einsidlen,  and  took  the  monastic  habit 
under  the  English  abbot  Gregory. 

ST.    UDALRIC   OF   AUGSBURGH. 

Udalric  was  a  scholar  of  St.  Gall's,  and  had  given  marks  of  sanctity  even 
during  his  school  days.  A  minute  account  of  his  manner  of  life  when  arch- 
bishop, is  given  in  the  beautiful  life  written  by  his  friend  Gerard.  Let  it  suffice 
to  say,  that  besides  singing  the  Divine  Office  in  the  cathedral  with  his  canons, 
and  daily  celebrating  two  or  three  masses  (a  privilege  then  permitted  to  priests, 
as  we  learn  from  Walafrid  Strabo),  he  every  day  recited  the  entire  Psalter,  the 
Office  of  our  lady,  together  with  that  of  the  Holy  Cross,  and  of  All  Saints ; 
that  he  entertained  a  number  of  poor  persons  at  his  table,  exercised  hospitality 
on  a  right  loyal  scale,  administered  strict  justice  to  his  people,  and  courageous- 
ly defended  them  against  the  oppression  of  their  feudal  lords;  finally,  that  he 
took  particular  care  of  the  education  of  his  clergy,  and  directed  the  studies  of 
his  cathedral  school  in  person,  none  being  better  fitted  to  do  so  than  himself. 
"When  he  made  the  visitation  of  his  diocese,  he  traveled  in  a  wagon  drawn  by 
oxen,  which  he  preferred  to  riding  on  horseback,  as  it  enabled  him  to  recite  the 
Psalms  with  his  chaplains  with  less  interruption.  In  this  arrangement  he  cer- 
tainly displayed  a  sound  discretion,  for  in  the  ancient  chronicles  of  these  times, 
more  than  one  story  is  preserved  of  the  disasters  which  befell  traveling  monks 
and  bishops,  owing  to  their  habit  of  reading  on  horseback.  His  cathedral  city 
of  Augsburgh  was  repeatedly  attacked  by  the  Huns;  and  during  one  of  their 
sieges,  the  holy  bishop,  sending  the  able-bodied  men  to  the  walls,  collected  all 
the  infants  in  arms  whom  he  could  find,  and  laying  them  on  the  floor  of  the 
cathedral,  before  the  altar,  prostrated  himself  in  prayer,  hoping  that  their  tender 
cries  might  ascend  as  prayer  before  the  Throne  of  God.  His  prayers  were 
heard,  and  Augsburgh  was  delivered.  Such  was  the  prelate  who  at  last  suc- 
ceeded in  drawing  Wolfgang  out  of  his  retirement,  and  compelling  him  to  re- 
ceive priestly  ordination.  And  in  972  the  Emperor  Otho  II.,  at  the  united  en- 
treaties of  his  bishops,  appointed  him  Bishop  of  Ratisbon,  which  he  governed 
for  twenty -two  years,  never,  however,  laying  aside  his  monastic  habit.  Henry, 
duke  of  Bavaria,  thoroughly  understood  his  merits,  and  knowing  his  love  of 
the  office  of  teaching,  entreated  him  to  take  charge  of  his  four  children,  St. 
Henry,  afterwards  emperor  of  Germany,  St.  Bruno,  who  succeeded  Udalric  in 
the  diocese  of  Augsburgh,  and  the  two  princesses,  Gisela  and  Brigit,  who  both 
died  in  the  odor  of  sanctity.  The  singular  blessing  which  attended  his  labor 
with  these  and  other  noble  children  committed  to  his  care,  gave  rise  to  a 
proverb  which  deserves  remembrance :  '  Find  saints  for  masters,  and  we  shall 
have  saints  for  emperors.' 

ST.   BERXWARD   OF   HILDESHEIM. 

Emperor  Otho  II.  was  brought  up  among  the  canons  of  Hildesheim,  and  ac- 
quired there  a  taste  for  letters,  which  was  still  further  increased  by  his  mar- 
riage with  the  Greek  princess  Theophania,  who  was  brought  up  at  Constanti- 
nople, then  the  center  of  all  that  remained  of  the  old  imperial  civilization.  She 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOLARS  23 

infused  into  the  court  circle  a  rage  for  Greek  literature,  and  Gerbert  speaks  in 
one  of  his  letters  of  the  "  Socratic  conversation  "  which  he  found  among  the 
learned  men  who  thronged  the  company  of  the  empress.  As  guardian  of  the 
young  Emperor  Otho  III.,  she  secured  the  services,  as  tutor,  of  a  noble  Saxon 
named  Bernward.  He  was  nephew  to  Folcmar,  bishop  of  Utrecht,  who  sent 
him  when  a  child  of  seven  years  old  to  be  educated  in  the  episcopal  school  of 
Hildesheim,  by  the  grave  and  holy  master  Tangmar.  This  good  old  man,  who 
afterwards  wrote  his  life,  received  him  kindly,  and  to  test  his  capacities,  set 
him  to  learn  by  heart  some  of  the  select  passages  from  Holy  Scripture  which 
were  usually  given  to  beginners.  Little  Beruward  set  himself  to  learn  and 
meditate  on  them  wiih  wonderful  ardor,  and  associating  himself  to  the  most 
studious  of  his  companions,  tried  with  their  help  thoroughly  to  master,  not 
only  the  words,  but  the  hidden  sense  of  his  lessons.  As  he  was  not  yet  judged 
old  enough  to  join  any  of  the  classes,  he  sat  apart  by  himself,  but  listened  at- 
tentively to  the  lecture  of  the  master,  and  the  explanations  which  he  gave,  and 
was  afterwards  found  reproducing  the  same  in  a  grave  and  sententious  manner 
for  the  edification  of  his  younger  school-fellows.  Surprised  and  delighted  at 
these  marks  of  precocious  genius,  Tangmar  spared  no  pains  in  the  cultivation 
of  so  promising  a  scholar,  and  had  him  constantly  by  his  side.  'Whenever  I 
went  abroad  on  the  business  of  the  monastery,'  he  says,  '  I  used  to  take  him 
with  me,  and  I  was  always  more  and  more  struck  by  his  excellent  qualities. 
We  often  studied  the  whole  day  as  we  rode  along  on  horseback,  only  more 
briefly  than  we  were  used  to  do  in  school ;  at  one  time  exercising  ourselves  in 
poetry,  and  amusing  ourselves  by  making  verses,  at  another,  arguing  on  philo- 
sophic questions.  He  excelled  no  less  in  the  mechanical  than  in  the  liberal 
arts.  He  wrote  a  beautiful  hand,  was  a  good  painter,  and  an  equally  good 
sculptor  arid  worker  in  metals,  and  had  a  peculiar  aptitude  for  all  things  apper- 
taining to  household  and  domestic  affairs.'  Under  the  care  of  so  devoted  a 
master,  the  boy  Bernward,  as  the  old  man  always  called  him,  grew  up  to  be  a 
wise  and  learned  man.  He  had  that  singular  ardour  for  acquiring  knowledge 
which  seems  one  of  the  gifts  poured  out  over  ages  in  which  its  pursuit  is 
hedged  about  with  difficulties  that  must  necessarily  discourage  a  more  ordinary 
amount  of  zeal.  Bernward  always  read  during  meal  times,  and  when  unable 
to  read  himself,  he  got  some  one  to  read  to  him.  His  reputation  determined 
Theophania  to  choose  him  as  tutor  to  her  son,  who  made  great  progress  under 
his  care,  and  was  then  sent  to  finish  his  education  in  the  school  of  the  famous 
Gerbert.  Bernward  meanwhile  was  appointed  bishop  of  Hildesheim,  and  in 
the  midst  of  his  episcopal  functions,  continued  to  cultivate  literature  and  the 
fine  arts.  He  made  time  by  employing  the  day  in  business  and  the  night  in 
prayer.  He  founded  scriptoria  in  many  monasteries,  and  collected  a  valuable 
library  of  sacred  and  profane  authors.  He  tried  to  bring  to  greater  perfection 
the  arts  of  painting,  mosaic  work,  and  metal  work,  and  made  a  valuable  col- 
lection of  all  those  curiosities  of  fine  art  which  were  brought  to  Otho's  court  as 
presents  from  foreign  princes.  This  collection  Bernward  used  as  a  studio,  for 
the  benefit  of  a  number  of  youths  whom  he  brought  up  and  instructed  in  these 
pursuits.  It  is  not  to  be  said  what  he  did  for  his  own  cathedral,  supplying  it 
with  jeweled  missals,  thuribles,  and  chalices,  a  huge  golden  corona  which  hung 
from  the  center  of  the  roof,  and  other  like  ornaments.  The  walls  he  painted 
with  his  own  hands.  The  visitor  to  Hildesheim  may  still  admire  the  rich 


24  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOLARS. 

bronze  gates,  sixteen  feet  in  height,  placed  in  the  cathedral  by  its  artist-bishop, 
the  crucifix  adorned  with  filagree-work  and  jewels,  made  by  his  own  hands, 
and  the  old  rose-tree  growing  on  the  cloister,  which  tradition  affirms  him  to 
have  planted. 

His  manner  of  life  is  minutely  described  by  his  old  tutor  Tangmar.  After 
high  mass  every  morning  he  gave  audience  to  any  who  desired  to  speak  to  him, 
heard  causes,  and  administered  justice  with  great  readiness  and  promptitude. 
Then  his  almoner  waited  on  him,  and  accompanied  him  to  the  distribution  of 
his  daily  alms,  for  every  day  a  hundred  poor  persons  were  fed  and  relieved  at 
his  palace.  After  this  he  went  the  round  of  his  workshops,  overlooking  each 
one's  work  and  directing  its  progress.  At  the  hour  of  nine  he  dined  with  his 
clerks.  There  was  no  worldly  pomp  observable  at  his  table,  but  a  religious  si- 
lence, all  being  required  to  listen  to  the  reading,  which  was  made  aloud. 

BENNON,    BISHOP   OF   MISNIA — ST.    MEINWERC    OF    PADERBORN. 

Bishop  Bennon  of  Misnia  belonged  to  the  family  of  the  counts  of  Saxony, 
and  was  placed  under  the  care  of  St.  Bernward  at  five  years  of  age.  The  re- 
stored monastery  of  Hildesheim,  dedicated  to  St.  Michael,  of  course  possessed 
its  school,  which  was  presided  over  by  Wigger,  a  very  skillful  master,  under 
whose  careful  tuition  Bennori  thrived  apace.  '  Now  as  the  age  was  learned,' 
writes  the  good  canon  Jerome  Enser — who  little  thought  in  what  light  that 
same  age  would  come  to  be  regarded — '  ES  the  age  was  learned,  and  cultivated 
humane  letters,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  lives  and  writings  of  so  many  eminent 
men,  Wigger  would  not  allow  the  child  committed  to  his  care  to  neglect  polite 
letters;'  so  he  set  him  to  work  at  once  to  learn  to  write,  being  careful  to  tran- 
scribe his  copies  himself.  And  how  well  Bennon  profited  from  these  early  les- 
sons might  yet  be  seen  by  any  who  chose  to  examine  the  fine  specimens  which 
were  preserved  in  the  Church  of  Misnia  when  Jerome  J^nser  wrote  his  bio- 
graphy. After  this  Wigger  exercised  his  pupil  in  the  art  of  reading,  and  that 
of  composing  verses,  taking  care  to  remove  from  his  way  every  thing  offensive 
to  piety  or  modesty.  Bennon  had  a  natural  gift  of  versification,  and  scon 
learnt  to  write  little  hymns  and  poems  by  way  of  amusement,  His  progress 
and  his  boyish  verses  endeared  him  to  his  masters,  and  indeed,  adds  Jerome, 
'he  was  beloved  by  God  and  man.'  None  showed  him  more  affection  than  St. 
Bernward,  who  was  now  overwhelmed  with  the  infirmities  of  old  age,  though 
his  mind  was  as  bright  and  active  as  ever.  During  the  last  five  years  of  his 
life  he  was  entirely  confined  to  his  bed,  and  all  this  time  little  Bennon  proved 
his  chief  solace.  Sometimes  he  read  aloud  to  his  beloved  father.  Sometimes 
he  made  verses,  or  held  disputations  to  entertain  him ;  never  would  he  lea've 
his  side,  discharging  for  him  all  the  offices  of  which  his  youth 'was  capable. 
When  at  last  death  drew  near,  Bernward  called  the  child  to  him  together  with 
his  master  Wigger,  and  addressed  to  him  a  touching  exhortation.  '  If  by  rea- 
son of  thy  tender  age,'  he  said,  'thou  canst  not  thyself  be  wise,  promise  me 
never  to  depart  from  the  side  of  thy  preceptor  that  he  may  be  wise  for  thee, 
and  that  so  thou  mayest  be  preserved  from  the  corruptions  of  the  world  whilst 
thy  heart  is  yet  soft  and  tender.  Yea,  if  thou  lovest  me,  love  and  obey  him  in 
all  things,  as  holding  the  place  of  thy  father.'  Then  he  kissed  the  child's  little 
hand,  and  placed  it  in  that  of  Wigger,  and  soon  after  departed  this  life,  rich  in 
good  works,  and  secure  of  a  heavenly  reward. 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOLARS.  25 

St.  Meinwerc,  who  like  Bennon  was  a  pupil  of  Hildesheim,  where  he  studied 
along  with  his  cousin  St.  Henry  of  Bavaria,  and  the  prince,  even  after  he  be- 
came emperor,  remembered  their  school-boy  days  together,  and  was  fond  of 
putting  him  in  mind  of  them  by  sundry  tricks  that  savored  of  the  grown-up 
school-boy.  Meinwerc  was  not  much  of  a  scholar  himself,  but  when  he  be- 
came bishop  of  Paderborn,  he  showed  a  laudable  zeal  in  promoting  good  schol- 
arship among  his  clergy.  In  fact,  he  was  the  founder  of  those  famous  schools 
of  Paderborn  which  are  described  as  flourishing  in  divine  and  human  science, 
and  which  were  perfected  by  his  nephew  and  successor,  Imadeus.  The  boys 
were  all  under  strict  cloisteral  discipline ;  there  were  professors  of  grammar, 
logic,  rhetoric,  and  music;  both  the  trivium  and  quadrivium  were  there  taught, 
together  with  mathematics,  physics,  and  astronomy. 

ST.    ADALBERT    OF    PRAGUE. 

St.  Adalbert  of  Prague  was  sent  to  Magdeburg  by  his  parents  for  education. 
They  were  of  the  Bohemian  nation,  and  had  vowed  to  offer  their  son  to  God, 
should  he  recover  of  a  dangerous  sickness.  Before  he  left  his  father's  house  he 
had  learnt  the  Psalter,  and  under  Otheric,  the  famous  master  then  presiding 
over  the  school  of  Magdeburg,  he  made  as  much  progress  in  sanctity  as  in 
learning.  He  had  a  habit  of  stealing  away  from  the  school-room  in  the  midst 
of  his  studies  to  refresh  his  soul  with  a  brief  prayer  in  the  church,  after  which 
he  hastened  back  and  was  safe  in  his  place  again  before  the  coming  of  his  mas- 
ter. To  conceal  his  acts  of  charity  from  the  eyes  of  others,  he  chose  the  night 
hours  for  visiting  the  poor,  and  dispensing  his  abundant  alms.  It  often  hap- 
pened that  when  Otheric  was  out  of  the  school,  the  boys  would  divert  them- 
selves with  games  more  or  less  mischievous,  to  relieve  the  wrary  hours  of  study. 
Adalbert  seldom  took  part  in  these  pastimes,  neither  would  he  share  in  those 
stealthy  little  feasts,  which  they  sometimes  held  in  obscure  corners,  where  they 
contrived  to  hide  from  Otheric's  quick  eye  the  sweets  and  other  dainties  fur- 
nished them,  as  we  must  suppose,  by  some  medieval  tart-woman.  However,  if 
Adalbert  was  proof  against  this  last-named  temptation,  it  appears  he  was  not 
altogether  superior  to  the  love  of  play,  and  that  when  his  master's  back  was 
turned,  he  did  occasionally  throw  aside  his  books  and  indulge  in  a  game  of  ball. 
When  such  delinquencies  came  to  the  ears  of  Otheric,  he  did  not  spare  the  rod, 
and  on  these  occasions,  observes  his  biographer,  with  cruel  pleasantry,  Adal- 
bert was  often  known  to  speak  in  three  languages.  For  it  was  a  strict  rule 
that  the  boys  were  always  to  talk  Latin  in  the  school-room,  and  never  allow 
the  ears  of  their  master  to  catch  the  sound  of  a  more  barbarous  dialect.  "When 
the  rod  was  produced,  therefore,  Adalbert  would  begin  by  entreating  indul- 
gence in  classic  phraseology,  but  so  soon  as  it  was  applied,  he  would  call  out 
for  mercy  in  German,  and  finally  in  Sclavonic.  After  nine  years'  study  at 
Magdeburg,  Adalbert  returned  to  Bohemia,  with  the  reputation  of  being  spec- 
ially well  read  in  philosophy,  and  taking  with  him  a  useful  library  of  books 
which  he  had  collected  during  his  college  career.  After  his  consecration  as 
bishop  of  Prague,  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-seven,  he  is  said  never  again  to 
have  been  seen  to  smile.  Twice  the  hard-heartedness  of  his  people  compelled 
him  to  abandon  his  diocese,  and  after  his  departure  the  second  time,  he  traveled 
as  missioner  into  the  then  heathen  and  barbarous  provinces  of  Prussia,  where 
he  met  with  his  martyrdom  in  the  year  997.  A  Sclavonic  hymn  formerly  sung 
by  the  Poles  when  going  into  battle,  is  attributed  to  this  saint. 


26  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOLARS. 


OTHLONUS   OF   ST.    EMMERAN. 

Othlonus  was  a  Bavarian  by  birth,  and  his  first  school  was  that  of  Tegern- 
see,  in  Bavaria,  a  monastery  which  had  been  founded  in  994,  and  was  famous 
for  its  teachers  in  utrdque  lingua  and  even  for  its  Hebrew  scholars.  Here,  in 
the  twefth  century,  lived  the  good  monk  Metellus,  whose  eclogues,  written  in 
imitation  of  those  of  Virgil,  describe  the  monastic  pastures  and  cattle,  and  the 
labors  of  the  monks  in  the  fields.  The  library  of  Tegernsee  was  rich  in  classic 
works,  and  possessed  a  fair  illuminated  copy  of  Pliny's  'Natural  History,' 
adorned  with  pictures  of  the  different  animals,  from  the  cunning  hand  of 
brother  Ellinger.  Medicine  was  likewise  studied  here,  to  facilitate  which,  the 
monks  had  a  good  botanical  garden.  In  such  a  school  Othlonus  had  every  op- 
portunity of  cultivating  his  natural  taste  for  stud}%  which  grew  by  degrees  to 
be  a  perfect  passion.  As  a  child  he  had  intended  to  embrace  the  monastic 
state,  but  the  persuasions  of  his  father,  and  his  own  desire  to  give  himself  up 
exclusively  to  learned  pursuits,  induced  him  to  abandon  this  design,  and  after 
leaving  school  he  devoted  himself  for  several  years  to  classical  studies,  with  an 
ardor  which  his  biographer  finds  no  words  strong  enough  to  express. 

His  only  earthly  desire  at  this  time,  as  he  himself  tells  us  in  one  of  his  later 
spiritual  treatises,  was  to  have  time  to  study,  and  abundance  of  books.  It 
would  seem,  however,  that  this  excessive  devotion  to  human  learning  had  its 
usual  results  in  the  decay  of  devotion.  It  is  thus  he  describes  himself  at  this 
period  of  his  life,  in  his  versified  treatise  '  De  doctrina  Spiritual!.'  '  Desiring  to 
search  into  certain  subtle  matters,  in  the  knowledge  of  which  I  saw  that  many 
delighted,  to  the  end  that  I  might  be  held  in  greater  esteem  by  the  world,  I 
made  all  my  profit  to  consist  in  keeping  company  with  the  Gentiles.  In  those 
days  what  were  not  to  me  Socrates,  Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  Tully  the  rheto- 
rician ?  .  .  .  that  threefold  work  of  Maro,  and  Lucan,  whom  then  I  loved  best 
of  all,  and  on  whom  I  was  so  intent,  that  I  hardly  did  any  thing  else  but  read 
him.  .  .  Yet  what  profit  did  they  give  me,  when  I  could  not  even  sign  my 
forehead  with  the  cross  ?' 

However,  two  severe  illnesses  wrought  a  great  change  in  his  way  of  looking 
at  life,  and  in  1032,  remembering  his  early  dedication  of  himself  to  God.  he  re- 
solved to  forsake  the  world  and  take  the  habit  of  religion  in  the  monastery  of 
St.  Emmeran's,  at  Ratisbon,  where  he  gave  up  all  thoughts  of  secular  ambition, 
in  order  to  devote  himself  heart  and  soul  to  the  duties  of  his  state.  St.  Em- 
meran's  was,  like  Tegernsee,  possessed  of  an  excellent  school  and  library.  In 
the  former,  many  good  scholars  were  reared,  such  as  abbot  William  of  Hirschau, 
who  became  as  learned  in  the  liberal  arts  as  in  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
who  afterwards  made  his  own  school  at  Hirschau  one  of  the  most  celebrated 
in  Germany.  Othlonus  tells  us  that  in  this  monastery  he  found  '  several  men 
in  different  classes,  some  reading  pagan  authors,  others  the  Holy  Scriptures,' 
and  that  he  began  to  imitate  the  latter,  and  soon  learnt  to  relish  the  Sacred 
Books,  which  he  had  hitherto  neglected,  far  above  the  writings  of  Aristotle, 
Plato,  or  even  Boethius. 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  little  sketch  that  Othlonus  was  not  a  mere  tran- 
scriber, and  indeed  he  afterwards  produced  several  treatises  on  mystic  theology 
besides  his  'Life  of  St.  "Wolfgang,'  and  was  regarded  by  his  brother  monks  as 


EARLY   CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS  AiSD  SCHOLARS.  27 

4  a  pious  and  austere  man,  possessed  of  an  immense  love  of  books.'  This  love 
he  showed  not  only  by  reading  them,  but  by  multiplying  them ;  and  his  achieve- 
ments in  this  kind  are  related  by  himself  with  a  certain  prolix  eloquence 
which,  in  mercy  to  the  reader,  I  will  somewhat  abridge. 

'I  think  it  right,'  he  says,  'to  add  some  account  of  the  great  capacity  of 
writing  which  was  given  me  by  the  Lord  from  my  childhood.  When  as  yet  a 
little  child  I  was  sent  to  school,  and  quickly  learned  my  letters ;  and  began 
long  before  the  usual  time  of  learning,  and  without  any  order  from  the  master, 
to  learn  the  art  of  writing ;  but  in  a  furtive  and  unusual  way,  and  without  any 
teacher,  so  that  I  got  a  bad  habit  of  holding  my  pen  in  a  wrong  manner,  nor 
were  any  of  my  teachers  afterwards  able  to  correct  me  in  that  point.  Many 
who  saw  this,  decided  that  I  should  never  write  well,  but  by  the  grace  of  God 
it  turned  out  otherwise.  For,  even  in  my  childhood,  when,  together  with  the 
other  boys,  the  tablet  was  put  into  my  hands,  it  appeared  that  I  had  some  no- 
tion of  writing.  Then  after  a  time  I  began  to  write  so  well  and  was  so  fond 
of  it  that  in  the  monastery  of  Tegernsee,  where  I  learned,  I  wrote  many  books, 
and  being  sent  into  Franconia,  I  worked  so  hard  as  nearly  to  lose  my  sight.  .  .  . 
Then,  after  I  became  a  monk  of  St.  Emmeran's,  I  was  induced  again  to  occupy 
myself  so  much  in  writing,  that  I  seldom  got  an  interval  of  rest  except  on  festi- 
vals. Meantime  there  came  more  work  on  rne,  for  as  they  saw  I  was  generally 
reading,  writing,  or  composing,  they  made  me  schoolmaster;  by  all  which 
things  I  was,  through  God's  grace,  so  fully  occupied  that  I  frequently  could  not 
allow  my  body  the  necessary  rest.  When  I  had  a  mind  to  compose  any  thing 
I  could  not  find  time  for  it,  except  on  holidays  or  at  night,  being  tied  down  to 
the  business  of  teaching  the  boys,  and  transcribing  what  I  had  undertaken. 
Besides  the  books  which  I  composed  myself  I  wrote  nineteen  missals,  three 
books  of  the  Gospels,  and  two  lectionaries ;  besides  which  I  wrote  four  service 
books  for  matins.  Afterwards,  old  age  and  infirmity  hindered  me,  and  the 
grief  caused  by  the  destruction  of  our  monastery ;  but  to  Him  who  is  author 
of  all  good,  and  Who  has  vouchsafed  to  give  many  things  to  me  unworthy,  be 
praise  eternal.'  He  then  adds  an  account  of  a  vast  number  of  other  books 
written  out  by  him  and  sent  as  presents  to  the  monasteries  of  Fulda,  Hirsch- 
feld,  Lorsch,  Tegernsee,  and  others,  amounting  in  all  to  thirty  volumes.  His 
labors,  so  cheerfully  undertaken  for  the  improvement  of  his  convent,  were  per- 
haps surpassed  by  those  of  the  monk  Jerome,  who  wrote  out  so  great  a  num- 
ber of  volumes,  that  it  is  said  a  wagon  with  six  horses  would  not  have  sufficed 
to  draw  them.  But  neither  one  nor  the  other  are  to  be  compared  to  Diemudis, 
a  devout  nun  of  the  monastery  of  Wessobrun,  who,  besides  writing  out  in  clear 
and  beautiful  characters  five  missals,  with  graduals  and  sequences  attached, 
and  four  other  office  books,  for  the  use  of  the  church,  adorned  the  library  of 
her  convent  with  two  entire  Bibles,  eight  volumes  of  St.  Gregory,  seven  of  St. 
Augustine,  the  ecclesiastical  histories  of  Eusebius  and  Cassiodorus,  and  a  vast 
number  of  sermons,  homilies,  and  other  treatises,  a  list  of  which  she  left,  as 
having  all  been  written  by  her  own  hand,  to  the  praise  of  God,  and  of  the  holy 
apostles  SS.  Peter  and  Paul.  This  Diemudis  was  a  contempory  of  Othlonus, 
and  found  time  in  the  midst  of  her  gigantic  labors  to  carry  on  a  correspondence 
with  Herluca,  a  nun  of  Eppach,  to  whom  she  is  said  to  have  indited  '  many 
very  sweet  letters,'  which  were  long  preserved. 


28  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOLARS. 

WILLIAM   OF    HTRSCHAU. 

William  of  Herschau,  a  scholar  of  St.  Emmeran,  was  chosen  abbot  of  his  mon- 
astery in  1070,  and  applied  himself  to  make  his  monks  as  learned  and  as  inde- 
fatigable in  all  useful  labors  as  he  was  himself.  He  had  about  250  monks  at 
Hirschau,  and  founded  no  fewer  than  fifteen  other  religious  houses,  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  which  he  drew  up  a  body  of  excellent  statutes.  These  new  founda- 
tions he  carefully  supplied  with  books,  which  necessitated  constant  work  in  the 
scriptorium.  And  a  most  stately  and  noble  place  was  the  scriptorium  of  Hirs- 
chau, wherein  each  one  was  employed  according  to  his  talent,  binding,  paint- 
ing, gilding,  writing,  or  correcting.  The  twelve  best  writers  were  reserved  for 
transcribing  the  Scriptures  and  the  Holy  Fathers,  and  one  of  the  twelve,  most 
learned  in  the  sciences,  presided  over  the  tasks  of  the  others,  chose  the  books 
to  be  copied,  and  corrected  the  faults  of  the  }rounger  scribes.  The  art  of  paint- 
ing was  studied  in  a  separate  school,  and  here,  among  others,  was  trained  the 
good  monk  Thiemon,  who.  after  decorating  half  the  monasteries  of  Germany 
with  the  productions  of  his  pencil,  became  archbishop  of  Saltzburg,  and  died 
in  odor  of  sanctity.  The  statutes  with  which  abbot  William  provided  his  mon- 
asteries, were  chiefly  drawn  up  from  those  in  use  at  St.  Emmeran's,  but  he 
was  desirous  of  yet  further  improving  them,  and  in  particular  of  assimilating 
them  to  those  of  Cluny,  which  was  then  at  the  height  of  its  renown.  It  was 
at  his  request  that  St.  Ulric  of  Cluny  wrote  out  his  'Customary,'  in  which, 
among  other  things,  he  gives  a  description  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Holy 
Scriptures  were  read  through  in  the  refectory  in  the  course  of  the  year.  This 
'  Customary '  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  monuments  of  monastic  times  which 
remains  to  us ;  it  shows  as  the  interior  of  the  monastery  painted  by  the  hand 
of  one  of  its  inmates,  taking  us  through  each  office,  the  library,  the  infirmary, 
the  sacristy,  the  bakehouse,  the  kitchen,  and  the  school.  How  beautiful  is  the 
order  which  it  displays,  as  observed  in  choir,  where,  on  solemn  days,  all  the 
singers  stood  vested  in  copes,  the  very  seats  being  covered  with  embroidered 
tapestry!  Three  days  in  the  week  the  right  side  of  the  choir  communicated, 
and  the  other  three  the  left ;  during  Holy  Week  they  washed  the  feet  of  as 
many  poor  as  there  were  brethren  in  the  house,  and  the  abbot  added  others 
also  to  represent  absent  friends.  When  the  Passion  was  sung,  they  had  a 
custom  of  tearing  a  piece  of  stuff  at  the  words  'they  parted  my  garments;' 
and  the  new  fire  of  Holy  Saturday  was  struck,  not  from  a  flint,  but  a  precious 
beryl.  There  were  numberless  beautiful  rites  of  benediction  observed,  as  that 
of  the  ripe  grapes,  which  were  blessed  on  the  altar  during  mass,  on  the  6th  of 
August,  and  afterwards  distributed  in  the  refectory,  of  new  beans,  and  of  the 
freshly-pressed  juice  of  the  grape.  The  ceremonies  observed  in  making  the 
altar  breads  were  also  most  worthy  of  note.  The  grains  of  wheat  were  chosen 
one  by  one,  were  carefully  washed  and  put  aside  in  a  sack,  which  was  carried 
by  one  known  to  be  pure  in  life  and  conversation  to  the  mill.  There  they 
were  ground  and  sifted,  he  who  performed  this  duty  being  clothed  in  alb  and 
amice.  Two  priests  and  two  deacons  clothed  in  like  manner  prepared  the 
breads,  and  a  lay  brother,  having  gloves  on  his  hands,  held  the  irons  in  which 
they  were  baked.  The  very  wood  of  the  fire  was  chosen  of  the  best  and  driest. 
And  whilst  these  processes  were  being  gone  through,  the  brethren  engaged 
ceased  not  to  sing  psalms,  or  sometimes  recited  Our  Lady's  office.  A  separate 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOLARS  29 

chapter  in  the  '  Customary '  is  devoted  to  the  children  and  their  master,  and 
the  discipline  under  which  they  were  trained  is  minutely  described.  We  seen?. 
to  see  them  seated  in  their  cloister  with  the  vigilant  eye  of  the  master  presiding 
over  their  work.  An  open  space  is  left  between  the  two  rows  of  scholars,  but 
there  is  no  one  in  the  monastery  who  dare  pass  through  their  ranks.  They  go 
to  confession  twice  a  week,  and  always  to  the  abbot  or  the  prior.  And  such 
is  the  scrupulous  care  bestowed  on  their  education,  and  the  vigilance  to  which 
they  are  subjected,  both  by  day  and  night,  that,  says  Ulric,  'I  think  it  would 
be  difficult  for  a  king's  son  to  be  brought  up  in  a  palace  with  greater  care  than 
the  humblest  boy  enjoys  at  Cluny.' 

This  '  Customary '  was  drawn  up  during  the  government  of  St.  Hugh  of 
Cluny,  whose  letter  to  William  the  Conqueror  displays  something  of  the  inde- 
pendence of  mind  with  which  abbots  of  those  days  treated  the  great  ones  of 
the  earth.  William  had  written  to  him  requesting  him  to  send  some  of  his 
monks  to  England,  and  offering  him  a  hundred  pounds  for  every  monk  he 
would  send.  This  method  of  buying  up  his  monks  at  so  much  a  head,  offended 
the  good  abbot,  who  wrote  back  to  the  king  declining  to  part  with  any  of  his 
community  at  such  a  price,  and  adding  that  he  would  himself  give  an  equal 
sum  for  every  good  monk  whom  he  could  draw  to  Cluny.  During  the  sixty- 
two  years  that  he  governed  his  abbey,  he  is  said  to  have  professed  more  than 
10,000  subjects.  Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  the  monastic  institute 
T^as  still  strong  and  vigorous  in  the  llth  century.  Cluny,  indeed,  represented 
monasticism  rather  in  its  magnificence  than  in  the  more  evangelic  aspect  of 
poverty  and  abasement,  yet  in  the  midst  of  all  her  lordly  splendor,  she  con- 
tinued fruitful  in  saints.  Even  the  austere  St.  Peter  Damian,  whilst  he  disap- 
proved of  the  wealth  of  the  monks,  was  edified  at  their  sanctity,  and  left  them, 
marveling  how  men  so  rich  could  live  so  holily.  Their  revenues  were  not 
spent  on  luxury ;  they  went  to  feed  17,000  poor  people,  and  to  collect  a  library 
of  Greek,  Latin,  and  Hebrew  authors,  such  as  had  not  its  equal  in  Europe.  It 
contained  among  other  treasures  a  certain  Bible,  called  in  the  chronicle,  '  great, 
wonderful,  and  precious  for  its  writing,  correctness,  and  rich  binding,  adorned 
with  beryl  stones,'  written  by  the  single  hand  of  the  monk  Andrew. 

MARIANUS   SCOTUS. 

Marianus  Scotus,  for  whose  nativity  may  localities  contend  (he  was  called  an 
Irishman,*  a  Scot,  and  a  Northumbrian),  died  in  the  eleventh  century,  having 
been  successively  monk  in  the  abbeys  of  Cologne,  Fulda,  and  Mayence,  and 
professor  of  theology  some  years  in  that  of  Ratisbon.  He  was  a  poet,  and  the 
author  of  a  Chronicle  frequently  quoted  as  one  of  the  best  mediasval  histories, 
and  continued  by  later  writers.  His  biographers  say  of  him  that  his  counte- 
nance was  so  beautiful,  and  his  manners  so  simple,  that  no  one  doubted  he 
was  inspired  in  all  he  said  and  did  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  A  most  indefatigable 
writer,  he  transcribed  the  whole  Bible  with  sundry  commentaries,  and  that  not 

*  It  mny  be  taken  us  tolerably  well  proved,  however,  that  he  was  really  an  Irishman,  and  he  is 
supposed  to  have  been  a  monk  of  Clonard.  Contemporary  with  him  was  another  famous  Irish 
historian,  Tigernach,  abbot  of  Clonmacnoise,  who  wrote  his  chronicle  partly  in  Irish  and  partly 
in  Latin,  and  is  held  to  have  been  well  acquainted  with  Greek.  The  Irish  scholars  highly  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  this  century.  There  was  an  Irish  monastery  at  Erford,  and  another  at 
Cologne,  into  which  Helias,  a  monk  of  Monnghan,  on  returning  from  a  visit  to  Rome,  introduced 
the  Roman  chant.  (Lanigan,  Ecc.  Hist.  c.  xxiv.) 


30  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOLARS. 

once  but  repeatedly.  Moreover  he  drew  out  of  the  deep  sea  of  the  holy  fathers, 
certain  sweet  waters  for  the  profit  of  his  soul,  which  he  collected  in  prolix  vol- 
umes. With  all  this  he  found  spare  moments  which  he  devoted  to  charitable 
labors  on  behalf  of  poor  widows,  clerks,  and  scholars,  for  whose  benefit  he 
multiplied  psalters,  manuals,  and  other  pious  little  books,  which  he  distributed 
to  them  free  of  cost  for  the  remedy  of  his  soul.  Who  will  refuse  to  believe 
that  such  loving1  toils  as  these  were  found  worthy  to  receive  the  miraculous 
token  of  favor  related  in  the  old  legend?  '  One  night,'  says  the  annalist.  '  the 
brother  whose  duty  it  was,  having  forgotten  to  give  him  candles,  Marianus, 
nevertheless  continued  his  work  without  them ;  and  when  the  brother,  recol- 
lecting his  omission,  came  late  at  night  to  his  cell,  he  beheld  a  brilliant  light 
streaming  through  the  chinks  of  the  door,  and  going  in  softly  found  that  it  pro- 
ceeded from  the  fingers  of  the  monk's  left  hand,  and  he  saw  and  believed.' 

ALBERT  THE  GREAT  OF  COLOGNE. 

The  convent  of  Cologne  had  already  been  founded  by  Henry  of  Utrecht ; 
and  a  namesake  of  his,  Henry  the  German,  who  had  begun  life  as  a  student, 
then  assumed  the  cross,  and  finally  taken  the  religious  habit,  became  its  first 
theological  professor.  And  there,  in  1230,  arrived  the  young  Swabian,  Albert 
of  Lauingen,  who  had  been  drawn  to  the  Dominican  order,  whilst  pursuing 
his  studies  at  Padua.  Albert  during  his  student-life  had  been  remarkable  for 
his  love  of  the  old  classic  literature,  and  his  enthusiastic  admiration  for 
Aristotle ;  and  had  already  displayed  a  singular  attraction  to  those  physical 
sciences  which  he  afterwards  so  profoundly  studied.  He  had  examined  various 
natural  phenomena,  such  as  earthquakes,  the  mephitic  vapors  issuing  from  a 
long  closed  well,  and  some  curious  marks  in  a  block  of  marble,  which  he 
explained  in  a  manner  which  betrays  an  acquaintance  with  some  of  the 
chemical  theories  of  modern  geology.  After  going  through  his  theological 
course  at  Bologna,  he  was  appointed  to  fill  the  vacant  post  of  professor  at 
Cologne,  where  he  taught  sacred  and  human  science  for  some  years,  and 
lectured  moreover  at  Hildesheim,  Strasburg,  Friburg,  and  Ratisbonn.  in  which 
last  city  an  old  hall  is  shown  which  still  bears  the  title  of  '  Albert's  School/ 
Converted  into  a  chapel  by  one  of  his  successors  and  ardent  admirers,  it  may 
be  supposed  to  exhibit  the  same  form  and  arrangement  as  that  which  it  bore 
five  centuries  ago.  Round  the  walls  are  disposed  ancient  wooden  seats,  for  the 
accommodation  of  the  hearers,  and  fixed  against  the  middle  of  the  wall  is  an 
oak  chair,  or  rather  pulpit,  covered  with  carvings  of  a  later  date,  representing 
St.  Vincent  Ferrer  delivering  a  lecture,  and  a  novice  in  the  attitude  of  atten- 
tion. The  chair  is  of  double  construction,  containing  two  seats,  in  one  of 
which  sat  the  master,  and  in  the  other  the  bachelor,  who  explained  under  him 
the  Book  of  the  Sentences.  All  around  are  texts  from  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
fitly  chosen  to  remind  the  student  in  what  spirit  he  should  apply  himself  to  the 
pursuit  of  sacred  letters.  l  Ama  scientiam  Scripturarum,  et  vitia  carnis  non 
amabis.'  'Qui  addit  scientiam  addit  et  laborem.'  '  Bonitatem  et  disciplinam 
et  scientiam  doce  me.'  '  Qui  fecerit  et  docuerit,  hie  magnus  vocabitur  in  regno 
ccelorum.'  '  Videte  ne  quis  vos  decipiat  per  philosophiam,  secundum  elementa 
mundi,  et  non  secundum  Christum.' 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS  AND  TEACHERS.  3^ 

In  such  a  hall  as  this  we  may  picture  to  ourselves  the  Blessed  Albert  the 
Great  lecturing  at  Cologne  in  ]  245,  where  he  first  received  among  his  pupils 
that  illustrious  disciple  whose  renown,  if  it  eclipsed  his  own,  at  the  same  time 
constitutes  his  greatest  glory.  There  are  few  readers  who  are  not  familiar 
with  the  student  life  of  St.  Thomas  of  Aquin,  the  silent  habits  which  exposed 
him  to  the  witticisms  of  his  companions,  who  thought  the  young  Sicilian  a  dull 
sort  of  importation,  and  nicknamed  him  'the  dumb  ox;'  the  obliging  compas- 
sion which  moved  a  fellow-student  to  offer  him  his  assistance  in  explaining  the 
lessons  of  the  master,  and  the  modesty  aud  humility  with  which  this  greatest 
of  Christian  scholars  veiled  his  mighty  intellect,  and  with  the  instinct  of  the 
saints,  rejoiced  to  be  counted  the  least  among  his  brethren.  But  the  day  came 
which  was  to  make  him  known  in  his  true  character.  His  notes  and  replies 
to  a  difficult  question  proposed  by  Albert  from  the  writings  of  St.  Denys,  fell 
into  the  hands  of  his  master,  who  reading  them  with  wonder  and  delight,  com- 
manded him  on  the  following  day  to  take  part  in  the  scholastic  disputation. 
St.  Thomas  obeyed,  and  the  audience  knew  not  whether  most  to  admire  his 
eloquence  or  his  erudition.  At  last  Albert,  unable  to  restrain  his  astonishment, 
broke  out  into  the  memorable  words,  'You  call  this  the  dumb  ox,  but  I  tell 
you  his  roaring  will  be  heard  throughout  the  whole  world.'  From  that  day 
St.  Thomas  became  the  object  of  his  most  solicitous  care ;  he  assigned  him  a 
cell  adjoining  his  own,  and  when  in  the  course  of  the  same  year  he  removed  to 
Paris,  to  govern  the  school  of  St.  James  for  three  years,  in  order  afterwards  to 
graduate  as  doctor,  he  took  his  favorite  scholar  with  him. 

His  doctor's  triennium  had  scarcely  expired  when  he  was  recalled  to  Cologne 
to  take  the  Regency  of  the  Sludium  Generate,  newly  erected  in  that  city ;  and 
St.  Thomas  accompanied  him  to  teach,  as  licentiate  or  bachelor,  in  the  school 
which  proved  the  germ  of  a  future  university.  This  epoch  of  Albert's  life 
appears  to  have  been  that  in  which  most  of  his  philosophic  writings  were  pro- 
duced. They  consist  chiefly  of  his  '  Commentary  on  Aristotle,'  in  which,  after 
collating  the  different  translations  of  that  author  with  extraordinary  care,  he 
aims  at  presenting  the  entire  body  of  his  philosophy  in  a  popular  as  well  as  a 
Christian  form;  a  commentary  on  the  Book  of  the  Sentences;  other  com- 
mentaries on  the  Gospels,  and  on  the  works  of  St.  Denys,  all  of  which  are  pre- 
served; and  a  devout  paraphrase  of  the  Book  of  the  Sentences  cast  into  the 
form  of  prayers,  which  has  been  lost.  His  published  works  alone  fill  twenty- 
one  folio  volumes,  and  it  is  said  that  a  great  number  of  other  treatises  exist  in 
manuscript.  The  course  of  the  stars;  the  structure  of  the  universe;  the 
nature  of  plants,  animals,  and  minerals,  appear  to  him  unsuitable  subjects  for 
the  investigation  of  a  religious  man ;  and  he  hints  that  the  seculars  who  paid 
for  the  support  of  such  students  by  their  liberal  alms  expected  them  to  spend 
their  time  on  more  profitable  studies.  The  reader  need  not  be  reminded  that 
Albert  was  not  singular  in  directing  his  attention  to  these  subjects,  and  that 
the  scientific  labors  of  our  own  Venerable  Bede  have  ever  been  considered  as 
among  his  best  titles  to  admiration  as  a  scholar.  But  more  than  this,  it  is 
surely  a  narrow  and  illiberal  view  to  regard  the  cultivation  of  science  as 
foreign  to  the  purposes  of  religion.  At  the  time  of  which  we  are  now  speak- 
ing, as  in  our  own,  physical  science  was  unhappily  too  often  made  an  instru- 
ment for  doing  good  service  to  the  cause  of  infidelity.  It  was  chiefly,  if  not 
exclusively,  in  the  hands  of  the  Arabian  philosophers,  who  had  dra\vn  great 


32  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS  AND  TEACHERS 

part  of  their  errors  from  the  physics  of  Aristotle.  Schlegel,  indeed,  considers 
that  the  extraordinary  popularity  of  Aristotle  in  the  middle  ages  did  not  so 
much  arise  from  the  love  of  the  medieval  schoolmen  for  his  rationalistic 
philosophy,  as  from  the  attraction  they  felt  to  some  great  find  mysterious 
knowledge  of  nature.  His  works  seemed  to  give  promise  of  unlocking  to  them 
those  vast  intellectual  treasures  reserved  for  the  scrutiny  of  our  own  age,  but 
of  the  existence  of  which  they  possessed  a  kind  of  dim  half-consciousness. 
Hence  the  teachers  of  the  thirteenth  century  could  hardly  do  more  effective 
service  to  the  cause  of  truth  than  by  handling  these  subjects  according  to  a 
Christian  method,  and  proving  that  faith  and  science  were  in  no  sense  opposed 
to  one  another.  Hallam  affects  to  grieve  over  the  evil  inflicted  on  Europe  by 
the  credit  which  Albert's  influence  gave  to  the  study  of  astrology,  alchemy, 
and  magic.  The  author  of  Cosmos,  however,  passes  a  very  different  verdict 
on  the  nature  of  his  scientific  writings,  and  one  which  our  readers  will  be 
disposed  to  receive  as  more  worthy  of  attention.  'Albertus  Magnus,'  says 
Humboldt,  'was  equally  active  and  influential  in  promoting  the  study  of 

natural  science,  and  of  the  Aristotelian  philosophy His  works  contain 

some  exceedingly  acute  remarks  on  the  organic  structure  and  physiology  of 
plants.  One  of  his  works,  bearing  the  title  of  Liber  Cosmoyraphicus  de  Natura 
Locorum,  is  a  species  of  physical  geography.  I  have  found  in  it  considerations 
on  the  dependence  of  temperature  concurrently  on  latitude  and  elevation,  and 
on  the  effect  of  different  angles  of  incidence  of  the  sun's  rays  in  heating  the 
ground,  which  have  excited  my  surprise.1*  Jourdain,  another  modern  critic, 
sa)-s,  '  whether  we  consider  him  as  a  theologian  or  a  philosopher,  Albert  was 
undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  men  of  his  age ;  I  might  say,  one 
of  the  most  wonderful  men  of  genius  who  has  appeared  in  past  times.' 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  notice  here  a  few  of  the  scientific  views  of  Albert, 
which  show  how  much  he  owed  to  his  own  sagacious  observation  of  natural 
phenomena,  and  how  far  he  was  in  advance  of  his  age.  He  decides  that  the 
Milky  "Way  is  nothing  but  a  vast  assemblage  of  stars,  but  supposes,  naturally 
enough,  that  they  occupy  the  orbit  which  receives  the  light  of  the  sun.  The 
figures  visible  on  the  moon's  disk  are  not,  he  says,  as  has  hitherto  been  sup- 
posed, reflections  of  the  seas  and  mountains  of  the  earth,  but  configurations  of 
her  own  surface.  He  notices,  in  order  to  correct  it,  the  assertion  of  Aristotle 
that  lunar  rainbows  appear  only  twice  in  fifty  years;  'I  myself,'  he  says,  'have 
observed  two  in  a  single  year.'  He  has  something  to  say  on  the  refraction  of 
the  solar  ray,  notices  certain  crystals  which  have  a  power  of  refraction,  and 
remarks  that  none  of  the  ancients,  and  few  moderns,  were  acquainted  with 
the  properties  of  mirrors.  In  his  tenth  book,  wherein  he  catalogues  and 
describes  all  the  trees,  plants,  and  herbs  known  in  his  time,  he  observes,  '  all 
that  is  here  set  down  is  the  result  of  our  own  experience,  or  has  been  bor- 
rowed from  authors,  whom  we  know  to  have  written  what  their  personal  experi- 
ence has  confirmed:  for  in  these  matters  experience  alone  can  give  certainty.' 
(Experimentum  solum  certificat  talibus).  Such  an  expression,  which  might  have 
proceeded  from  the  pen  of  Bacon,  argues  in  itself  a  prodigious  scientific 
progress,  and  shows  that  the  medieval  friar  was  on  the  track  so  successfully 
pursued  by  modern  natural  philosophy.  He  had  fairly  shaken  off  the  shackles 

*  The  verv  remarkab'e  pnssage  here  referred  to  by  Hnmboldt  is  to  be  found  in  the  Treatise  '  De 
coelo  et  mundo.'  It  is  translated  nt  length  in  Sighart's  JJfe  of  B.  Jllbert  (ch.  xxxix.),  from 
which  work  has  been  chiefly  extracted  the  summary  of  his  scientific  views  given  in  the  text. 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS  AND  TEACHERS.  33 

which  had  hitherto  tied  up  discovery,  and  was  the  slave  neither  of  Pliny  nor 
of  Aristotle. 

He  treats  as  fabulous  the  commonly  received  idea,  in  which  Bede  had 
acquiesced,  that  the  region  of  the  earth  south  of  the  equator  was  uninhabitable 
and  considers  that,  from  the  equator  to  the  south  pole,  the  earth  was  not  only 
habitable,  but,  in  all  probability,  actually  inhabited,  except  directly  at  the 
poles,  where  he  imagines  the  coid  to  be  excessive.  If  there  are  any  animals 
there,  he  says,  they  must  have  very  thick  skins  to  defend  them  from  the  rigor 
of  the  climate,  and  are  probably  of  a  white  color.  The  intensity  of  cold  is, 
however,  tempered  by  the  action  of  the  sea.  He  describes  the  antipodes  and 
the  countries  they  comprise,  and  divides  the  climate  of  the  earth  into  seven 
zones.  He  smiles  with  a  scholar's  freedom  at  the  simplicity  of  those  who  sup- 
pose that  persons  living  at  the  opposite  region  of  the  earth  must  fall  off— an 
opinion  which  can  only  arise  out  of  the  grossest  ignorance,  'for,  when  we 
speak  of  the  lower  hemisphere,  this  must  be  understood  merely  as  relatively  to 
ourselves.'  It  is  as  a  geographer  that  Albert's  superiority  to  the  writers  of  his 
own  time  chiefly  appears.  Bearing  in  mind  the  astonishing  ignorance  which 
then  prevailed  on  this  subject,  it  is  truly  admirable  to  find  him  correctly  tracing 
the  chief  mountain  chains  of  Europe,  with  the  rivers  which  take  their  source 
in  each,  remarking  on  portions  of  coast  which  have  in  later  times  been  sub- 
merged by  the  ocean,  and  islands  which  have  been  raised,  by  volcanic  action, 
above  the  level  of  the  sea,  noticing  the  modification  of  climate  caused  by 
mountains,  seas,  and  forests ;  and  the  divisions  of  the  human  race,  whose 
differences  he  ascribes  to  the  effect  of  the  countries  they  inhabit.  In  speaking 
of  the  British  Isles,  he  alludes  to  the  commonly  received  idea  that  another 
distant  island,  called  Tile  or  Thule,  existed  far  in  the  Western  Ocean,  unin- 
habitable by  reason  of  its  frightful  climate,  but  which,  he  says,  has  perhaps 
not  yet  been  visited  by  man.  He  was  acquainted  with  the  sleep  of  plants, 
with  the  periodical  opening  and  closing  of  blossoms,  with  the  diminution  of 
sap  during  evaporation  from  the  cuticle  of  the  leaves,  and  with  the  influence 
of  the  distribution  of  the  bundles  of  vessels  on  the  folial  indentations.  His 
minute  observations  on  the  forms  and  variety  of  plants  intimate  an  exquisite 
sense  of  floral  beauty.  He  distinguishes  the  star  from  the  bell-flower,  tells  us 
that  a  red  rose  will  turn  white  when  submitted  to  the  vapor  of  sulphur,  and 
makes  some  very  sagacious  observations  on  the  subject  of  germination. 
Having,  in  his  tenth  book,  given  a  catalogue  and  description  of  the  most  com- 
monly known  trees,  shrubs,  and  herbs,  he  tells  us  that  all  he  here  relates  is 
either  the  fruit  of  his  own  observation,  or  borrowed  from  writers  whose 
accuracy  he  can  attest.  The  extraordinary  erudition  and  originality  of  this 
treatise  has  drawn  from  M.  Meyer  the  following  comment :  '  No  botanist  who 
lived  before  Albert  can  be  compared  to  him,  unless  it  be  Theophrastus,  with 
whom  he  was  not  acquainted  ;  and  after  him  none  has  painted  nature  in  such 
living  colors,  or  studied  it  so  profoundly,  until  the  time  of  Conrad,  Gesner,  and 
Cesalpini.  All  honor,  then,  to  the  man  who  made  such  astonishing  progress  in 
the  science  of  nature  as  to  find  no  one,  I  will  not  say  to  surpass,  but  even  to 
equal  him  for  the  space  of  three  centuries.' 

In  the   Treatise  on   Animals  which  Jourdain  particularly  praises,  nineteen 
books  are  a   paraphrase  of  Michael  Scott's  translation  of  Aristotle,    but  the 
remaining  seven  books  are  Albert's  own,  and  form  a  precious  link  between 
3 


34  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS  AND  TEACHERS. 

ancient  and  modern  science.  It  was  not  extraordinaiy  that  one  who  had  so 
deeply  studied  nature,  and  had  mastered  so  many  of  her  secrets,  should  by  his 
wondering  contemporaries  have  been  judged  to  have  owed  his  marvelous 
knowledge  to  a  supernatural  source,  or  that  his  mechanical  contrivances,  his 
knowledge  of  the  power  of  mirrors,  and  his  production  of  a  winter-garden,  or 
hothouse,  where  on  the  feast  of  the  Epiphany  1249,  he  exhibited  to  William 
of  Holland,  king  of  the  Romans,  plants  and  fruit-trees  in  full  blossom,  should 
have  subjected  him  in  the  mind  of  the  vulgar  to  the  suspicion  of  sorcery.  But 
it  is  certainly  surprising  that  such  charges  should  be  reproduced  by  modern 
critics,  who,  it  might  have  been  thought,  would  have  condemned  the  very 
belief  in  witchcraft  as  a  mediaeval  superstition.  The  more  so  as  Albert  devotes 
no  inconsiderable  portion  of  his  pages  to  the  exposure  and  refutation  of  those 
forbidden  arts,  which  he  will  not  allow  to  be  reckoned  among  the  sciences,  such 
as  geomancy,  chiromancy,  and  a  formidable  list  of  other  branches  of  magic. 

During  the  time  that  Albert  was  engaged  in  these  labors,  his  daily  life  was 
one  which  might  rather  have  seemed  that  of  a  contemplative  than  of  a  student 
of  physical  science.  '  I  have  seen,  and  know  of  a  truth,'  s^ys  his  disciple 
Thomas,  of  Cantimpre,  '  that  the  venerable  Albert,  whilst  for  many  years  he 
daily  lectured  on  theology,  yet  watched  day  and  night  in  prayer,  daily 
recited  the  entire  Psalter,  and  at  the  conclusion  of  every  lesson  and  disputation 
gave  himself  up  to  Divine  contemplation.'  His  skill  as  a  master  drew  an 
incredible  number  of  students  to  Cologne,  whom  he  not  only  inspired  with  his 
own  love  of  science,  but  directed  in  the  spiritual  life.  Among  these  were  the 
blessed  Ambrose  of  Siena,  and  Ulrich  of  Engelbrecht,  who  afterwards  became 
provincial  of  Germany,  and  made  use  of  the  mechanical  and  scientific  lore  he 
had  acquired  from  his  master  in  the  construction  of  the  great  organ  in 
Strasburg  cathedral. 

After  lecturing  for  four  years  in  Cologne,  he  was  recalled  to  Paris  in  order  to 
take  his  degrees,  and  though  under  tiie  accustomed  age,  for  he  was  then  but 
twenty-five,  no  opposition  was  offered  on  the  part  of  the  university  to  his  being 
received  as  Bachelor,  and  lecturing  as  such  in  the  public  schools.  But  at  the 
end  of  the  year,  when  he  should,  by  right,  have  proceeded  to  the  degree  of 
Doctor,  the  quarrel  which  had  already  broken  out  between  the  seculars  and 
regulars  was  fanned  into  a  flame  by  the  calumnies  of  William  de  fcit.  Amour, 
and  the  secular  Regents  persisted  in  refusing  to  admit  the  friars  to  any  of  the 
theological  chairs.  The  dispute  being  at  last  referred  to  Rome,  St.  Thomas  was 
summoned  thither,  and  by  his  eloquent  defense  procured  the  condemnation  of 
St.  Amour's  book  on  '  The  Perils  of  the  Latter  Times,'  in  which  the  religious 
orders  were  attacked  in  scandalous  terms.  Not  only  were  the  deputies  of  the 
university  obliged  to  subscribe  this  condemnation,  but  also  to  promise  on  oath, 
in  presence  of  the  cardinals,  to  receive  members  of  the  two  mendicant  orders  to 
their  academic  degrees,  and  especially  St.  Bonaventure  and  St.  Thomas,  who 
had  hitherto  been  unable  to  obtain  their  Doctor's  caps.  The  publication  of  the 
Pope's  bull,  and  the  authority  of  St.  Louis,  finally  brought  this  vexatious 
dispute  to  a  close,  but  the  university  authorities,  though  forced  to  yield,  con- 
trived to  give  expression  to  their  ill-will  by  an  act  which  provided  that  the 
Dominicans  should  always  hold  the  last  place,  not  only  after  the  secular  regents, 
but  after  those  of  every  other  religious  body. 


CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS,  TEACHERS,  AND  SCHOLARS.  35 

THE  ABBEY  OF  ST.   GALL.* 

THE  Abbey  of  St.  Gall  owed  its  origin  to  an  Irish  disciple,  of  that  name,  of 
St.  Coluinbauus,  who,  in  the  seventh  century,  penetrated  into  the  recesses  of 
the  Helvetian  mountains,  and  there  fixed  his  abode  in  the  midst  of  a  pagan 
population.  Under  the  famous  abbot  St.  Othmar,  who  flourished  in  the  time 
of  Pepin,  the  monks  received  the  Benedictine  rule,  and  from  that  time  the  mon- 
astery rapidly  grew  in  fame  and  prosperity,  so  that  in  the  ninth  century  it  was 
regarded  as  the  first  religious  house  north  of  the  Alps.  It  is  with  a  sigh  of 
that  irrepressible  regret  called  forth  by  the  remembrance  of  a  form  of  beauty 
that  is  dead  and  gone  for  ever,  that  the  monastic  historian  hangs  over  the  early 
chronicles  of  St.  Gall.  It  lay  in  the  midst  of  the  savage  Helvetian  wilderness, 
an  oasis  of  piety  and  civilization.  Looking  down  from  the  craggy  mountains, 
the  passes  of  which  open  upon  the  southern  extremity  of  the  lake  of  Con- 
stance, the  traveler  would  have  stood  amazed  at  the  sudden  apparition  of  that 
vast  range  of  stately  buildings  which  almost  filled  up  the  valley  at  his  feet. 
Churches  and  cloisters,  the  offices  of  a  great  abbey,  buildings  set  apart  for  stu- 
dents and  guests,  workshops  of  every  description,  the  forge,  the  bakehouse, 
and  the  mill,  or  rather  mills,  for  there  were  ten  of  them,  all  in  such  active  ope- 
ration, that  they  every  year  required  ten  new  millstones ;  and  then  the  houses 
occupied  by  the  vast  numbers  of  artisans  and  workmen  attached  to  the  monas- 
tery ;  gardens,  too,  and  vineyard  creeping  up  the  mountain  slopes,  and  beyond 
them  fields  of  waving  corn,  and  sheep  speckling  the  green  meadows,  and  far 
away  boats  busily  plying  on  the  lake  and  carrying  goods  and  passengers — what 
a  world  it  was  of  life  and  activity ;  yet  how  unlike  the  activity  of  a  town!  It 
was,  in  fact,  not  a  town,  but  a  house, — a  family  presided  over  by  a  father, 
whose  members  were  all  knit  together  in  the  bonds  of  common  fraternity.  I 
know  not  whether  the  spiritual  or  the  social  side  of  such  a  religious  colony 
were  most  fitted  to  rivet  the  attention.  Descend  into  the  valley,  and  visit  all 
these  nurseries  of  useful  toil,  see  the  crowds  of  rude  peasants  transformed  into 
intelligent  artisans,  and  you  will  carry  away  the  impression  that  the  monks  of 
St.  Gall  had  found  out  the  secret  of  creating  a  world  of  happy  Christian  fac- 
tories. Enter  their  church  and  listen  to  the  exquisite  modulations  of  those 
chants  and  sequences  peculiar  to  the  abbey  which  boasted  of  possessing  the 
most  scientific  school  of  music  in  all  Europe,  visit  their  scriptorium,  their  li- 
brary, and  their  school,  or  the  workshop  where  the  monk  Tutilo  is  putting  the 
finishing  touch  to  his  wonderful  copper  images,  and  his  fine  altar  frontals  of 
gold  and  jewels,  and  you  will  think  yourself  in  some  intellectual  and  artistic 
academy.  But  look  into  the  choir,  and  behold  the  hundred  monks  who  form 
the  community  at  their  midnight  office,  and  you  will  forget  every  thing,  save 
the  saintly  aspect  of  those  servants  of  God  who  shed  abroad  over  the  desert 
around  them  the  good  odor  of  Christ,  and  are  the  apostles  of  the  provinces 
which  own  their  gentle  sway.  You  may  quit  the  circuit  of  the  abbey  and 
plunge  once  more  into  the  mountain  region  which  rises  beyond,  but  you  will 
have  to  wander  far  before  you  find  yourself  beyond  the  reach  of  its  softening 
humanizing  influence.  Here  are  distant  cells  and  hermitages  with  their 
chapels,  where  the  shepherds  come  for  early  mass ;  or  it  may  be  that  there 
meets  you,  winding  over  the  mountain  paths  of  which  they  sing  so  sweet- 

*  Christian  Schools  and  Scholars.     Longman :  1867. 


36  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS,  TEACHERS,  AND  SCHOLARS. 

ly,*  going  up  and  down  among  the  hills  into  the  thick  forests  and  the  rocky  hol- 
lows, a  procession  of  the  monks  carrying  their  relics,  and  followed  by  a  peasant 
crowd.  In  the  schools  you  may  have  been  listening  to  lectures  in  the  learned, 
and  even  in  the  Eastern  tongues ;  but  in  the  churches,  and  here  among  the 
mountains,  you  will  hear  these  fine  classical  scholars  preaching  plain  truths, 
in  barbarous  idioms,  to  a  rude  race,  who,  before  the  monks  came  among  them, 
sacrificed  to  the  Evil  One,  and  worshiped  stocks  and  stones 

Yet,  hidden  away  as  it  was  among  its  crags  and  deserts,  the  abbey  of  St. 
Gall  was  almost  as  much  a  place  of  resort  as  Rome  or  Athens — at  least  to  the 
learned  world  of  the  ninth  century.  Her  schools  were  a  kind  of  university, 
frequented  by  men  of  all  nations,  who  came  hither  to  fit  themselves  for  all  pro- 
fessions. You  would  have  found  here  not  monks  alone  and  future  scholastics, 
but  courtiers,  soldiers,  and  the  sons  of  kings.  The  education  given  was  very 
far  from  being  exclusively  intended  for  those  aspiring  to  the  ecclesiastical  state; 
it  had  a  large  admixture  of  the  secular  element,  at  any  rate  in  the  exterior 
school.  Not  only  were  the  Sacred  sciences  taught  with  the  utmost  care,  but 
the  classic  authors  were  likewise  explained;  Cicero,  Horace,  Virgil,  Lucan,  and 
Terence  were  read  by  the  scholars,  and  none  but  the  very  little  boys  presumed 
to  speak  in  any  thing  but  Latin.  The  subjects  for  their  original  compositions 
were  mostly  taken  from  Scripture  and  Church  history,  and  having  written  their 
exercises  they  were  expected  to  recite  them,  the  proper  tones  being  indicated 
by  musical  notes.  Many  of  the  monks  excelled  as  poets,  others  cultivated 
pauiting  and  sculpture,  and  other  exquisite  cloistral  arts ;  all  diligently  applied 
to  the  grammatical  formation  of  the  Tudesque  dialect,  and  rendered  it  capable 
of  producing  a  literature  of  its  own.  Their  library  in  the  eighth  century  was 
only  in  its  infancy,  but  gradually  became  one  of  the  richest  in  the  world.  They 
were  in  correspondence  with  all  the  learned  monastic  houses  of  France  and 
Italy,  from  whom  they  received  the  precious  codex,  now  of  a  Virgil  or  a  Livy, 
now  of  the  Sacred  Books,  and  sometimes  of  some  rare  treatise  on  medicine  or 
astronomy.  They  were  Greek  students,  moreover,  and  those  most  addicted  to 
the  cultivation  of  the  '  Cecropian  Muse '  were  denominated  the  '  fratres  El- 
lenici.'  The  beauty  of  their  early  manuscripts  is  praised  by  all  authors,  and 
the  names  of  their  best  transcribers  find  honorable  mention  in  their  annals. 
They  manufactured  their  own  parchment  out  of  the  hides  of  the  wild  beasts 
that  roamed  through  the  mountains  and  forests  around  them,  and  prepared  it 
with  such  skill  that  it  acquired  a  peculiar  delicacy.  Many  hands  were  em- 
ployed on  a  single  manuscript.  Some  made  the  parchment,  others  drew  the 
fair  red  lines,  others  wrote  on  the  pages  thus  prepared ;  more  skillful  hands 
put  in  the  gold  and  the  initial  letters,  and  more  learned  heads  compared  the 
copy  with  the  original  text,  this  duty  being  generally  discharged  during  the 
interval  between  matins  and  lauds,  the  daylight  hours  being  reserved  for  actual 
transcription.  Erasure,  when  necessary,  was  rarely  made  with  the  knife,  but 
an  erroneous  word  was  delicately  drawn  through  by  the  pen.  so  as  not  to  spoil 
the  beauty  of  the  codex.  Lastly  came  the  binders,  who  inclosed  the  whole  in 
boards  of  wood,  cramped  with  ivory  or  iron,  the  Sacred  Volumes  being  covered 
with  plates  of  gold,  and  adorned  with  jewels. 

*  Scandens  et  descendens  inter  montium  confinia 
Silvarum  scrutando  loca,  valliumque  concava. 

(Hymn  for  the  Procession  of  Relics,    ap.  Leibnitz.) 


CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS,  TEACHERS,  AND  SCHOLARS.  37 

Among  the  masters  and  scholars,  whose  reputation  shed  a  lustre  on  the  annals 
of  St.  Gall,  was  Iso,  styled  by  Ekkehard,  'a  doctor  magnificus,'  whose  pupils 
were  in  great  demand  by  all  the  monasteries  of  Gall  and  Burgundy,  and  Moen- 
gall  (or  Marcellus,  a  nephew  of  the  Irish  bishop  Marx,  both  of  whom  entered 
the  cloister  in  840,  on  their  return  from  Rome),  who  extended,  if  he  did  not  in- 
troduce the  study  of  Greek  into  the  interior  school.  Of  the  pupils  of  the  lat- 
ter, Notker,  Ratpert,  and  Tutilo,  were  distinguished  for  rare  scholarship,  and  in 
music,  sculpture,  and  painting.  Tutilo  could  preach  both  in  Latin  and  Greek ; 
and  statuary  of  his  workmanship  adorned  most  of  the  finest  'churches  in  Ger- 
many. Ratpert  succeeded  master  Iso  in  the  external  school,  and  was  famous 
as  a  poet.  But  Notker  was  the  best  type  of  the  culture  of  St.  Gall — at  once 
scholar,  poet  and  musician. 

It  was  the  reputation  of  learning  enjoyed  by  St.  Gall  which  had  first  at- 
tracted him  thither,  for  indeed,  says  Ekkehard,  'he  was  devoured  with  a  love 
of  grammar.'  Like  a  true  poet,  he  was  keenly  susceptible  to  the  sights  and 
sounds  of  nature,  and  loved  to  '  study  her  beautifulness  '  in  that  enchanted  re- 
gion of  lakes  and  mountains.  The  gentle  melancholy  inseparable  from  exalted 
genius,  which  in  him  was  increased  by  his  exceeding  delicacy  of  organization, 
found  its  expression  in  the  wild  and  mystic  melodies  which  he  composed.  The 
monotonous  sound  of  a  im'll-wheel  near  the  abbey  suggested  to  him  the  music 
of  the  'Media  Vita,' the  words  being  written  whilst  looking  into  a  deep  gulf 
over  which  some  laborers  were  constructing  a  bridge.  This  antiphon  became 
very  popular  in  Germany,  and  was  every  year  sung  at  St.  Gall  during  the  Ro- 
gation Processions  But  it  was  not  as  a  poet  or  man  of  science  that  the 
'  Blessed  Notker '  was  best  known  to  posterity ;  profoundly  learned  in  human 
literature,  he  yet,  says  Ekkehard,  applied  more  to  the  Psalter  than  to  any  other 
book.  Even  in  his  own  lifetime  he  was  revered  as  a  saint.  He  was  master 
of  the  inferior  and  claustral  school  at  the  same  time  as  Ratpert  governed  the 
exterior  school,  and  kept  up  the  same  strict  discipline,  'stripes  only  excepted.' 
The  gentleness  of  his  disposition  peeps  out  in  the  fact  that  one  of  the  faults  he 
was  hardest  on  in  his  pupils  was  the  habit  of  bird's-nesting.  He  was  always 
accessible ;  no  hour  of  day  or  night  was  ever  deemed  unseasonable  for  a  visit 
from  any  one  who  brought  a  book  in  their  hands.  For  the  sake  of  maintaining 
regular  observance,  he  once  forbade  his  disciples  to  whisper  to  him  in  time  of 
silence,  but  the  abbot  enjoined  him  under  obedience  to  let  them  speak  to  him 
whenever  they  would.  Ratpert  relates  a  story  of  him,  which  shows  the  opin- 
ion of  learning  and  sanctity  in  which  he  was  held.  The  emperor  Charles,  hav- 
ing on  one  occasion  come  to  the  monastery  on  a  visit,  he  brought  in  his  suite  a 
certain  chaplain,  whose  pride  appears  to  have  taken  offense  at  the  consideration 
with  which  his  master  treated  the  Blessed  Notker.  When  they  were  about  to 
depart,  therefore,  seeing  the  man  of  God  sitting,  as  was  his  custom,  with  the 
Psalter  in  his  hand,  and  recognizing  him  to  be  the  same  man  who,  on  the  pre- 
vious day,  had  solved  many  hard  questions  proposed  to  him  by  Charles,  he 
said  to  his  companions,  '  There  is  he  who  is  said  to  be  the  most  learned  man 
in  the  whole  empire.  But  if  you  like,  I  will  make  this  most  excellent  wiseacre 
a  laughing-stock  for  you,  for  I  will  ask  him  a  question,  which,  with  all  his 
learning  he  will  not  be  able  to  answer.'  Curious  to  see  what  he  would  do,  and 
how  Notker  would  deal  with  him,  they  agreed  to  his  proposal,  and  all  went  to- 
gether to  salute  the  master  who  courteously  rose,  and  asked  them  what  they 


3S  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS,  TEACHERS.  AND  SCHOLARS. 

desired.  Then  said  the  unhappy  man  of  whom  we  spoke,  '  0  most  learned 
master,  we  are  very  well  aware  that  there  is  nothing  you  do  not  know.  We 
therefore  desire  you  to  tell  us,  if  you  can.  what  God  is  now  doing  in  heaven  ?' 
'  Yes,'  replied  Notker,  '  I  can  answer  that  question  very  well.  He  is  doing 
what  he  always  has  done,  and  what  He  is  shortly  about  to  do  to  thee,  He  is 
exalting  the  humble,  and  humbling  the  proud.'  The  scoffer  moved  away,  while 
the  laugh  was  turned  against  him.  Nevertheless,  he  made  light  of  Notker's 
words,  and  the  prediction  of  evil  which  they  seemed  to  contain  regarding  him- 
self. Presently  the  bell  rang  for  the  king's  departure,  and  the  chaplain,  mount- 
ing his  horse,  rode  off  with  a  great  air  in  front  of  his  master.  But  before  he 
came  to  the  gate  of  the  city  the  steed  fell,  and  the  rider  being  thrown  on  his 
face,  broke  his  leg.  Abbot  Hartmot  hearing  of  this  accident,  desired  Notker  to 
visit  the  sick  man,  and  pardon  him,  giving  him  his  blessing.  But  the  foolish 
chaplain  protested  that  the  misfortune  had  nothing  to  do  with  Notker's  predic- 
tion, and  continued  to  speak  of  him  with  the  greatest  contempt.  His  leg,  how- 
ever, remained  in  a  miserable  state,  until  one  night  his  friends  besought  Notker 
to  come  to  him  and  aid  him  with  his  prayers.  He  complied  willingly  enough, 
and  touching  the  leg,  it  was  immediately  restored;  and  by  this  lesson  the 
chaplain  learnt  to  be  more  humble  for  the  future. 

Notker  was  the  author  of  various  works,  amongst  others  of  a  German 
translation  of  the  Psalter,  which  Vadianus  speaks  of  in  his  treatise  on  the  'An- 
cient Colleges  of  Germany,'  and  which  he  says  is  scarcely  intelligible  by  reason 
of  the  excessive  harshness  of  the  old  Tudesque  dialect.  He  gives  a  translation 
of  the  'Creed,'  and  the  'Our  Father,'  from  Notker's  version,  in  which  it  is  not 
difficult  to  trace  the  German  idiom.  Notker's  German  studies  were  yet  more 
extensively  carried  on  by  his  namesake,  Notker  Labeo,  or  the  Thick-Lipped, 
who  wrote  many  learned  works  in  the  vernacular,  and  was  also  a  great  classic- 
al scholar.  He  translated  into  German  the  works  of  Aristotle,  Boethius,  and 
Martian  Capella,  and  some  musical  treatises,  all  which  are  still  preserved.  His 
translation  of  St.  Gregory's  'Morals'  is  lost.  He  is  commemmorated  in  the 
chronicles  of  his  House  as  'the  kind  and  learned  master,'  and  whilst  he  pre- 
sided over  the  claustral  school,  he  educated  a  great  many  profound  scholars, 
among  whom  was  Ekkehard  junior,  the  author  of  the  chronicle  'De  Casibus 
S.  Galli,'  and  of  the  celebrated  '  Liber  Benedictionum.'  This  Ekkehard,  at  the 
request  of  the  empress,  transcribed  Notker's  '  Paraphrase  of  the  Psalms '  for 
her  use  with  his  own  hand,  and  corrected  a  certain  poem  which  his  predecessor 
Ekkehard  I.  had  written  when  a  school-boy,  and  which  was  full  of  Tudesque 
barbarisms,  such  as  the  delicate  ear  of  Ekkehard  junior  might  not  abide.  He 
held  that  the  barbarous  idioms  could  not  be  translated  into  Latin  without  a 
great  deal  of  painstaking.  '  Think  in  German,'  he  would  say  to  his  scholars, 
'and  then  be  careful  to  render  your  thought  into  correct  Latin '  There  was 
yet  a  third  Ekkehard  whose  memory  is  preserved  in  the  annals  of  St.  Gall  un- 
der the  surname  of  Palatinus.  He  was  nephew  to  Ekkehard  I.,  and  presided 
over  both  the  exterior  and  interior  schools,  and  that  with  great  success  He 
made  no  distinction  between  noble  and  plebeian  scholars,  but  employed  those 
who  had  less  talent  for  learning,  in  writing,  painting,  and  other  like  arts.  He 
was  able  to  take  down  in  short-hand  the  substance  of  any  thing  he  heard,  and 
two  discourses  are  still  preserved  thus  noted  by  his  hand.  He  was  afterwards 
most  unwillingly  summoned  to  the  Court  of  Otho  I.,  who  appointed  him  his 


CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS,  TEACHERS,  AND  SCHOLARS.  39 

chaplain  and  secretary,  and  tutor  to  his  son  Otho  II.  So  venerated  was  this 
great  man  throughout  Germany,  that  when  he  attended  the  council  of  Mentz 
in  976,  six  bishops  rose  up  to  salute  their  old  master,  all  of  them  having  been 
educated  in  the  school  of  St.  Gall.  To  this  list  of  masters  I  must  add  the 
name  of  another  Notker,  who,  from  his  strict  observance  of  discipline,  received 
the  surname  of  '  Piperis-granurn,'  or  the  Peppercorn,  though  his  pungency  of 
temper  did  not  prevent  his  brethren  from  commemmorating  him  in  their  obit- 
uary as  the  'Doctor  benignissimus.'  He  was  renowned  as  a  physician,  a 
painter,  and  a  poet,  and  was  also  well  skilled  in  music. 

ABBEY   OP   REICHENAU.      MEINRAD.* 

At  the  western  extremity  of  the  lake  of  Constance,  just  where  it  narrows  to- 
wards the  outlet  of  the  Rhine,  lies  a  green  island  sparkling  like  an  emerald 
gem  on  the  unruffled  surface  of  the  waters.  There,  halt  hidden  amid  the  lux- 
uriant foliage,  you  may  still  see  the  minster  of  that  famous  abbey  called  Angia 
by  its  Latin  historians,  but  better  known  by  its  German  name  of  Reichenau. 

Reichenau  had  its  own  line  of  great  masters,  among  whom  Ermenric,  who 
could  do  such  generous  justice  to  the  excellence  of  others,  was  himself  worthy 
to  be  reckoned.  The  most  illustrious  was,  perhaps,  the  cripple  Hermann  Con- 
tractus,  originally  a  pupil  of  St.  Gall's,  who  is  said  to  have  prayed  that  he 
might  not  regain  the  use  of  his  limbs,  but  that  he  might  receive  instead  a 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures.  He  was  master  of  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  and 
Arabic;  he  wrote  treatises  on  history,  poetry,  ethics,  astronomy,  and  math- 
ematics; he  calculated  eclipses,  and  explained  Aristotle,  and,  in  spite  of  an  im- 
pediment in  his  speech,  his  lectures  were  so  learned  that  he  had  pupils  from  the 
most  distant  provinces  of  Italy.  He  set  his  own  poems  to  music,  made  clocks 
and  organs,  and  was  as  much  revered  for  his  sanctity  as  his  universal  genius. 
Many  hymns  and  antiphons  used  by  the  Church  are  attributed  to  his  pen, 
among  others  the  Alma  Rtdemptoris.  But  if  Hermann  was  the  most  famous 
scholar  of  Reichenau,  a  yet  greater  celebrity,  though  of  a  different  kind,  at- 
taches to  the  name  of  Meinrad.  The  story  of  his  vocation  to  the  eremitical  life 
affords  an  apt  illustration  of  the  contemplative  character  already  noticed  as  so 
frequently  belonging  to  the  early  pedagogues;  and  as  it  presents  us  with  an 
agreeable  picture  of  a  '  whole  play-day  '  in  the  Dark  Ages,  we  will  give  it  as 
it  stands  in  the  pages  of  the  monk  Berno.  Meinrad  was  the  son  of  a  Swabian 
nobleman  of  the  house  of  Hollenzollern,  and  had  studied  in  the  monastic  school 
under  abbot  Hatto  and  his  own  uncle  Erlebald.  When  the  latter  became  abbot 
he  appointed  Meinrad  to  the  care  of  the  school  which  was  attached  to  a  smaller 
house  dependent  on  Reichenau,  and  situated  at  a  spot  called  Bollingen,  on  the 
lake  of  Zurich.  He  accordingly  removed  thither,  and  had  singular  success 
with  his  scholars,  whom  he  inspired  with  great  affection  by  reason  of  his  gentle 
discipline.  He  used  to  take  them  but  for  walking  parties  and  fishing  parties, 
into  what  Berno,  his  biographer,  calls  'the  wilderness,'  a  wilderness,  however, 
which  was  adorned  with  a  majestic  beauty  to  which  Meinrad  was  not  insensi- 
ble. One  day  he  and  his  boys  crossed  the  lake  in  a  small  boat,  and  landing  on 
the  opposite  shore,  sought,  for  some  quiet  spot  where  they  might  cast  their 
fishing-lines.  Finding  a  little  stream  which  flowed  into  the  lake  and  gave 

*  Christian  Schools  and  Scholars.     Vol.  I.,  p.  240. 


40  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS,  TEACHERS,  AND  SCHOLARS. 

good  promise  of  trout,  Meinrad  left  them  to  pursue  their  sport,  and  strolled 
about,  meditating  on  the  joys  of  that  solitary  life  after  which  he  secretly  pined. 
After  a  while,  returning  to  his  scholars,  he  found  that  their  fishing  had  been 
unusually  successful,  and  taking  up  their  baskets,  they  retraced  their  steps  to 
the  village  of  Altendorf,  where  they  entered  the  house  of  a  certain  matron  to 
rest  and  refresh  themselves  with  food.  Whilst  the  boys  ate  and  drank,  and  en- 
joyed themselves  in  their  own  way,  Meinrad  and  their  hostess  engaged  in  con- 
versation, and  Meinrad,  who  was  full  of  the  thoughts  to  which  his  mountain 
walk  had  given  rise,  opened  his  whole  heart  to  her.  'Beyond  all  riches.'  lie 
said,  '  I  desire  to  dwell  alone  in  this  solitude,  that  so  I  might  wholly  give  my- 
self to  prayer,  could  I  but  find  some  one  who  would  minister  to  me  in  temporal 
things.'  The  good  lady  immediately  offered  to  provide  him  with  whatever  he 
wanted,  in  order  to  carry  out  his  design ;  and  the  result  of  that  day's  fishing- 
party  was  the  establishment  of  the  former  scholasticus  of  Bollingen  in  a  little 
hermitage  which  he  constructed  for  himself  out  of  the  wattled  boughs  of  trees. 
But  he  found  himself  in  one  way  disappointed ;  he  had  sought  the  desert  to  fly 
from  the  world,  and  the  world  followed  him  thither  in  greater  throngs  than  he 
had  ever  encountered  at  Reichenau.  The  saints  possess  a  strange  power  of  at- 
traction, and  neither  mountains  nor  forests  are  able  to  hide  them.  In  his  own 
day  men  compared  St.  Meinrad  to  the  Baptist,  because  the  multitudes  went  out 
into  the  wilderness  to  hear  him  preach  penance  and  remission  of  sins.  For 
seven  years  he  continued  to  dispense  the  Word  of  Life  to  the  pilgrims  who 
gathered  about  him. from  all  parts  of  Europe.  But  one  day  unable  to  resist  his 
longing  for  retreat,  he  took  his  image  of  Our  Lady,  a  missal,  a  copy  of  St.  Bene- 
dict's rule,  and  the  works  of  Cassian,  and  laden  with  these,  his  only  treasures, 
he  plunged  into  the  forest,  and  choosing  a  remote  and  secluded  spot,  erected  a 
rude  chapel  which  he  dedicated  to  Our  Lady,  and  a  yet  ruder  dwelling  for  him- 
self. There  he  lived  for  thirty  years,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  he  was  assas- 
sinated in  his  hermitage  by  some  ruffians  who  hoped  to  find  some  hidden 
treasure  in  his  cell.  His  body  was  carried  back  to  Reichenau,  and  in  after 
years  (about  988)  the  great  sanctuary  of  Einsiedeln  rose  over  the  site  of  his 
hermitage,  where  is  still  venerated  the  image  of  Our  Lady  which  he  had 
formerly  carried  thither  with  his  own  hands. 

EINSIEDELN. 

The  Abby  of  Einsiedeln,  after  encountering  many  disasters  by  fire  and  spoli- 
ation, has  outlived  the  sanctity  and  present  usefulness  of  both  St.  Gall  and 
Reichenau,  and  is  still  the  resort  annually  of  thousands  of  pilgrims  from  all  parts 
of  Europe.  In  1861,  on  the  celebration  of  the  1000th  anniversary  of  its 
foundation,  an  almost  incredible  concourse  of  people  assembled  to  make  their 
offerings  to  '  Our  Lady  of  the  Hermits.'  On  this  occasion,  the  King  of  Prussia 
and  Prince  of  Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen  presented  the  Abby  with  two  valuable 
historical  paintings  by  Mticke,  of  Dusseldorf,  one  representing  St.  Meinrad 
preaching  on  the  Etzel,  and  the  other  the  presentation  of  the  Sacred  Image 
by  Hildegarde,  first  Abbess  of  the  convent  of  Zurich.  The  Abbey  now  num- 
bers sixt}'  priests,  and  twenty  brothers  of  the  Benedictine  order,  with  a  number 
of  lay  brethren  for  the  management  of  the  property. 


ST  BENEDICT  AND  HIS  RULE.  ^» 

MONASTIC   INSTITUTIONS   AND   CIVILIZATION. 

To  appreciate  the  services  rendered  by  the  institutions  which 
grew  up  under  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict,  we  must  look  closely  into 
the  state  of  society  which  existed  at  the  advent  of  Christianity,  and 
which  succeeded  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  the 
processes  by  which  the  new  civilization  was  planted  in  regions  before 
utterly  barbarous.  Dr.  Newman  has  described,  in  a  short  chapter, 
the  Downfall  and  Refuge  of  Ancient  Civilization,  portions  of  which 
we  introduce  here. 

There  never  was,  perhaps,  in  the  history  of  this  tumultuous  world,  prosperity 
so  great,  so  far-spreading,  so  lasting,  as  that  which  began  throughout  the  vast 
Empire  of  Rome,  at  the  time  when  the  Prince  of  Peace  was  born  into  it.  Pre- 
ternatural as  was  the  tyranny  of  certain  of  the  Cassars,  it  did  not  reach  the 
mass  of  the  population ;  and  the  reigns  of  the  five  good  emperors,  who  suc- 
ceeded them,  are  proverbs  of  wise  and  gentle  government.  The  sole  great  ex- 
ception to  this  universal  happiness  was  the  cruel  persecution  of  the  Christians  ; 
the  sufferings  of  a  whole  world  fell  and  were  concentrated  on  them,  and  the 
children  of  heaven  were  tormented,  that  the  sons  of  men  might  'enjoy  their 
revel  Their  Lord,  while  His  shadow  brought  peace  upon  earth,  foretold  that 
in  the  event  He  came  to  send  '  not  peace  but  a  sword ; '  and  that  sword  was 
first  let  loose  upon  His  own  people.  '  Judgment  commenced  with  the  House 
of  God ; '  and  though,  as  time  went  on,  it  left  Jerusalem  behind,  and  began  to 
career  round  the  world  and  sweep  the  nations  as  it  traveled  on,  nevertheless, 
as  if  by  some  paradox  of  Providence,  it  seemed  at  first,  that  truth  and  wretch- 
edness had  'met  together,' and  sin  and  prosperity  had 'kissed  one  another.' 
The  more  the  heathens  enjoyed  themselves,  the  more  they  scorned,  hated,  and 
persecuted  their  true  light  and  true  peace.  They  persecuted  Him,  for  the  very 
reason  that  they  had  little  else  to  do ;  happy  and  haughty,  they  saw  in  Him 
the  sole  drawback,  the  sole  exception,  the  sole  hindrance,  to  a  universal,  a 
continual  sunshine  ;  they  called  Him  '  the  enemy  of  the  human  race ;'  and 
they  felt  themselves  bound,  by  their  loyalty  to  the  glorious  and  immortal 
memory  of  their  forefathers,  by  their  traditions  of  state,  and  their  duties 
towards  their  children,  to  trample  upon,  and,  if  they  could,  to  stifle  that  teach- 
ing, which  was  destined  to  be  the  life  and  mold  of  a  new  world. 

But  our  immediate  subject  here  is,  riot  Christianity,  but  the  world  that 
passed  away ;  and  before  it  passed,  it  had,  I  say,  a  tranquillity  great  in  propor- 
tion to  its  former  commotions.  Ages  of  trouble  terminated  in  two  centuries 
of  peace.  The  present  crust  of  the  earth  is  said  to  be  the  result  of  a  long  war 
of  elements,  and  to  have  been  made  so  beautiful,  so  various,  so  rich,  and  so 
useful,  by  the  disciple  of  revolutions,  by  earthquake  and  liirhtning,  by 
mountains  of  water  and  seas  of  fire ;  and  so  in  like  manner,  it  required  the 
events  of  two  thousand  years,  the  multiform  fortunes  of  tribes  and  populations, 
the  rise  and  fall  of  kings,  the  mutual  collision  of  states,  the  spread  of  colonies, 
the  vicissitudes  and  the  succession  of  conquests,  and  the  gradual  adjustment 
and  settlement  of  innumerous  discordant  ideas  and  interests,  to  carry  on  the 
human  race  to  unity,  and  to  shape  and  consolidate  the  gnat  Roman  Power. 

And  when  once  those  unwieldy  materials  were  welded  together  into  one 
mass,  what  human  force  could  split  them  up  again?  what  'hammer  of  the 
earth '  could  shiver  at  a  stroke  a  solidity  which  had  taken  ages  to  form  ?  "Who 
can  estimate  the  strength  of  a  political  establishment,  which  has  been  the  slow 
birth  of  time?  and  what  establishment  ever  equaled  pagan  Rome?  Hence 
has  come  the  proverb,  '  Rome  was  not  built  in  a  day;'  it  was  the  portentous 
solidity  of  its  power  that  forced  the  gazer  back  upon  an  exclamation,  which 
was  the  relief  of  his  astonishment,  as  being  his  solution  of  the  prodigy.  And, 
When  at  length  it  was  built,  Rome,  so  long  in  building,  was  'Eternal  Rome;' 
it  had  been  done  once  for  all ;  its  being  was  inconceivable  beforehand,  and  its 
not  being  was  inconceivable  afterwards.  It  had  been  a  miracle  that  it  was 


42 


ST.  BENEDICT  AND  HIS  RULE. 


brought  to  be  ;  it  would  take  a  second  miracle  that  it  should  cease  to  be.  To 
remove  it  from  its  place  was  to  cast  a  mountain  into  the  sea.  Look  at  the 
Palatine  Hill,  penetrated,  traversed,  cased  with  brickwork,  till  it  appears  a 
work  of  man,  not  of  nature ;  run  your  eye  along  the  cliffs  from  Ostia  to  Ter- 
racina,  covered  with  the  debris  of  masonry ;  gaze  around  the  bay  of  Baiee, 
whose  rocks  have  been  made  to  serve  as  the  foundations  and  the  walls  of 
palaces ;  and  in  those  mere  remains,  lasting  to  this  day,  you  will  have  a  type 
of  the  moral  and  political  strength  of  the  establishments  of  Rome.  Think  of 
the  aqueducts  making  for  the  imperial  city,  for  miles  across  the  plain;  think  of 
the  straight  roads  stretching  off  again  from  that  one  centre  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth:  consider  the  vast  territory  round  about  it  strewn  to  this  day  with 
countless  ruins;  follow  in  your  imagination  its  suburbs,  extending  along  its 
roads,  for  as  much,  at  least  in  some  directions,  as  forty  miles;  and  number  up  its 
continuous  mass  of  population,  amounting,  as  grave  authors  say,  to  almost  six 
millions ;  and  answer  the  question,  how  was  Rome  ever  to  be  got  rid  of?  why 
was  it  not  to  progress  ?  why  was  it  not  to  progress  for  ever  ?  where  was  that 
ancient  civilization  to  end?  Such  were  the  questionings  and  anticipations  of 
thoughtful  minds,  not  specially  proud  or  fond  of  Rome.  '  The  world,'  says 
Tertullian,  '  has  more  of  cultivation  every  day,  and  is  better  furnished  than  in 
times  of  old.  All  places  are  opened  up  now  ;  all  are  familiarly  known ;  all  are 
scenes  of  business.  Smiling  farms  have  obliterated  the  notorious  wilderness; 
tillage  has  tamed  the  forest  land ;  flocks  have  put  to  flight  the  beasts  of  prey. 
Sandy  tracts  are  sown ;  rocks  are  put  into  shape ;  marshes  are  drained. 
There  are  more  cities  now,  than  there  were  cottages  at  one  time.  Islands  are 
no  longer  wild  ;  the  crag  is  no  longer  frightful ;  everywhere  there  is  a  home,  a 
population,  a  state,  and  a  livelihood.'  Such  was  the  prosperity,  such  the 
promise  of  progress  and  permanence,  in  which  the  Assyrian,  the  Persian,  the 
Greek,  the  Macedonian  conquests  had  terminated 

Education  had  gone  through  a  similar  course  of  difficulties,  and  had  a  place 
in  the  prosperous  result.  First,  carried  forth  upon  the  wings  of  genius,  and 
disseminated  by  the  energy  of  individual  minds,  or  by  the  colonizing  missions 
of  single  cities,  knowledge  was  irregularly  extended  to  and  fro  over  the 
spacious  regions,  of  which  the  Mediterranean  is  the  common  basin.  Intro- 
duced, in  course  of  time,  to  a  more  intimate  alliance  with  political  power,  it 
received  the  means,  at  the  date  of  Alexander  and  his  successors,  both  of  its 
cultivation  and  its  propagation.  It  was  formally-  recognized  and  endowed 
under  the  Ptolemies,  and  at  length  became  a  direct  object  of  the  solicitude  of 
the  government  under  the  Caesars.  It  was  honored  and  dispensed  in  every 
considerable  city  of  the  Empire ;  it  tempered  the  political  administration  of 
the  conquering  people;  it  civilized  the  manners  of  a  hundred  barbarian  con- 
quests ;  it  gradually  reconciled  uncongenial,  and  associated  distant  countries, 
with  each  other ;  while  it  had  ever  ministered  to  the  fine  arts,  it  now  proceeded 
to  subserve  the  useful.  It  took  in  hand  the  reformation  of  the  world's  re- 
ligion; it  began  to  harmonize  the  legends  of  discordant  worships ;  it  purified 
the  mythology  by  making  it  symbolical;  it  interpreted  it,  and  gave  it  a  moral, 
and  explained  away  its  idolatry.  It  began  to  develope  a  system  of  ethics,  it 
framed  a  code  of  laws ;  what  might  not  be  expected  of  it,  as  time  went  on, 
were  it  not  for  that  illiberal,  unintelligible,  fanatical,  abominable  sect  of  Gali- 
leans? If  they  were  allowed  to  make  play,  and  get  power,  what  might  not 
happen?  There  again  Christians  were  in  the  way,  as  hateful  to  the  philosopher, 
as  to  the  statesman.  Yet  in  truth  it  was  not  in  this  quarter  that  the  peril  of 
civilization  lay ;  it  lay  in  a  very  different  direction,  over  against  the  Empire  to 
the  North  and  North-east,  in  a  black  cloud  of  inexhaustible  barbarian  popula- 
tions; and  when  the  stor.m  mounted  overhead  and  broke  upon  the  earth,  it 
was  those  scorned  and  detested  Galileans,  and  none  but  they,  the  men-haters 
and  God-despisers.  who,  returning  good  for  evil,  housed  and  lodged  the  scat- 
tered remnants  of  that  old  world's  wisdom,  which  had  so  persecuted  them,  went 
forth  valiantly  to  meet  the  savage  destroyer,  tamed  him  without  arms,  and 
became  the  founders  of  a  new  and  higher  civilization.  Not  a  man  in  Europe 
now,  who  talks  bravely  against  the  Church,  but  owes  it  to  the  Church,  that  he 
can  talk  at  all. 


ST.  BENEDICT  AND  HIS  RULE.  43 

But  what  was  to  be  the  process,  what  the  method,  what  the  instruments, 
what  the  place,  for  sheltering  the  treasures  of  ancient  intellect  during  the 
convulsion,  of  bridging  over  the  abyss,  and  of  linking  the  old  world  to  the 
new?  In  spite  of  the  consolidation  of  its  power,  Rome  was  to  go,  as  all 
things  human  go,  and  vanish  for  ever.  In  the  words  of  inspiration,  '  Great 
Babylon  came  in  remembrance  before  God,  and  every  island  fled  away,  and  the 
mountains  were  not  found.'  All  the  fury  of  the  elements  was  directed  against 
it ;  and,  as  a  continual  dropping  wears  away  the  stone,  so  blow  after  blow, 
and  revolution  after  revolution,  sufficed  at  last  to  heave  up,  and  hurl  down, 
and  smash  into  fragments,  the  noblest  earthly  power  that  ever  was.  First 
came  the  Goth,  then  the  Hun,  and  then  the  Lombard.  The  Goth  took  posses- 
sion, but  he  was  of  noble  nature,  and  soon  lost  his  barbarism.  The  Hun  came 
came  next ;  he  was  irreclaimable,  but  did  not  stay.  The  Lombard  kept  both 
his  savageness  and  his  ground;  he  appropriated  to  himself  the  territory,  not 
the  civilization  of  Italy,  fierce  as  the  Hun,  and  powerful  as  the  Goth,  the  most 
tremendous  scourge  of  Heaven.  In  his'dark  presence  the  poor  remains  of  Greek 
and  Roman  splendor  died  away,  and  the  world  went  more  rapidly  to  ruin, 
material  and  moral,  than  it  was  advancing  from  triumph  to  triumph  in  the 
Tertullian.  Alas !  the  change  between  Rome  in  the  hey-day  of  her  pride,  and 
in  the  agony  of  her  judgment !  Tertullian  writes  while  she  is  exalted  ;  Pope 
Gregory  when  she  is  in  humiliation.  He  was  delivering  homilies  upon  the 
Prophet  Ezekiel,  when  the  news  came  to  Rome  of  the  advance  of  the  Lombards 
upon  the  city,  and  in  the  course  of  them  he  several  times  burst  out  into 
lamentations  at  the  news  of  miseries,  which  eventually  obliged  him  to  cut 
short  his  exposition. 

'  Sights  and  sounds  of  war,'  he  says,  '  meet  us  on  every  side.  The  cities  are 
destroyed ;  the  military  stations  broken  up ;  the  land  devastated  ;  the  earth  de- 
populated No  one  remains  in  the  country ;  scarcely  any  inhabitants  in  the 
towns ;  yet  even  the  poor  remains  of  human  kind  are  still  smitten  daily  and 
without  intermission.  Before  our  eyes  some  are  carried  away  captive,  some 
mutilated,  some  murdered.  She  herself,  who  once  was  mistress  of  the  world, 
we  behold  how  Rome  fares ;  worn  down  by  manifold  and  incalculable  dis- 
tresses, the  bereavement  of  citizens,  the  attack  of  foes,  the  reiteration  of  over- 
throws, where  is  her  senate?  where  are  her  people  ?  "We,  the  few  survivors,  are 
still  the  daily  prey  of  the  sword  and  of  other  innumerable  tribulations.  Where 
are  they  who  in  a  former  day  reveled  in  her  glory?  where  is  their  pomp,  their 
pride,  their  frequent  and  immoderate  joy  ? — youngsters,  young  men  of  the 
world,  congregated  here  from  every  quarter,  where  they  aimed  at  a  secular 
advancement.  Now  no  one  hastens  up  to  her  for  preferment ;  and  so  it  is 
with  other  cities  also  ;  some  places  are  laid  waste  by  pestilence,  others  are  de- 
populated by  the  sword,  others  are  tormented  by  famine ;  and  others  are  swal- 
lowed up  by  earthquakes.' 

These  words,  far  from  being  a  rhetorical  lament  are  but  a  meagre  statement 
of  some  of  the  circumstances  of  a  desolation,  in  which  the  elements  them- 
selves, as  St.  Gregory  intimates,  as  well  as  the  barbarians,  took  a  principal 
^Dart.  In  the  dreadful  age  of  that  great  Pope,  a  plague  spread  from  the  low- 
lands of  Egypt  to  the  Indies  on  the  one  hand,  along  Africa  across  to  Spain  on 
the  other,  till,  reversing  its  course,  it  reached  the  eastern  extremity  of  Europe, 
For  fifty-two  years  did  it  retain  possession  of  the  infected  atmosphere,  and, 
in  Constantinople,  during  three  months,  five  thousand,  and  at  length  ten 
thousand  persons,  are  said  to  have  died,  daily.  Many  cities  of  the  East  were 
left  without  inhabitants;  and  in  several  districts  of  Italy  there  were  no  laborers 
to  gather  either  harvest  or  vintage.  A  succession  of  earthquakes  accompanied 
for  years  this  heavy  calamity.  Constantinople  was  shaken  for  above  forty 
days.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  persons  are  said  to  have  perished  in  the 
earthquake  of  Antiooh.  crowded,  as  the  city  was,  with  strangers  for  the  festival 
of  the  Ascension.  Berytus,  the  eastern  school  of  Roman  jurisprudence,  called, 
from  its  literary  and  scientific  importance,  the  eye  of  Phoenicia,  shared  a 
similar  fate.  These,  however,  were  but  local  visitations  Cities  are  indeed  the 
homes  of  civilization,  but  the  wide  earth,  with  her  hill  and  dale,  open  plain 
and  winding  valley,  is  its  refuge. 


THE  HIERONYMIANS. 

FROM  THE  GERMAN  OP  KARL  VON  RAUMER. 

[Translated  by  L.  W.  Fitch.} 

BEFORE  Italy  had  begun  to  exert  any  influence  upon  German  culture, 
there  existed  in  the  Netherlands  an  order  called  the  brotherhood  of  the 
Hieronymians.  Its  founder  was  Gerard  Groote,  better  known  as  Gerard 
the  Great,  who  was  born  in  the  year  1340,  at  Deventer.  From  1355 
to  1358,  he  pursued  his  studies  at  Paris,  where,  in  addition  to  the  ordi- 
nary branches,  he  gave  his  attention  to  the  unhallowed  arts  of  magic, 
astrology,  and  necromancy.  But,  during  a  dangerous  illness,  he  sent 
for  a  priest  and  gave  him  all  his  books,  pertaining  to  these  arts,  to 
burn.  On  his  return  from  Paris  he  was  chosen  a  canon,  both  in  Aix- 
la-Chapelle  and  Cologne ;  and,  in  the  latter  place,  he  taught  scholastic 
philosophy  and  theology,  and  lived  respectably  but  not  in  extravagance. 
Once,  while  diverting  himself  with  looking  at  certain  games,  a  person 
accosted  him  thus  :  "  Do  not  waste  your  time  upon  these  vanities : 
but  change  your  course  and  become  a  different  man."  Soon  after  he 
entered  Monikhausen,  a  Carthusian  monastery  at  Arnheim,  the  prior 
of  which  had  been  his  father-confessor  at  Paris.  Here  for  three 
years,  he  led  a  life  of  penitence  and  self-mortification,  studying  the 
Holy  Scriptures  before  all  other  books.  He  then  began  his  career  as 
a  preacher,  and,  as  Thomas -a- Kempis  relates,  he  preached  in  the 
spirit  and  the  power  of  John  the  Baptist.  No  church  was  large 
enough  to  hold  the  throngs  that  flocked  to  hear  him  ;  and  he  often 
held  his  audience  spell-bound  for  three  hours  together.  The  impres- 
sion that  he  made  was  the  greater,  inasmuch  as  he  did  not  speak  in 
unintelligible  Latin,  but  in  his  native  Belgian.  But  these  sermons  of 
his  drew  upon  him  the  wrath  of  the  begging  friars,  whose  profligate 
life  he  had  exposed ;  and  the  Bishop  of  Utrecht,  at  their  instance, 
interdicted  him  from  preaching. 

In  the  year  1367  he,  with  John  Cole,  Rector  of  Zwoll,  paid  a  visit 
to  the  venerable  octogenarian  mystic,  Ruysbroeck,  prior  of  the 
monastery  of  Grunthal,  near  Brussels.  Ruysbroeck  made  a  profound 
impression  upon  him,  as  he  had  done  upon  Tauler  before  him,  and  he 
was  specially  edified  by  the  pious  and  benignant  demeanor  which  the 
old  man  observed  toward  the  brethren  under  his  charge. 

Returning  to  Deventer,  he  gathered  around  him  a  circle,  chiefly 


46  THE  HIERONYMIANS. 

composed  of  students  from  the  seat  of  learning  at  that  place,  with 
whom  he  read  good  books.  These  all,  while  with  him,  earned  their 
livelihood  principally  by  copying ;  for  he  forbade  them  to  beg. 

About  this  time  Florentius  Radewin  filled  the  office  of  canon  at 
Utrecht.  He  was  born  in  1350,  at  Leerdam,  in  South  Holland,  and 
had  studied  at  Prague.  When  he  heard  of  Gerard's  influential  career 
at  Deventer,  he  gave  up  his  canonicate,  became  vicar  of  the  church 
of  St.  Lebuin  in  Deventer,  and  an  intimate  friend  of  Gerard.  One 
day  he  addressed  Gerard  as  follows :  "Dear  master,  where  would  be 
the  harm,  should  I  and  those  clerkly  priests  of  yours,  those  brethren 
of  a  good  will,  (bonce  voluntatis,}  form  a  common  fund  of  the  moneys 
that  we  have  hitherto  weekly  expended,  and  live  in  common,  (in 
communi?")  Gerard  replied:  "The  begging  friars  would  set  them- 
selves against  us  with  every  resource  in  their  power."  But,  when 
Florentius  urged  the  point,  saying,  "  It  can  do  no  harm  to  begin ;  per- 
haps God  will  crown  the  undertaking  with  success,"  Gerard  yielded, 
adding  the  promise  that  he  would  take  immediate  measures  to  carry 
out  the  plan. 

Such  was  the  origin  of  that  fraternity,  which,  taking  its  name  from 
the  words  of  Florentius,  was  known  as  the  "  brotherhood  of  good 
will,"  or  the  "  brotherhood  of  a  common  life."  They  were  also 
called,  from  Hieronymus  and  Gregory  the  Great,  both  of  whom  they 
regarded  as  patrons,  Hieronymians  and  Gregorians. 

Their  first  house,  fratrum  domus  so-called,  was  erected  about  the 
year  1384,  at  Deventer.  There  these  brethren  lived  together;  and,  by 
the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  a  chain  of  such  houses  had  extended 
from  Cambray  in  the  Netherlands,  through  the  whole  of  Northern 
Germany,  to  Culm  in  West  Prussia ;  from  the  Scheldt  to  the  Vistula. 
And  all  this  was  the  blessed  fruit  of  Radewin's  inspired  suggestion. 

Gerard  only  survived  to  witness  the  first  beginnings  of  the  institu- 
tion :  he  died  in  1384  of  the  plague.  Dying,  he  appointed  Florentius 
his  successor,  for  he  could  choose  none  worthier.  His  last  words  were 
these  :  "  Behold,  the  Lord  is  calling  me ;  the  hour  of  my  redemption 
is  close  at  hand  :  Augustine  and  Bernard  are  waiting  at  the  door." 

Thomas-a-Kempis  depicts  Gerard  as  a  man,  who  worked  out  the 
salvation  of  his  soul  with  the  same  severe  asceticism  that  had  charac- 
terized Augustine  and  Bernard.  He  denied  himself  every  worldly 
pleasure,  even  the  most  innocent,  wore  coarse  garments,  ate  his  food 
burnt  and  unsalted,  and  avoided  all  female  society. 

His  views  of  knowledge,  I  give  in  his  own  words.  "  Make  the  gos- 
pels, first  of  all,  the  root  of  all  your  studies  and  the  mirror  of  your  life, 
for  in  them  is  portrayed  the  character  of  Christ ;  then  the  lives  and 


THE  HIERONYMIAN8.  ^ 

opinions  of  the  fathers,  the  acts  and  deeds  of  the  apostles,  and  tne 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  to  which  you  may  add  the  devotional  works  oi 
Bernard,  Anselm,  Augustine,"  &c. 

His  curriculum  of  study  was  accordingly  contracted  within  very 
narrow  limits.  "Spend  no  time,"  he  continues,  "  either  on  geometry 
arithmetic,  rhetoric,  logic,  grammar,  poetry  or  judicial  astrology. 
All  these  branches  Seneca  rejects :  how  much  more,  then,  should  a 
spiritually-minded  Christian  pass  them  by,  since  they  subserve  in  no 
respect  the  life  of  faith  !  Of  the  sciences  of  the  pagans,  their  ethics 
may  not  be  so  scrupulously  shunned,  since  these  were  the  special 
field  of  the  wiser  among  them,  as  Socrates  and  Plato.  That  which 
does  not  better  a  man,  or  at  least  does  not  reclaim  him  from  evil,  is 
positively  hurtful.  Neither  ought  we  to  read  pagan  books,  nor  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  to  penetrate  into  the  mysteries  of  nature  by  the 
means."  All  literary  fame,  and  the  gloss  and  show  of  learning  alike, 
Gerard  utterly  despised. 

He  evidently  prized  those  things  alone,  which  promoted  holiness ; 
and  all  that  did  not  work  for  this  result,  even  were  it  speculative 
theology,  (dogmatics,)  to  say  nothing  of  other  sciences  and  the  arts, 
he  thrust  into  the  back -ground.  With  such  sentiments,  the  higher 
studies  of  course  found  no  favor  in  his  eyes;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
he  devoted  himself  with  zeal  to  the  cause  of  popular  education. 

Let  us  now  return  to  Florentine  and  his  brotherly  unions.  In  the 
ascetic  severity  of  his  character,  he  resembled  Gerard,  though  consti- 
tutionally he  was  more  cheerful,  and  endowed  with  more  practical 
abilities.  By  the  power  of  the  purest  and  the  most  unselfish  love,  he 
exerted  a  wonderful  influence  over  those  with  whom  he  had  to  do, 
and  especially  over  his  disciples,  who  revered  and  loved  him.  Says 
Thomas- a-Kempis,  "he  was  filled  with  all  spiritual  wisdom,  and  a 
knowledge  of  God  in  Christ.  And  though  he  survived  Gerard  but 
fifteen  years,  yet  in  this  brief  time  he  founded  many  brotherly  unions." 
The  establishment  at  Deventer,  over  which  he  himself  presided,  was, 
according  to  Thomas,  modeled  upon  the  humility  of  the  apostles,  and 
formed  a  mirror  of  piety,  all  the  brethren  being  of  one  heart  and  one 
mind,  self-denying,  devout  and  full  of  mercy.  With  regard  to  the  in- 
ternal economy  of  these  houses  or  unions,  the  number  of  the  brethren 
thus  living  together  was  about  twenty,  and  they  had  a  common  table 
and  purse.  Each  house  usually  had  four  officiating  priests,  while  the 
rest  of  the  inmates  were  either  students  of  divinity  or  laymen.  The 
students  wer»  similar  to  monks,  yet  with  this  difference,  that  they  dis- 
pensed with  all  strict  rules  and  inexorable  vows.  The  brethren  were 
industrious,  maintaining  themselves  by  handicrafts,  especially  by 


48  THE  HIERONYMlAWe. 

copying.     And,  on  the  invention  of  printing,  it  was  the  Hieronymiana 
at  Gouda  who  set  the  first  types  in  Holland. 

Pursuant  to  the  injunctions  of  Gerard,  Florentius  founded,  in  the 
year  1386,  at  Windesheim,  near  Gouda,  a  monastery  of  regular  canons? 
u  which,  both  for  counsel  and  for  action,  should  be  a  rallying  point  for 
the  entire  '  Union  of  the  Common  Life.'"  This  was  soon  followed  by 
the  establishment  of  another  on  Mount  St.  Agnes,  at  Zwoll ;  and,  by  the 
year  1430,  there  were  forty-five  such  monasteries  in  existence.  Their 
inmates  became  most  industrious  copyists,  and  they  would  appear  at 
times  to  have  carried  their  occupation  to  excess.  And  because  many 
of  them,  through  too  great  abstinence,  became  crazed,  the  question 
was  put  to  new  applicants  at  the  monastery  of  Windesheim,  "  Do  you 
eat  and  sleep  well,  and  do  you  obey  with  alacrity  ? "  for  on  these  three 
points  their  perseverance  \n  piety  was  thought  to  depend.* 

After  a  blissful  life,  such  as  falls  to  the  lot  of  few,  Florentius  died  in 
the  year  1400,  at  the  age  of  fifty  years. 

After  him  and  Gerard  the  Great,  a  third  person  exerted  a  vast 
influence  among  the  Hieronymians.  This  was  Gerard  Zerbolt,  com- 
monly styled,  from  the  place  of  his  birth,  Gerard  of  Zutphen.  He 
was  born  in  the  year  1367.  His  unremitting  efforts  were  given  to 
the  cause  of  the  "  diffusion  and  the  use  of  the  Bible  in  the  vernacular, 
as  well  as  the  employment  of  this,  (i.  e.,  the  vernacular,)  on  all  relig- 
ious and  ecclesiastical  occasions."  He  wrote  a  book  called  "De 
libris  Teutonicalibus,"  in  which  he  expressly  insists  that  the  laity  should 
read  the  Bible  in  their  native  tongue.  "The  books  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,"  he  says,  "  were  originally  composed  in  the  native  tongue 
of  those  for  whom  they  were  immediately  designed ;  and  for  all 
others  they  should  be  translated.  And  the  Vulgate  version  was  in 
Latin  for  this  reason  alone,  namely,  that,  when  it  was  made,  the  Latin 
tongue  was  spoken  over  the  whole  of  the  great  Roman  empire 
And  the  Holy  Spirit  conferred  the  gift  of  tongues  upon  the  apostles, 
in  order  that  they  might  be  enabled  to  preach  to  all  the  different  na- 
tions in  their  different  languages."  And  he  closes  by  quoting,  from 
the  most  distinguished  fathers  of  the  church,  expressions  confirmatory 
of  his  own  views.  Prayer  likewise,  he  contended,  should  be  offered  in 
the  native  tongue  of  the  petitioner.  So  ceaseless  and  unresting  were 
his  labors,  that  his  early  death,  in  the  year  1398,  when  he  was  but 
thirty-one  years  of  age,  is  to  be  traced  directly  to  over-much  study. 

We  should  also  speak  in  this  connection  of  a  man,  whose  name  has 
penetrated  into  all  the  world ;  and  that  man  is  Thomas-a-Kempis. 

*  Delprat  and  TJlman  both  quote  this  question,  but  without  the  motive  annexed,  and  base 
upon  it  the  charge  of  epicureanism.  But  the  "  Lives  "  of  Thomas-a-Kempis  leave  no  room 
to  doubt  of  the  excessive  abstinence  of  the  monks. 


THE  HIERONYMIANS. 


49 


Born  in  1380,  at  thirteen  he  entered  the  school  of  Deventer,  and 
there  became  known  to  Florentius,  who  aided  him  in  many  ways  and 
that  right  heartily.  Seven  years  after,  or  in  1400,  he  joined  the  Mount 
St.  Agnes  monastery,  above  mentioned,  and  there  for  the  long  period 
of  seventy -one  years  he  passed  a  serene  and  contemplative  life,  dying, 
in  1472,  at  the  age  of  ninety-two  years.  Thomas  has  sketched  for 
us  the  lives  of  both  the  Gerards,  of  Florentius,  and  of  many  other 
distinguished  Hieronymians  likewise,  besides  composing  many  devo- 
tional books.  One  of  these  latter,  the  "  Imitation  of  Christ,"  has 
been  read  more  than  any  other  book  of  devotion  in  the  world.  It  has 
been  translated  into  very  many  different  languages ;  the  Latin 
original  has  passed  through  more  than  2000  editions, — the  French 
translation,  more  than  1000.* 

The  hostile  machinations  of  the  begging  friars,  which  Gerard  the 
Great  experienced,  followed  the  Hieronymians  after  his  death.  Gra- 
bow,  a  Saxon  Dominican,  brought  a  most  insidious  accusation  against 
them  before  Pope  Martin  V.,  and  was  thereby  instrumental  in  placing 
them  under  ban.  But  Chancellor  John  Gerson  pronounced  a  decis- 
ion at  the  Council  of  Constance  against  this  accusation,  as  follows, 
namely  :  "  that  the  accusatory  document,  since  it  was  heretical,  should 
be  committed  to  the  flames."  And  accordingly  Grabow  was  com- 
pelled to  retract  his  charge.  Thus  the  Hieronymians  obtained  a 
formal  recognition  both  from  Pope  and  Council ;  for  a  Bull  of  Pope 
Eugene  IV.,  in  1437,  and  a  second  of  Sixtus  IV.,  in  1474,  invested 
them  with  full  privileges,  and  Pius  II.  likewise  shewed  himself  favora- 
ble to  them. 

In  the  year  1505  the  last  union,  that  at  Cambray,  was  established. 
The  greatest  efficiency  of  the  brotherhood  dates  in  the  16th  century. 
As  the  Reformation  was  inaugurated,  many  of  their  number  gave  in 
their  adhesion  to  it ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Jesuits  gradually 
absorbed  many  of  their  establishments. 

After  this  cursory  glance  at  the  brotherhood  and  its  founders,  let 
us  examine  its  educational  efficiency.  For,  because  of  their  activity  in 
promoting  education,  the  brethren  were  also  called  the  *'  scholarly 
fraternity,"  "fratres  scholares" 

And  yet  it  is  not  an  easy  task  to  characterize  this  activity,  for  it 
bore  a  very  different  impress  according  to  times  and  circumstances. 

*  There  has  been  much  controversy  as  to  whether  Thomas  a-Kempis  were  really  its  author 
Delprat  mentions  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  different  treatises  adverse  to  his  claim.  But 
Ulman  decides  in  his  favor  on  sufficiently  weighty  grounds.  The  "  Imitatio  Christi  "  was 
translated  into  Latin  by  Castellio,  the  same  who  translated  the  Vulgate  into  Latin.  "  This  lit- 
tle book,"  says  Castellio,  "  I  have  deemed  worthy  to  be  turned  from  Latin  into  Latin,  that  is 
from  a  rustic  dialect  into  more  elegant  and  polished  language." 

4 


~Q  THE  HIERONYMIANS. 

The  view  which  Gerard  the  Great  took  of  knowledge  we  have 
already  seen.  It  was  the  view  of  a  man,  who,  satiated  with  scholastic 
studies,  burned  his  books  of  magic  also,  thus  bidding  a  final  adieu  to 
all  unprofitable  sciences,  to  strive  alone  after  the  one  thing  needful. 
If  he  had  before  toilsomely  pursued  shadowy  theories,  he  now  so  much 
the  more  applied  his  whole  soul  to  the  substantial  and  the  practical, 
resolutely  refraining  from  all  knowledge  except  that  which  had  a 
direct  bearing  upon  a  holy  life. 

With  him,  the  pious,  contemplative  Thomas-a-Keni pis  fully  coin- 
cided. Such  expressions  as  the  following  abound  in  the  writings  of 
the  latter  :  "  Cease  from  an  inordinate  desire  for  knowledge,  for  this 
brings  great  perplexity  and  delusion  with  it.  Learned  men  crave  the 
notice  of  the  world,  and  wish  to  be  accounted  wise.  But  there  is 
much  knowledge  which  adds  little  or  nothing  to  the  welfare  of  the 
soul.  And  that  man  is  surely  most  foolish,  who  strives  after  any 
thing  which  does  not  advance  his  own  supreme  good." 

With  these  sentiments,  he  applied  himself,  as  we  might  naturally 
expect,  principally  to  the  study  of  the  Bible.  So  also  did  the  two 
Gerards.  And  these  men  were  all  prompted  by  their  love  for  souls  to 
use  every  energy  to  make  the  book  of  salvation  accessible  to  the  un- 
learned. Gerard  of  Zutphen,  especially,  was  untiring  in  his  endeavors 
to  give  the  people  a  Bible  that  they  could  read. 

And  this  is  the  beginning  and  the  foundation  of  a  Christian  popular 
education.  If  you  give  the  Bible  to  the  people,  they  must  learn  to 
read  it,  and  writing  is  linked  to  reading,  following  close  upon  its 
footsteps.  The  germ  that  began  to  sprout  here,  sprang  up,  in  the 
Reformation,  into  a  broad  and  vigorous  growth. 

The  Hieronymians  devoted  themselves, .  however,  not  merely  to 
popular  instruction,  but  to  the  higher  branches  of  learning.  This  we 
may  gather  with  certainty  from  the  fact  that  distinguished  scholars 
were  formed  in  their  schools. 

It  is  nevertheless  hard  to  decide  what  schools  we  are  to  regard  as 
theirs.  For  in  some  places  the  brethren  themselves  were  principals, 
superintending  every  department  of  instruction  ;  in  others  again,  they 
gave  assistance  in  schools  already  existing,  teaching  in  a  subordinate 
capacity,  but  yet  taking  much  interest  in  the  scholars.  In  the  houses 
of  the  brethren,  reading,  writing,  singing,  and  Latin  conversation  and 
declamation  were  taught;  and  there  would  appear  to  have  been 
boarding-scholars  at  all  of  them.  In  the  house  at  Deventer,  Latin 
speaking  was  carried  to  such  an  extent,  that  a  penalty  was  laid  upon 
the  scholar  who  should  utter,  even  through  a  slip  of  the  tongue, 
a  word  of  Dutch.  Yet  the  style  of  Latin  which  they  aimed 


THE  HIERONYMIANS.  -  ^ 

to  impart  was  mediaeval  and  barbarous,  such  as  the  clergy  were  then 
accustomed  to  employ. 

The  Latinity  of  the  early  Hieronymians,  and  even  that  of  Thomas- 
a-Kempis,  was  very  far  from  classical.  But  a  new  era  dawned  upon 
these  schools,  when  the  Italians  exerted  a  direct  influence  upon  them 
through  such  of  the  Netherlanders  and  Germans  as  had  in  part 
been  molded  in  them,  and  had  afterward  visited  Italy.  How  wide 
a  difference  there  was  between  the  Hieronymians  in  their  earlier 
years  and  the  Italians  of  the  14th  and  15th  centuries,  we  need 
but  a  hasty  comparison  to  determine.  Those  as  truly  as  these  re- 
jected the  divinity  of  the  schools  ;  but  how  diverse  their  motives ! 
For  the  Italians,  fascinated  by  the  beauties,  the  poetry  and  the  elo- 
quence of  the  pagan  classics,  conceived  an  aversion  for  the  hideous 
jargon  of  the  school-dialecticians,  even  when  these  were  Christian. 
The  Hieronymians,  on  the  other  hand,  turned  away  from  scholasticism, 
because  it  did  not  profit  them  ;  nay  more,  because  it  stood  directly  in 
the  way  of  all  earnest  self-consecration,  and  the  salvation  of  souls. 
And  hence  it  was,  that  they  pursued  with  so  much  eagerness  the 
study  of  the  Bible,  while  the  Italians  scarce  gave  so  much  as  a  thought 
to  it.  And  still  less  did  these  latter  think  of  circulating  the  Bible,  or 
of  promoting  popular  education,  which  cause  was  so  dear  to  the  breth- 
ren ;  but  when,  like  Guarino  and  Vittorino  di  Feltre,  they  turned  their 
thoughts  to  education,  they  devoted  themselves  chiefly  to  the  instruc- 
tion of  princes  or  nobles. 

But  when  a  love  for  the  classics  was  awakened  among  the  Germans 
and  Netherlanders,  they  still  preserved  the  Christian  element,  as  the 
ground  of  all  mental  culture  and  instruction,  and  despite  their  admi- 
ration of  pagan  authors,  that  pagan  bias,  (paganitas,)  which  Erasmus 
reproves  in  the  Italians,  was  ever  an  abomination  to  them. 

"  Thomas-a-Kempis  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  flower  of  the  ascetic 
piety  which  the  institution  of  the  *  Common  Life '  fostered  ;  Agricola, 
Alexander  Hegius,  and,  if  you  will,  Erasmus  also,  of  its  philosophic 
learning ;  and  Wessel,  of  its  theological  science." 


52  HI ERONYMIANS— REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS. 

In  process  of  time  the  Brethren  of  Common  Life  spread  over  Flanders,  France, 
and  Germany,  and  the  schools  they  founded  multiplied  and  flourished.  They 
were  introduced  into  the  University  of  Paris  by  John  ^tandonch,  a  doctor  of 
the  Sorbonne,  who  gave  into  their  direction  the  college  de  Montaigu,  of  which 
he  was  their  principal,  and  established  them  in  Cambray,  Valenciennes,  Mech- 
lin, and  Louvain.  He  drew  up  statutes  for  their  use,  which  are  supposed  by 
Du  Boulay  to  have  furnished  St.  Ignatius  with  the  first  notions  of  his  rule,  an 
idea  which  receives  some  corroboration  from  the  fact  that  the  saint  studied  at 
the  college  de  Montaigu  during  his  residence  at  the  University  of  Paris.  Stan- 
donch  himself  received  the  habit  o'f  the  Poor  Clerks,  as  they  were  now  often 
called,  and  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  more  than  300  good  scholars  issue 
from  his  schools,  many  of  whom  undertook  the  direction  or  reform  of  other 
academic*.  In  1430  the  Institute  numbered  forty-five  houses,  and  thirty  years 
later  the  numbers  were  increased  threefold.  The  Deventer  brethren  were  far 
from  being  mere  mystics  and  transcribers  of  books.  The  aim  of  their  founda- 
tion was  doubtless  to  supply  a  system  of  education  which  should  revive  some- 
thing of  the  old  monastic  discipline,  but  they  cultivated  all  the  higher  branches 
of  learning,  and  their  schools  were  among  the  first  of  those  north  of  the  Alps, 
which  introduced  the  revived  study  of  classical  literature.  One  of  their  most 
illustrious  scholars  was  Nicholas  of  Cusa,  or  Cusanus,  the  son  of  a  poor  fisher- 
man, who  won  his  doctor's  cap  at  Padua,  and  became  renowned  for  his  Greek, 
Hebrew,  and  mathematical  learning.  Eugenius  IV.  appointed  him  his  legate, 
and  Nicholas  V.  created  him  cardinal,  and  bishop  of  Brixen,  in  the  Tyrol.  His 
personal  character  won  him  the  veneration  of  his  people,  but,  according  to  Ten- 
nemann,  his  love  of  mathematics  led  him  into  many  theological  extravagances. 
He  was  strongly  inclined  to  the  views  of  the  Neo-Platonists  ;  he  considered, 
moreover,  that  all  human  knowledge  was  contained  in  the  ideas  of  numbers, 
and  attempted  to  explain  the  mysteiy  of  the  Holy  Trinity  on  mathematical  prin- 
ciples. He  was  undoubtedly  a  distinguished  man  of  science,  and  was  the  first 
among  moderns  to  revive  the  Pythagorean  hypothesis  of  the  motion  of  the  earth 
round  the  sun.  Cusanus  had  studied  at  most  of  the  great  universities,  but  held 
none  of  them  in  great  esteem,  for  he  professed  a  sovereign  contempt  for  the 
scholastic  philosophy  which  still  held  its  ground  in  those  academies.  At  his 
death  he  left  his  wealth  to  a  hospital  which  he  had  founded  in  his  native  village, 
and  to  which  he  attached  a  magnificent  library.  Deventer  could  boast  indeed 
of  being  the  fruitful  mother  of  great  scholars,  such  as  Hegius,  Langius,  and 
Dringeberg,  all  of  whom  afterwards  took  part  in  the  restoration  of  letters. 

The  Brethren,  moreover,  displayed  extraordinary  zeal  in  promoting  the  new 
art  of  printing,  and  one  of  the  earliest  Flemish  presses  was  set  up  in  their  col- 
lege. And  in  1475,  when  Alexander  Hegius  became  rector  of  the  schools,  he 
made  the  first  bold  experiment  of  printing  Greek.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that 
such  a  revolution  as  that  which  was  brought  about  in  the  world  of  letters  by  the 
new  invention  could  fail  of  producing  events  of  a  mixed  character  of  good  and 
evil.  Whatever  was  fermenting  in  the  minds  of  the  people  now  found  expres- 
sion through  the  press,  and  Hallam  notices  '  the  incredible  host  of  popular  relig- 
ious tracts  poured  forth '  before  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  most  of  them 
of  a  character  hostile  to  the  faith.  The  first  censorship  of  printed  books  ap- 
pears to  have  been  established  in  1480,  by  Berthold,  archbishop  of  Mentz.  who 
explained  his  reasons  for  taking  this  step  in  a  mandate,  wherein  he  complains 
of  the  abuse  of  the  '  divine  art '  of  printing,  whereby  perverse  men  have  turned 


HIERONYMIANS— REVIYAL  OF  LETTERS.  53 

that  to  the  injury  of  mankind  which  was  designed  for  their  instruction.  Spe- 
cially he  alludes  to  those  unauthorized  and  faulty  translations  into  the  vulgar 
tongue  of  the  Scriptures,  and  even  the  canons  of  the  Church,  wherein  men  of 
no  learning  or  experience  have  taken  on  them  to  invent  new  words  or  use  old 
ones  in  erroneous  senses,  in  order  to  express  the  meaning  of  the  original,  'a 
thing  most  dangerous  in  the  sacred  Scriptures/  He  therefore  forbids  any  such 
translations  to  be  thenceforward  published  without  being  approved  by  four 
doctors,  under  pain  of  excommunication,  desiring  that  the  art  which  was  first 
of  all  discovered  in  this  city,  '  not  without  divine  aid/  should  be  maintained  in 
all  its  honour. 

This  mandate-  was  only  directed  against  the  faulty  translations  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  No  opposition  was  offered  to  the  multiplication  of  correct  versions, 
both  of  the  Latin  Vulgate,  and  its  various  translations.  The  Cologne  Bible, 
printed  in  1479,  had  before  this  appeared,  with  the  formal  approbation  of  the 
university.  The  very  first  book  printed  by  Gutenburg  and  Faust  in  1453,  was 
the  Latin  Bible,  and  among  the  twenty-four  books  printed  in  Germany  be- 
fore the  year  1470  we  find  five  Latin  and  two  German  editions  of  the  Bible. 
Translations  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  into  variotfs  tongues  were  among  the  very 
first  books  issued  from  the  press;  as  the  Bohemian  version  in  1475,  the  Italian 
in  1471 — which  ran  through  eleven  editions  before  the  close  of  the  century, 
the  Dutch  in  1477,  and  the  French  in  the  same  year.  The  admirers  of  Luther 
have  therefore  fallen  into  a  strange  error,  when  they  represent  him  as  the  first 
to  unlock  the  Scriptures  to  the  people,  for  twenty-four  editions  of  the  German 
Bible  alone  had  been  printed  and  published  before  his  time. 

It  was  in  the  year  1476  that  a  little  choir-boy  of  Utrecht  entered  the  college 
of  Deventer,  and  gave  such  signs  of  genius  and  industry  as  to  draw  from  his 
masters  the  prediction  that  he  would  one  day  be  the  light  of  his  age.  He  was  a 
namesake  of  the  founder,  but,  after  the  fashion  of  the  day,  adopted  a  Latin  and 
Greek  version  of  his  Flemish  name  of  Gerard,  and  was  to  be  known  to  posterity 
as  Desiderius  Erasmus.  Like  Thomas  a  Kempis,  he  passed  from  the  schools  of 
Deventer  to  the  cloisters  of  the  canons  regular,  a  step  which,  he  assures  us,  was 
forced  on  him  by  his  guardians,  and  never  had  his  own  assent.  A  happy  acci- 
dent enabled  him  to  visit  Rome  in  the  suite  of  the  Bishop  of  Cambray ;  and, 
once  released  from  the  wearisome  discipline  of  convent  life,  he  never  returned  to 
it,  but  spent  the  rest  of  his  life  wandering  from  one  to  another  of  the  capitals  of 
France,  Italy,  and  England,  teaching  for  a  livelihood,  courted  by  all  the  literary 
and  religious  parties  of  the  day,  and  satirising  them  all  by  turns ;  indisputably 
the  literary  Coryphaeus  of  his  age,  but  penetrated  through  and  through  with  its 
scoffing  and  presumptuous  spirit.  It  was  an  age  fruitful  in  pedants  and  human- 
ists, whose  destiny  it  was  to  help  on  the  revolution  in  Faith  by  a  revolution  in 
letters.  Schools  and  professors  multiplied  throughout  Germany.  At  the  very 
time  when  Hegius  was  teaching  the  elements  of  Greek  to  Erasmus,  his  old  com- 
rades Langius  and  Dringeberg  were  presiding  over  the  schools  of  Munster  and 
Schelstadt.  Rodolph  Langius  exerted  himself  strenuously  in  the  cause  of  polite 
letters,  and  whilst  superintending  his  classes  occupied  spare  moments  in  correct- 
ing the  text  of  almost  every  Latin  work  which  at  that  time  issued  from  the 
press,  and  in  making  deadly  war  on  the  scholastic  philosophy.  His  rejection  of 
the  old-fashioned  school-books  and  his  innovations  on  time-honoured  abuses 
raised  against  him  the  friars  of  Cologne,  and  a  controversy  ensued  in  which 
Langiui  won  so  much  success  as  enabled  him  to  fix  the  stigma  of  barbarism  on 


54  KIERONYMIANS— REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS. 

his  opponents.  His  friend  and  namesake  Rodolph  Agricola,  who  had  studied  a? 
Ferrara  under  Theodore  of  Gaza,  and  was  held  by  his  admirers  superior  in  eru- 
dition to  Tolitian  himself,  at  this  time  presided  over  the  school  of  Groningen. 
Besides  his  skill  in  the  learned  tongues  he  was  a  poet,  a  painter,  a  musician,  an 
orator,  and  a  philosopher.  Such  a  multitude  of  accomplishments  won  him  an 
invitation  to  the  court  of  the  Elector  Palatine  at  Heidelberg,  where  a  certain 
learned  academy  had  been  founded,  called  the  Rhenish  Society,  for  the  encour- 
agement of  Greek  and  Hebrew  literature,  the  members  of  which,  says  Ilallam, 
'did  not  scorn  to  relax  their  minds  with  feasting  and  dancing,  not  forgetting  the 
ancient  German  attachment  to  the  flowing  cup.'  This  is  a  polite  way  of  ren- 
dering a  very  ugly  passage,  which  in  the  original  tells  us  plainly  that  the  Rhe- 
nish academicians  were  addicted  to  excessive  inebriety  and  other  disgraceful 
vices.  It  is  somewhat  remarkable,  however,  that  Agricola,  who  died  three  years 
after  his  removal  to  Heidelberg,  received  on  his  death-bed  the  habit  of  those  very 
friars  whom,  during  life,  he  and  his  friend  Langius  had  done  their  best  to  hold 
up  to  popular  contempt. 

About  the  same  time  Reuchlin  was  studying  at  Paris,  where,  in  1458,  Greg- 
ory of  Tiferno  had  been  appointed  Greek  professor.  Reuchlin  visited  Rome, 
and  translated  a  passage  from  Thucydides,  in  the  presence  of  Argyrophilus, 
with  such  success  that  the  Greek  exclaimed,  in  a  transport  of  delight  (and  pos- 
sibly of  surprise,  at  such  an  achievement  on  the  part  of  a  Northern  barbarian), 
'  our  banished  Greece  has  flown  beyond  the  Alps ! '  Reuchlin  was  a  Hebrew 
scholar,  a  circumstance  which,  in  the  end,  proved  his  ruin  ;  for,  embracing  the 
Cabalistic  philosophy,  he  abandonded  classics  and  good  sense  in  the  pursuit  of 
that  absurd  mysticism.  In  this  strange  infatuation  he  had  many  companions. 
Not  a  few  of  those  who  had  shown  themselves  foremost  in  deriding  the  scholas- 
tic philosophy,  ended  by  substituting  in  its  place  either  open  scepticism  or  the 
philosophy  of  magic.  A  few  years  later,  the  wild  theories  of  Cornelius  Agrip- 
pa,  Paracelsus,  and  Jerome  Cardan,  found  eager  adherents  among  those  who 
conceived  it  a  proof  of  good  scholarship  to  despise  St.  Thomas  as  a  Goth. 
Reuchlin,  whilst  pouring  forth  his  bitter  satires  against  the  old  theologians,  was 
printing  his  treatise  on  the  Cabala,  entitled  '  De  Verbo  Mirijico,'  wherein  magic 
is  declared  to  be  the  perfection  of  philosophy,  which  work  was  formally  con- 
demned at  Rome.  However,  all  the  French  savants  of  the  Renaissance  were 
not  Cabalists,  nor  did  all,  when  they  introduced  the  study  of  Greek,  forget  that 
it  was  the  language  of  the  Gospels.  The  real  restoration  of  Greek  studies  in 
France  must  be  ascribed  to  Budseus,  who  made  up,  by  the  piety  and  indefatiga- 
ble studies  of  his  later  years,  for  a  youth  of  wild  irregularity.  He  had  studied 
under  Lascaris,  and  though  he  had  reached  a  very  mature  age  before  he  devoted 
himself  to  letters,  he  soon  became  as  familiar  with  the  learned  tongues  as  with 
his  native  idiom.  His  treatise  on  the  Ancient  Money  first  rendered  his  name  fa- 
mous, and  secured  him  the  friendship  of  Francis  I.  He  profited  from  the  favor 
shown  him  by  that  monarch,  to  solicit  from  him  the  foundation  of  the  Royal 
College  of  France,  for  the  cultivation  of  the  three  learned  tongues,  and  thus 
fairly  introduced  the  '  Cecropian  Muse'  into  the  University  of  Paris.  If  we 
may  credit  the  authority  of  a  grave  rector  of  that  university,  this  momentous 
change  was  advantageous,  not  merely  to  the  minds,  but  also  to  the  morals 
of  her  students.  St.  Jerome,  as  we  know,  imposed  upon  himself  the  study  of 
Hebrew  as  an  efficacious  means  of  taming  the  passions;  and  Rollin  affirms  that, 
many  who,  in  former  years,  had  been  nothing  but  idle  men  of  pleasure,  when 


HIERONYMIANS—  REVIVAL  OF  LETTER*.  55 

once  they  began  to  read  the  Greek  authors  flung  their  vices  and  follies  to  the 
winds,  and  led  the  simple  and  austere  manner  of  life  that  becomes  a  scholar. 
He  quotes  a  passage  from  the  manuscript  Memoirs  of  Henry  de  Mesmes,  which 
gives  a  pleasant  picture  of  the  college  life  of  those  days,  and  may  be  taken  as 
an  example  of  the  sort  of  labour  imposed  on  a  hard-working  law  student  of  the 
sixteenth  century  : — 

'  My  father  gave  me  for  a  tutor  John  Maludan  of  Limoges,  a  pupil  of  the 
learned  Durat,  who  was  chosen  for  the  innocence  of  his  life  and  his  suitable  age 
to  preside  over  my  early  years,  till  I  should  be  old  enough  to  govern  myself. 
With  him  and  my  brother,  John  James  de  Mesmes,  1  was  sent  to  the  college  of 
Burgundy,  and  was  put  into  the  third  class,  and  I  afterwards  spent  almost  a 
year  in  the  first.  My  father  said  he  had  two  motives  for  thus  sending  me  to  the 
college  :  the  one  was  the  cheerful  and  innocent  conversation  of  the  boys,  and  the 
other  was  the  school  discipline,  bv  which  he  trusted  that  we  should  be  weaned 
from  the  over-fondness  that  had  been  shown  us  at  home,  and  purified,  as  it 
were,  in  fresh  water.  Those  eighteen  months  I  passed  at  college  were  of  great 
service  to  me.  I  learnt  to  recite,  to  dispute,  and  to  sj.eak  in  public  ;  and  I  be- 
came acquainted  with  several  excellent  men,  many  of  whom  are  still  living.  I 
learned,  moreover,  the  frugality  of  the  scholar's  li'fe,  and  how  to  portion  out  my 
day  to  advantage  ;  so  that,  by  the  time  I  left,  I  had  repeated  in  public  abundance 
of  Latin,  and  two  thousand  Greek  verses,  which  I  had  written  after  the  fashion 
of  boys  of  my  age,  and  I  could  repeat  Homer  from  one  end  to  the  other.  I  was 
thus  well  received  by  the  chief  men  of  my  time,  to  some  of  whom  my  tutor  in- 
troduced me.  In  1545,  I  was  sent  to  Toulouse  with  my  tutor  and  brother,  to 
study  law  under  an  old  grey -haired  professor,  who  had  travelled  half  over  the 
world.  There  we  remained  for  three  years,  studying  severely,  and  under  such 
strict  rules  as  I  fancy  few  persons  now-a-days  would  care  to  comply  with.  We 
rose  at  four,  and,  having  said  our  prayers,  went  to  lectures  at  five,  with  our  great 
books  under  our  arms,  and  our  inkhorns  and  candlesticks  in  our  hands.  We  at- 
tended all  the  lectures  until  ten  o'clock,  without  intermission  ;  then  we  went  to 
dinner,  after  having  hastily  collated  during  half  an  hour  what  our  master  had 
written  down.  After  dinner,  by  way  of  diversion,  we  read  Sophocles,  or  Aristo- 
phanes, or  Euripides,  and  sometimes  Demosthenes,  Tully,  Virgil,  and  Horace. 
At  one,  we  were  at  our  studies  again,  returning  home  at  five  to  repeat  and  turn 
to  the  places  quoted  in  our  books,  till  past  six.  Then  came  supper,  after  which 
we  read  some  Greek  or  Latin  author.  On  feast  days  we  heard  mass  and  vespers, 
and  the  rest  of  the  day  we  were  allowed  a  little  music  and  walking.  Sometimes 
we  went  to  see  our  friends,  who  invited  us  much  oftener  than  we  were  permitted 
to  go.  The  rest  of  the  day  we  spent  in  reading,  and  we  generally  had  with  us 
some  learned  men  of  that  time/ 

We  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  the  frugal  and  laborious  training  of 
Henry's  early  life  was  the  means  of  forming  a  manly  and  Christian  character. 
Nor  is  the  portrait  less  pleasing  which  the  biographer  of  Budseus  has  left  us  of 
the  domestic  life  of  that  great  man,  who,  though  he  had  visited  the  court  of  Leo 
X.,  in  quality  of  ambassador  of  France,  and  was  the  chief  lion  of  the  French 
world  of  letters,  retained  to  his  dying  day  those  simple  tastes  and  habits,  which 
we  are  assured  resulted  from  no  affectation  of  laconic  manners,  but  a  certain 
genuine  sentiment  of  humility.  His  secretary  and  constant  fellow-labourer  was 
his  wife,  who  sat  in  his  study,  found  out  passages  in  his  books  of  reference,  cop- 
ied his  papers,  and  withal  did  not  forget  his  domestic  comfort.  Budeeus  needed 
some  such  good  angel  by  his  side,  for  he  belonged  to  that  class  of  scholars  who 
are  more  familiar  with  the  Latin  As  than  with  the  value  of  louis  d'ors.  His 
mind  was  in  his  books,  and  whilst  busy  with  the  doings  of  the  Greeks  and  Ro- 
mans he  could  not  always  call  home  his  absent  thoughts.  It  is  to  be  regretted, 
that  with  a  character  in  many  respects  so  amiable,  Budaeus  should  have  permit- 
ted his  love  of  Greek  to  lead  him  to  take  p?.rc  with  the  Humanists  in  the  ferocious 
onslaughts  which  they  directed  against  the  adherents  of  the  mediaeval  learning. 


EMINENT  TEACHERS  IN  THE  NETHERLANDS, 

PRIOR    TO    1500. 

FROM   THE    GERMAN   OP   KARL   VON   RAUMER. 
[Translated  by  L.  W.  Fitch] 


JOHN   WESSEL. 

JOHN  WESSEL  was  a  baker's  son,  and  was  born  in  1420,  at  Groningen. 
Here  he  received  his  early  education,  after  which  he  went  to  Zwoll,  to 
the  school  of  the  Hieronymians,  where  Thomas-a-Kempis  exerted  a 
powerful  influence  upon  him.  He  then  studied  in  Cologne, — and 
about  the  year  1452  went  to  Paris,  where  he  made  the  acquaintance 
of  Bessarion  and  Francis  de  Novera,  afterward  Pope  Sixtus  IV.  In 
1470  he  made  a  journey  to  Italy.  Already  won  over  to  Platonism 
by  Bessarion,  his  stay  in  Florence  wedded  him  more  closely  to  it. 
When  in  Rome,  Pope  Sixtus  IV.  bade  him  ask  a  favor  of  him,  and 
Wessel  accordingly  besought  him  for  a  Greek  and  a  Hebrew  Bible 
from  the  Vatican  Library.  Returning  to  Paris  in  1473,  Reuchlin, 
then  18  years  old,  made  his  acquaintance,  and  he  appears  to 
have  given  a  great  impetus  to  the  philosophical  and  humanistic 
studies  of  Reuchlin.  His  fellow-countryman,  Agricola,  was  likewise 
with  him  at  Paris ;  and  was  persuaded  by  Wessel  to  the  study  of 
the  Hebrew. 

In  his  later  years  he  returned  to  his  native  country,  and  lived  at 
times  in  the  Mount  St.  Agnes  Monastery,  at  Zwoll,  where  Thomas-a- 
Kempis  also  passed  his  long  and  peaceful  life.  He  spent  likewise  much 
time  in  the  monastery  Edward,  or  Edouard,  two  hours  distance  from 
Groningen,  and  in  a  convent  at  Groningen.  He  died  a  peaceful  death 
on  the  4th  of  October,  1489,  in  his  69th  year,  and  was  buried  in  that 
Groningen  convent. 

His  contemporaries  called  him  u  Lux  mundi"  also  "  Magister  con- 
troversiarum  /"  the  last  epithet  he  owed  to  his  many  philosophical 
and  theological  discussions.  His  philosophy  was  originally  realism  , 
but  later  he  became  a  nominalist,  as  were  all  the  reformers  with  the 
exception  of  Huss. 

His  theological  abilities  were  recognized  by  Luther.  "  Plad  I  known 
Wessel  or  read  his  books  earlier,"  says  Luther,  "my  adversaries 
would  have  fancied  that  I  had  obtained  this  thing  or  that  from  Wes- 
sel ;  so  much  do  our  sentiments  harmonize.  It  gives  me  peculiar  joy 
and  strength,  and  removes  every  doubt  that  I  might  have  had  of  the 
soundness  of  my  doctrine,  to  find  that  he  agrees  everywhere  with  me, 


JOHN  WESSEL.  ~7 

o  * 

both  in  thought  and  opinion,  expressing  himself  frequently  even  in 
the  same  words,  though  at  a  different  era,  when  another  air  was  over 
us,  and  another  wind  blew,  and  he  too  was  accustomed  to  another 
fashion  and  to  other  junctures."  In  another  place  Luther  says  : 
"Wessel  manages  matters  with  great  moderation  and  truth."  On 
this  account  it  was  that  Erasmus,  who  so  dearly  loved  and  prized 
peace,  thus  writes :  "  Wessel  has  much  in  common  with  Luther;  but 
in  how  much  more  modest  and  Christian  a  manner  he  conducts 
himself  than  do  they,  or  most  of  them !" 

Besides  Latin,  Wessel  understood  both  Greek  and  Hebrew.  The  nar- 
row limits  of  learning,  as  we  find  them  laid  down  by  the  earlier  Hierony- 
mians,  Wessel  far  exceeded.  His  long  residence  at  Paris,  and  the 
journey  to  Italy,  had  widened  his  intellectual  horizon  ;  for  it  was  only 
after  a  busy,  active  life  in  foreign  lands,  that  a  longing  was  created  in 
his  breast  for  his  own  land,  and  for  the  contemplative  quiet  that 
could  be  alone  secured  by  a  return  among  his  kindred. 

Greek  he  learned  from  Bessarion  and  other  Greek  scholars  in  Italy  ; 
but  who  taught  him  Hebrew  we  are  nowhere  informed. 

His  clearness  of  thought  especially  qualified  him  to  teach.  "  The 
scholar,"  he  says,  "  is  known  bv  his  ability  to  teach." 

His  instructive  intercourse  appears  to  have  had  a  very  marked  in- 
fluence on  many,  as  we  have  seen  that  it  did  on  Reuchlin  and  Agri- 
cola.  Especially  must  the  frequent  converse  of  many  distinguished 
men  with  the  aged  Wessel,  as  in  the  monastery  of  Edward,  have 
been  very  edifying,  both  in  a  literary  and  in  a  religious  aspect. 

Goswin  of  Halen,  earlier,  Wcssel's  scholar,  and,  at  the  close  of  the 
15th  and  the  commencement  of  the  16th  century,  head  of  the  broth- 
erly union  at  Groningen,  writes  of  this  converse  to  a  friend  as  follows  : 
"  I  have  known  Edward  for  more  than  forty  years ;  but  then  it  was 
less  a  monastery  than  a  college.  Of  this,  could  Rudolph  Agricola 
and  Wessel  bear  me  witness,  if  they  were  now  living,  as  also  Rudolph 
Lange,  of  Munster,  Alexander  Hegius,  and  others,  who  all  have 
passed  whole  weeks,  yea,  whole  months  at  Edward,  to  hear  and  to 
learn,  and  to  become  daily  more  learned  and  better."  "  To  become 
better,"  says  Goswin,  for  the  earnestness  of  a  Christian  morality 
animated  all  the  studies  of  Wessel,  a  depth  of  thought  which  was 
radically  opposed  to  the  aesthetic  pleasurableness  of  so  many  Italians. 
And  this  was  why  he  studied,  as  well  as  he  was  able  to  do,  the  Old 
Testament  in  the  original. 

We  can  not  better  present  to  our  view  the  love  and  the  well-directed 
labors  of  Wessel,  than  in  these  words  of  his  own :  "  Knowledge  is 
not  our  highest  aim.  for  he  who  only  knows  how  to  know,  is  a  fool ; 


58  JOHN   WESSEL. 

for  lie  has  no  taste  of  the  fruit  of  knowledge,  nor  does  he  understand 
how  Lo  order  his  knowledge  with  wisdom.  The  knowledge  of  truth 
is  its  own  glorious  fruit,  when  it  meets  with  a  wise  husbandman ;  for 
by  this  truth  he  may,  out  of  his  clear  knowledge,  come  to  God,  and 
become  God's  friend  ;  since  through  knowledge  he  unites  himself  to 
God,  and  progresses  step  by  step  in  this  union,  until  he  tastes  how 
gracious  the  Lord  is,  and  through  this  taste  becomes  more  desirous, 
yea,  burns  with  desire,  and  amid  this  glow  God  loves  him  and  lives  in 
him,  until  he  becomes  wholly  one  with  God.  This  is  the  true,  pure, 
earnest  fruit  of  an  earnest  knowledge,  which  in  very  truth  all  men  by 
nature  do  rather  desire  to  possess  than  mere  memory,  that  is  to  say, 
than  knowledge,  in  and  for  itself.  For,  as  unsettled  and  wavering 
opinions  are  empty  without  knowledge,  so  knowledge  is  unfruitful 
without  love." 

To  this  brief  sketch  of  Wessel  I  add  a  passage  from  Goswin.  It 
gives  us  a  view  of  the  nature  of  the  studies  that  men  and  youth  in 
Wessel's  vicinity  were  accustomed  to  pursue  at  Zwoll,  Edward,  and 
other  famous  schools  of  that  period,  and  likewise  what  writings  people, 
molded  by  such  influences,  would  chiefly  read  and  prize.  "  You  may 
read  Ovid,"  Goswin  remarks,  "  and  writers  of  that  stamp  through,  once  ; 
but  Virgil,  Horace,  and  Terence  are  to  be  studied  with  more  attention, 
and  oftener,  because  in  our  profession  we  need  to  bestow  especial 
study  upon  the  poets.  But,  above  all,  I  will  that  you  read  the  Bible 
constantly.  And,  since  one  ought  not  to  remain  in  ignorance  of  his- 
tory, I  counsel  you  to  take  up  Josephus,  and  for  church  history  to 
read  the  Tripartita*  Of  the  profane  writers,  Plutarch,  Sal  lust, 
Thucydides,  Herodotus,  and  Justin,  will  especially  profit  you.  Then 
it  will  do  you  no  harm  to  go  through  with  the  writings  of  Plato  and 
Aristotle.  But  with  Cicero  we  must  remain  longer,  in  order  that  we 
may  acquire  a  truly  Roman  style.  Next  to  our  Bible  it  is  well  to 
give  thorough  and  earnest  study  to  Augustine.  Him  you  may  follow 
up  by  Jerome,  Ambrose,  Chrysostom,  Gregory,  Bernard,  and  Hugo 
St.  Victor,  a  man  full  of  rich  instruction." 

This  passage  shows  how  much  the  circle  of  study  of  the  Hierony- 
mians  had  become  enlarged  during  the  15th  century.  This  we  owe 
to  the  influence  which  the  Italians  had  over  Wessel,  Agricola, 
Rudolph  Lange,  and  others,  who  again  in  their  turn  shaped  with  such 
power  both  German  and  Netherland  culture.  But  the  Bible  remained 
to  these  thoughtful  men  the  Book  of  books ;  neither  were  the  Fathers 
thrust  aside. 

*  This  was  a  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  church  taken  from  Socrates,  Theodoret,  and 
*3ozemenes,  translated  into  Latin  by  Caesiodore. 


RUDOLF  AGR1COLA.  59 


RUDOLF      AGRICOLA. 


RUDOLF  AGRICOLA  was  born  at  Baflo,  near  Groningen,  in  West 
Friesland,  in  1443.  His  proper  name  was  Husmann.  It  is  not 
known,  where  he  received  his  earliest  instruction.  He  studied  at  the 
University  of  Louvain,  where  he  read  Cicero  and  Quintilian  chiefly, 
and  after  an  honorable  career,  became  a  Magister  artium.  His  inter- 
course with  Frenchmen  while  at  Louvain,  was  the  means  of  teaching 
him  the  French  language. 

From  Louvain,  he  proceeded  to  Paris,  where  he  had  John  Wessel, 
among  others,  for  a  teacher.  In  1576,  he  went  to  Ferrara.  There 
he  studied  the  ancients  under  Theodore  Gaza  and  Guarini,  copied 
with  great  diligence  manuscripts,  Quintilian  among  the  rest,  and  won 
the  applause  of  the  Italians  by  his  Latin  speeches  and  poems,  as  well 
as  by  his  accomplished  singing  to  the  guitar.  He  delivered  an  ora- 
tion there  in  the  praise  of  philosophy,  before  Hercules  de'Este. 
There  too  commenced  his  friendship  for  Dalberg,  afterward  Bishop  of 
Worms,  and  Diedrich  Plenningen,  whom  he  was  wont  to  call  his 
Pliny. 

Returning  to  Germany,  he  tarried  six  months  of  the  year  1481  in 
Brussels,  at  the  court  of  the  then  arch-duke,  afterward  emperor,  Maxi- 
milian I.,'on  the  behalf  of  the  city  Groningen.  But  it  was  in  vain 
that  he  was  urged  to  remain  at  Maximilian's  court ;  for  his  repug- 
nance to  all  manner  of  constraint  was  too  great  to  admit  of  his 
accepting  the  proposal.  In  the  following  year,  1482,  his  friend 
Barbirianus,  invited  him  to  Antwerp,  to  superintend  a  school,  and 
likewise  to  give  lectures  to  amateurs.  Agricola  replied;  "  that  his 
friend  Plenningen,  had,  in  Dalberg's  name,  urged  him  in  a  most  polite 
letter  to  go  to  Heidelberg,  and  he  had  accordingly  made  the  long 
journey  from  Holland  thither.  Dalberg,  who  was  soon  after  chosen 
bishop  of  Worms,  and  other  friends,  had  pressed  him  to  stay  at 
Heidelberg,  saying,  that  he  would  exercise  an  advantageous  influence 
upon  the  studies  there,  and  would  have  many  hearers.  Philip,  the 
count  Palatine,  had  also  overloaded  him  with  kindness.  And  Dal- 
berg had  oft'ered  him  his  house,  to  regard  as  his  own,  to  come  and  go 
at  his  pleasure.  In  view  of  all  this,  he  had  as  good  as  pledged  him- 
self, but  had  taken  a  journey  home  first  to  make  the  needful  arrange- 
ments. And  now  on  his  return  he  had  received  this  invitation  (of 
Barbarianus)  at  Bacharach  ;  and  it  had  caused  him  much  perplexity, 
to  relieve  which,  he  had  consulted  with  friends  at  Cologne.  The  re 
suit  of  their  joint  deliberations  was,  that  he  could  not  go  to  Antwerp, 


60  RUDOLF  AGRICOLA. 

because  he  was  already  as  good  as  pledged  to  Heidelberg."     In  refer- 
ence to  the  nature  of  the  Antwerp  offer,  he  expresses  himself  thus : — 

A  school  to  be  given  to  him  ?  That  would  be  a  hard  and  an  irksome  office.  A 
school  was  like  a  prison,  where  scourging,  weeping  and  howling  alternated  with  each 
other  forever.  If  there  is  any  thing  in  the  world,  whose  name  is  directly  opposite 
to  its  nature,  it  is  a  school.  The  Greeks  called  it  schola,  leisure ;  the  Latins, 
Indus  literarius,  the  game  of  letters ; — when  nothing  is  further  from  leisure, 
nothing  harsher  and  more  antagonistic  to  all  playfulness.  A  far  more  appropriate 
name  was  given  to  it  by  Aristophanes;  viz.,  " Qpovriarfipiov,"  the  place  of  cares. 

/conduct  a  school  ?  What  time  would  be  left  me  for  study ;  what  repose,  for 
invention  and  production  ?  Where  should  I  find  one  or  two  hours  daily  for  the 
interpretation  of  an  author?  The  boys  would  claim  the  larger  portion  of  my 
time,  besides  wearing  my  patience  to  that  degree,  that  whatever  leisure  time  I 
could  secure  would  be  required,  not  for  study,  but  rather  to  catch  my  breath  and  to 
compose  my  thoughts.  You  say  "  that  with  a  less  rigid  discharge  of  my  duties, 
I  might  lead  a'more  agreeable  life."  I  might  indeed;  but,  were  I  neglectful, 
which  of  my  colleagues  would  be  assiduous,  which  of  them  would  not  rather, 
after  my  example,  take  his  ease  ?  I  think,  that  a  wise  man  should  first  carefully 
consider,  whether  he  should  undertake  a  thing  or  no  ;  but  when  once  he  does 
undertake  it,  then  he  ought  to  exert  every  effort  to  perform  it  conscientiously. 
You  say,  that  I  can  devote  one  or  two  hours  a  day  to  lecturing  on  some  classical 
author  before  the  nobility  ;  but  I  would  have  no  leisure  for  this,  since  the  freshest 
and  best  part  of  every  day  must  be  given  to  the  boys,  even  to  weariness.  And 
such  lectures  meet  with  discouragements  and  drawbacks,  as  I  know  from  experi- 
ence. In  the  first  glow  of  zeal  many  take  hold  of  them  ;  later,  when  the  zeal  is 
cold,  some  plead  off  on  the  pretext  of  business,  others  from  the  re-action  of  en- 
thusiasm become  disgusted,  and  others  again  are  led  to  stay  away,  if  for  no  other 
reason,  because  their  neighbors  do.  One  finds  it  too  much  trouble,  another,  too 
great  an  expense.  So  it  comes  about,  that  of  a  large  audience,  scarce  four  or  five 
shall  remain  with  you  through  the  course. 

It  might  appear,  that  a  man  who  had  not  the  smallest  inclination 
to  teach  either  old  or  young,  would  not  deserve  mention  in  a  history 
of  education.  But  it  would  be  appearance  merely.  For  if  Agricola 
took  no  pleasure  in  teaching,  himself,  yet  the  prosperity  of  schools  was 
a  matter  of  deep  interest  to  him.  This  is  evident  from  parts  of  this 
very  letter  to  Barbirianus.  He  begs  him,  to  persuade  the  Antwerpers 
to  subject  the  man,  with  whom  they  purposed  to  intrust  the  schools, 
to  a  conscientious  examination  beforehand. 

They  should  not  select  a  theologian,  neither  any  one  of  those  hair  splitting 
doctors,  who  imagine  that  they  are  competent  to  speak  upon  any  subject  what- 
ever, while  they  know  nothing,  in  the  first  place,  of  the  very  art  of  speaking 
itself.  Such  people  are  as  much  out  of  their  element  in  schools,  as,  according  to 
the  Greek  proverb,  a  dog  would  be  in  a  bath.  Much  rather  ought  they  to 
choose  a  man  after  the  style  of  Phoenix,  the  preceptor  of  Achilles,  who  should 
be  able  both  to  teach,  to  speak  and  to  act ;  if  they  could  find  such  an  one, 
they  should  make  sure  of  him  at  any  price.  For  their  decision  was  no  unim- 
portant matter,  since  the  destiny  of  their  children  depended  on  it.  It  was  no 
small  thing  that  they  were  about  to  do ;  for  it  pertained  to  their  children,  for 
whose  future  welfare  they  themselves  in  other  respects  were  now  toiling  and 
struggling.  Their  utmost  care  should  be  bestowed  on  that  tender  age,  which, 
even  with  the  best  talents,  takes  the  stamp  of  good  or  evil  indifferently,  accord- 
ing to  the  influence  brought  to  bear  upon  it. 

In  a  subsequent  letter  to  Barbirianus,  Agricola  praises  the  friendly 
reception  that  Dalberg  had  given  him.  But  on  the  other  hand  he 


RUDOLF  AGRICOLA.  61 

writes  to  his  brother  of  his  complete  unhappiness  in  the  midst  of  all 
the  prosperity  that  he  enjoyed  at  Heidelberg. 

It  is  hard  for  me,  in  advancing  age,  to  learn  to  serve.  And  though  no  ser- 
vice is  required  of  me,  yet  I  know  not  whether  I  am  not  more  greatly  burdened, 
in  feeling  constrained  to  impose  those  duties  on  myself,  which  others  have  re- 
leased me  from.  Thus  freedom  itself  exacts  a  heavy  service  of  me. 

His  love  of  freedom  dissuaded  him  from  wedlock  ;  or,  as  he  wrote 
to  Reuchlin,  it  was  a  shrinking  from  care,  and  a  dislike  to  be  tied 
down  to  an  establishment. 

Of  great  importance  to  us  are  Agricola's  letters  to  his  friend,  Al- 
exander Hegius,  the  famous  Rector  of  Deventer,  of  whom  also  we 
are  soon  to  speak. 

One  of  these  letters  dates  from  Worms,  whither  Agricola  had  gone 
in  the  retinue  of  the  Bishop  Dalberg.  He  commences  by  commend- 
ing Hegius ;  for,  as  he  perceives  by  his  writing,  he  has  improved  in 
his  Latinity,  (politiorem  te,  limatioremque  fieri.)  He  showed  his  let- 
ter to  Dalberg,  who  joined  with  himself  in  wishing  Germany  joy  of 
such  a  teacher,  exclaiming,  "  Made  virtute,  sic  itur  ad  astra"  Far- 
ther on,  he  laments  that  studying  with  the  bishop,  and  public  lectures, 
consume  too  much  of  his  time.  His  pupils,  with  the  best  inclination, 
shewed  scarce  any  capacity  for  study  :  they  were  mostly  masters,  or 
"  Scholastici  artium"  so  called,  who  squandered  all  their  time  upon 
the  sophistical  nonsense  of  the  schools,  (cavillationes,)  and  hence 
found  no  room  for  attention  to  classical  studies.  "  For  this  reason,"* 
he  adds,  u  I  have  undertaken  the  Hebrew,  which  is  a  new  and  a 
very  difficult  labor  to  me,  and  which  (I  could  scarce  have  believed  it) 
gives  me  much  more  trouble  than  did  Greek,  earlier  in  life.  Yet  I 
am  determined  to  persevere.  I  have  assigned  the  study  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  to  my  later  years,  provided  that  my  life  is  spared.'' 

In  a  previous  letter  to  Ilegius,  in  1480,  he  accuses  himself  for  in- 
termitting his  studies,  and  mentions,  as  the  chief  cause  of  his  neglect, 
the  fact,  that  he  has  no  one  in  Groningen,  with  whom  he  can  labor 
in  common.  Among  other  matters,  he  answers  some  philological 
questions,  which  Hegius  had  submitted  to  him.  He  defines  the 
words,  mirtius,  histrio,  persona,  scurra,  parasilus,  nebulo,  nepos,  ves- 
per, aurora,  tignum,  trabs,  asser,  contignatio.  He  expresses  a  doubt 
whether  bonum  sero  is  as  good  Latin  as  bonum  mane.  "As  it  regards 
the  derivation  and  formation  of  new  words  after  the  analogies  of  the 
language,"  he  says,  "I  should  hardly  venture  to  form  a  word  for 
which  I  could  not  shew  classical  authority ;  yet  I  might  haply  have 
said,  'SocratitasJ  'PlatonitasJ  and  '  entitasj  although  our  Laurentius 
Valla  disapproves  of  such  words."  Farther  on  Agricola  explains 

•  For  lack  of  encouragement. 


RUDOLF  AGRICOLA. 

marks  the  precise  difference  between  73  &aXsx<nx75  and 
TO,  &aXsx<nxa,  and  suggests  a  correction  in  what  Hegius  has 
written,  viz.,  that  he  should  use  'infra?  or  ' post  quantum  tempo- 
rid  instead  of '  quanta  tempore.  The  above  will  serve  to  characterize 
the  condition  of  philological  science  at  that  time,  and  to  indicate  its 
gradual  advance.  In  the  same  letter  he  writes  to  Hegius ;  that  he 
will  send  his  brother  to  him  to  school,  provided  private  instruction 
in  the  elements  can  be  given  to  him  out  of  school  hours.  "  I  am 
very  desirous,"  he  writes,  "that  my  brother  should  learn  the  ele- 
ments as  speedily  as  possible.  For  I  think  that  boys  only  lose  time 
when  they  remain  too  long  at  these ;  and  that,  in  the  way  that  these 
are  ordinarily  taught,  the  scholar  is  filled  with  disgust  for  learning, 
and  with  '  barbarism"1  at  the  same  time,  so  that  later  in  his  career  he 
learns  what  is  better  and  more  important  not  only  more  slowly,  but 
with  greater  trouble." 

In  the  year  1484,  Agricola  wrote  a  long  letter  to  Barbirianus  on 
the  method  of  studying  (deformando  studio.) 

The  question  arises,  what  we  shall  study,  and  then,  in  what  method  ?  Deter- 
mined either  by  taste  or  inclination,  or  by  circumstances,  some  choose  civil  law, 
others  canon  law,  others  again  medicine.  But  the  most  direct  their  attention  to 
the  verbose  but  unfruitful  '  arts,'  so  called,  and  waste  away  their  time  in  frivo- 
lous and  out  of  the  way  discussions, — in  riddles,  which,  in  all  these  many  cen- 
turies have  found  no  (Edipus  to  solve  them ;  nor  will  they  ever.  Still  he  ad- 
vises Barbirianus  to  apply  himself  to  philosophy,  though  to  a  philosophy  widely 
different  from  the  scholastic;  that,  namely,  which'  inculcates  just  modes  of 
thought,  and  teaches  how  to  express  with  propriety  that  which  has  been  first 
rightly  apprehended. 

Philosophy  is  divided  into  moral  and  natural.  The  first  is,  to  be  drawn,  not 
merely  from  Aristotle,  Cicero,  and  Seneca,  but  likewise  from  the  facts  and  ex- 
amples of  history.  Thence,  we  come  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  after  whose  di- 
vine, unerring  precepts  we  are  to  pattern  our  lives.  For  all  other  writers  have 
not  clearly  perceived  the  true  aim  of  life,  and  hence  their  doctrines  are  not  free 
from  error. 

Researches  into  the  natural  world  are  not  of  such  importance  as  ethical  in- 
quiries, and  are  to  be  viewed  only  as  a  means  of  culture." 

Agricola  recommends  the  study  of  geography,  of  the  botany  of 
Theophrastus,  the  zoology  of  Aristotle,  and  likewise  advises  attention 
to  medicine,  architecture  and  painting. 

Both  moral  and  natural  science  are  to  be  drawn  from  the  classics, 
with  the  view  of  acquiring  at  the  same  time  the  art  of  rhetoric  and 
expression.  He  should  also  translate  the  classics  with  as  much  ex- 
actness as  may  be,  into  the  vernacular ;  for  through  such  exercise  in 
translating,  the  Latin  words  will  soon  spontaneously  occur  at  the  same 
time  with  the  thought.  Whatever  he  designed  to  write  in  Latin,  he 
must  first  think  out  with  thoroughness  and  care  in  the  vernacular  ; 
for  any  errors  of  expression  are  less  liable  to  pass  unobserved,  if  in 
the  mother  tongue.  Before  he  proceeds  to  the  ornaments  of  rhetoric, 
he  should  learn  to  write  with  purity  and  correctness.  "  Who- 


RUDOLF  AGRICOLA.  Q% 

ever  would  study  to  advantage,  must  observe  three  things :  first, 
to  apprehend  aright ;  then,  to  hold  the  matters  so  apprehended 
fast  in  the  memory ;  arid  lastly,  to  cultivate  the  faculty  of  producing 
something  ones'  self. 

As  regards  apprehending  aright  the  sense  of  what  is  read,  he  ad- 
vises to  apply  the  understanding  closely  to  the  subject  in  hand  with 
reference  both  to  the  scope  of  the  whole  and  the  meaning  of  the 
parts ;  yet  not  with  such  rigor  as  to  puzzle  ourselves  over  an  obscure 
passage,  not  passing  on  until  we  have  mastered  that.  But  we  ought 
rather  to  read  farther,  trusting  that  afterwards,  through  the  explana- 
tions of  a  friend  or  otherwise,  the  difficulty  will  be  cleared  up.  One 
day  teaches  another. 

He  then  gives  directions  for  strengthening  the  memory. 

'  We  must,  with  unpreoccupied,  attentive  spirit,  grasp  the  object,  and  again 
from  time  to  time  call  it  up  before  the  mind.'  Then  follow  rules  for  composition. 
"If  we  create  nothing,"  says  Agricola,  "all  our  learning  remains  dead  within 
us,  and  will  not  be  like  the  living  seed,  which,  when  cast  into  the  ground, 
springs  up  and  bears  rich  fruit.  But  there  are  two  things  indispensable  to  us : 
one,  that  we  should  not  merely  store  up  that  which  we  have  learned,  in  our 
memory,  but  should  rather  always  have  it  at  hand,  and  be  able  to  bring  it  forth ; 
then,  in  addition  to  what  we  have  derived  from  others,  we  should  invent  some- 
thing ourselves.  It  will  materially  aid  us  in  invention,  if  we  arrange  a  set  of 
general  notions,  capita,  under  which  we  may  sketch  what  we  already  know ; 
some  such  heads  for  instance,  as  virtue,  vice,  life,  death,  etc.  Then  it  will  prove 
a  great  help,  should  we  analyze  every  thought  thoroughly  and  contemplate  it 
under  many  different  lights."  This  point  he  had  discused  more  at  length  in  his 
six  books,  "  de  inventione  dialectical  "  Whoever  conforms  to  both  the  above  pre- 
cepts, will  at  last  attain  to  the  readiness  of  the  Greek  sophists,  who  could  speak 
at  will,  and  without  preparation,  upon  any  theme  that  should  be  given  to  them." 

After  this  methodology,  Agricola  comes  in  the  same  letter  to  his 
Hebrew  studies. 

"Think  of  my  presumption,  or  rather  of  my  folly;  I  have  decided  to  learn  He- 
brew, as  if  I  had  not  already  wasted  time  and  trouble  enough  hitherto  on  my 
Greek.  I  have  hunted  up  a  teacher,  a  Jew,  who  was  some  years  since  convert- 
ed, and  who,  previously,  on  account  of  his  learning  and  knowledge  of  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Jews,  had  been  chosen  as  their  champion,  when  they  contended 
for  their  faith  with  Christians.  The  bishop  has,  for  my  sake,  taken  this  man 
into  his  house,  and  is  providing  for  his  maintenance.  I  will  try  what  I  can  do  ; 
I  hope  to  bring  something  to  pass ;  and  perhaps  I  shall  succeed,  because  I 
hope."* 

He  translated  the  Psalms. 

Melancthon,  in  his  preface  to  Agricola's  '  dialectics,'  relates  what 
Pallas,  professor  of  theology  at  Heidelberg,  and  Reuchlin,  related  to 
him  from  their  personal  acquaintance  with  Agricola.  Said  Pallas  ; 
"  at  Heidelberg,  as  earlier  at  Louvain,  heded  an  exemplary  life.  From 
his  extensive  learning,  Agricola  has  often  thrown  a  definite  light 


*  Erhard  has  given  a  short  extract  from  this  work,  in  his  history  of  the  revival  of  Class- 
ical Learning.  Melancthon  in  his  preface  to  Agricola's  dialectics,  says  :  "  There  are  no  mod 
ern  works  on  the  Topics  and  on  the  use  of  Logic,  so  good  and  so  rich  as  these  books  of  Ru 
dolf."  Agricola  himself  is  very  pointed  in  his  condemnation  of  the  scholastic  logic. 


64  RUDOLF  AGRICOLA. 

upon  subjects  under  dispute,  not  alone  in  the  department  of  philoso- 
phy, but  in  law  and  theology  ;  and  has  displayed  herein  no  conten- 
tious and  dogmatical  spirit,  but  friendliness  and  a  spirit  of  peace.  For 
the  elector  Philip,  who  always  took  delight  in  listening  to  him,  Agri- 
cola  wrote  a  compend  of  history." 

In  the  year  1485,  Dalberg  was  sent  by  the  Elector  just  named,  to 
Rome  to  present  his  congratulations  to  Pope  Innocent  VIII,  on  his 
coronation,  and  Agricola  accompanied  him  on  this  journey.*  Re- 
turning to  Heidelberg,  he  was  attacked  by  a  fever.  But  before  the 
physician  arrived,  he  had  tranquilly  breathed  his  last.  He  died  on 
the  28th  Oct.  1485,  aged  only  forty-two  years. 

Erasmus  testifies  of  him  as  follows : 

Agricola  has  surpassed  in  culture  every  one  on  this  side  the  Alps.  There 
was  no  scientific  attainment  in  which  he  did  not  compete  with  the  greatest  mas- 
ters. Among  the  Grecians,  he  was  a  pattern  Greek,  (graecissimiis,)  among  the 
Latins,  a  pattern  Latinist ;  as  a  poet,  he  was  a  second  Maro,  as  an  orator,  he  re- 
called Politian's  grace,  but  he  excelled  him  in  majesty.  Also  when  he  spoke 
extempore,  his  speech  was  so  pure  and  unadulterated,  that  yon  would  have 
deemed  yourself  listening,  not  to  a  Frieslander,  but  to  a  Roman.  To  his  per- 
fect eloquence  he  united  an  equal  degree  of  learning ;  all  the  mysteries  of  phi- 
losophy he  had  fully  investigated.  Nor  was  there  any  part  of  music,  which  he 
did  not  fully  understand.  In  the  last  years  of  his  life  he  applied  himself  with 
his  whole  soul  to  the  study  of  Hebrew  and  the  Holy  Scriptures.  He  thought 
little  of  fame.f 

Agricola  broke  a  path  for  classical  philology  in  Germany.  Saxo,in 
his  eulogy  on  Agricola,  says  : 

At  an  epoch  when  the  most  corrupt  Latin  prevailed  in  Germany,  together 
with  that  uncertainty  that  no  one  knew  what  good  Latin  was,  and  when  admi- 
ration was  lavished  on  insipidity,  it  was  Agricola,  and  he  alone,  who  first  with 
ear  and  mind  detected  our  blunders,  and  reached  out  after  better  forms  of 
speech.  Yet  he  did  not  undervalue  the  mother  tongue,  but  regarded  it  as  nat- 
ural to  every  one,  as  the  native  vehicle  of  thought.  Thence,  as  we  have  seen, 
he  gave  his  counsel  that  whatever  we  would  write  in  Latin,  we  should  first 
compose  in  the  vernacular,  transferring  it  into  Latin  afterwards.  He  himself 
wrote  songs  in  the  mother  tongue,  and  sang  them  to  the  guitar.  He  under- 
stood both  French  and  Italian.  Wessel  appears  to  have  had  much  influence 
upon  Agricola.  It  was  Wessel,  as  we  have  seen,  who  directed  his  attention 
when  at  Paris  to  the  study  of  Hebrew ;  and  they  both  subsequently  enjoyed 
much  mutual  intercourse  in  the  monastery  of  Edouard.  "There,"  Goswin  von 
Halen  tells  us,  "  he  listened,  when  a  boy,  to  the  conversations  of  Agricola  and 

*  Dalberg's  speech  is  given  in  Agricola's  works,  as  the  production  of  the  latter.  It  was  de- 
livered on  the  6th  of  July,  1485.  '  I  think,'  so  the  speech  reads, '  that  grace  of  oratory  and 
excellence  and  splendor  of  diction  are  not  much  to  be  expected  from  a  German,  nor  indeed 
ought  they  to  be.' 

t  That  this  panegyric  might  not  be  accounted  partial,  Cis-Alpine,  or  patriotic  merely, 
Erasmus  quotes  the  well-known  epitaph,  which  Hermolaus  Barbarus  wrote.  "  The  envious 
fates  have  enclosed  within  this  marble  tomb,  Rudolf  Agricola,  the  hope  and  the  glory  of 
Friesland.  While  he  lived,  Germany,  without  doubt,  deserved  all  the  renown  that  eithei 
Latium  or  Greece  ever  obtained." 

Invida  clauserunt  hoc  marmore  fata  Rudolphum 

Agricolam,  Frisii  spemque  decusque  soli, 
Scilicet  hoc  vivo  meruit  Germania  laudis, 

Quidquid  habet  Latium,  Graecia  quidquid  habet 


ALEXANDER  HEGIUS  65 

\Yessel,  when  they  bewailed  the  obscuration  of  the  church,  the  desecration  of 
the  mass,  and  the  abuses  of  celibacy ;  also  when  they  spoke  of  the  apostle 
Paul's  doctrine  of  "justification  by  faith  without  the  deeds  of  the  law." 

Such  conversations, — the  earnestness  with  which  Agricoln,  in  his 
41st  year,  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  the  Hebrew, — his  expressed 
determination  to  devote  his  old  age  to  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scrip 
tures  ;*  all  this  indicates  that  he  was  not  merely,  through  his  classical 
learning,  a  forerunner  of  the.  dawn  of  classical  culture  in  Germany, 
but  that  he  also,  in  this  holy  earnestness  in  the  study  of  the  sacred 
writings,  heralded  the  coming  Reformation.  At  his  death  Luther 
was  two  years  old.f 

ALEXANDER    HEGIUS. 

ALEXANDER  HEGIUS,  so  beloved  and  honored  by  his  contempora- 
ries, was  born  in  1420,  or,  according  to  some,  in  1433,  at  Heek,  in 
Westphalia.  He  was  frequently,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  society  of 
Wessel,  Agricola,  and  others  in  the  monastery  of  Edouard  ;  and  from 
letters  of  the  latter,  we  may  perceive  how  the  modest  Hegius  suffered 
himself  to  learn  from  Agricola,  his  junior. 

Boitzbach,  one  of  his  later  scholars,  informs  us,  that  be  died  in 
advanced  age  at  Deventer  in  1498,  and  was  buried  on  the  day  of  St. 
John  the  Evangelist,  (Dec.  27,)  in  the  Church  of  St.  Lebuin.  There 
too  sleeps  Florentius  Radewin.  At  first  Hegius  was  gymnasiarchj  in 
Wessel,  then  in  Emmerich,  but  later  and  for  a  much  longer  period  at 
Deventer.  Agricola  writes  to  him  at  the  opening  of  the  school  at 
Deventer,  wishing  him  all  manner  of  success,  and  the  more  cordially 
as  the  place  had  been  recently  decimated  by  a  frightful  pestilence. 
Since  he  remained  at  the  head  of  this  school  for  thirty  years,  and 
until  his  death,  as  we  gather  from  three  several  authorities,  he  must 
have  entered  upon  his  office  in  the  year  1468.  Erasmus  entered  the 
school  in  1476,  in  his  ninth  year. 

The  character,  attainments,  and  educational  significance  of  Hegius, 
we  are  compelled  to  derive  in  part  from  a  few  of  his  posthumous 
writings,  and  in  part  from  cursory  expressions  of  others,  chiefly  his 
contemporaries  and  scholars.  Those  writings,§  consisting  almost  en- 
tirely of  dialogues,  were  not  given  to  the  public  until  1503,  five  years 
after  his  death.  These  dialogues  are  in  the  form  of  short  and  clear 

*"  Statui  enim  senectutis  requiem  (sz  modo  P.O.  me  manet,)  in  sacrarum  literarum  perquisi- 
tione  collocare." — Agricola  to  Reuchlin. 

t  The  fullest  edition  of  Agricola's  works  is,  ^Rudolphi  Agricolae  Lucubrationes  aliquot  lectu 
dignissimae  in  hunc  usque  diem  misquum  prius  edifae,  caetcraque  ejusdem  viri  plane  dim- 
ni  din nia  quite  extare  creduntur  opuscula — per  Alardum  Amstelredamvm.  Coloniae  apitd 
Gymnicum,  1539.  2  vols.  4  to  " 

I  Principal,  head-master— of  a  gymnasium 

§  ••  Alexandri  Hegii  artium  magistri,  Gymnasrarchae  quondam  Daventriensis,  philosophi, 
presbyteri,  utriusque  linquae  docti,  Dia/ogi."  A(  the  end  of  the  book  the  printer's  name  is 

5 


66  ALEXANDER  HEGIUS. 

question  and  answer.*  He  treats  abundantly  of  geometry  and  astrono- 
my ;  refers  to  Euclid,  gives  geometrical  definitions  and  formulas  for 
obtaining  the  contents  of  figures.  He  gives  frequent  definitions  of 
Greek  words.  In  the  '  Farrago,'  we  find  numerous  philological  re- 
marks. The  Greek  language  he  can  not  commend  too  highly.  'Who- 
ever desires  to  understand  grammar,  rhetoric,  mathematics,  history, 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  etc.,'  so  he  told  his  scholars,  '  must  learn  Greek. 
For  to  the  Greeks  we  are  indebted  for  every  thing.'  In  a  letter  to 
John  Wessel,  he  tells  him  that  he  has  paid  a  visit  to  the  library  found- 
ed by  Cardinal  Nicholas  Cusanus,  in  Cuss  on  the  Moselle,  the  native 
place  of  the  latter,  and  likewise  what  books  he  brought  away  with 
him.  He  sent  Wessel  the  homilies  of  Chrysostom.  "  I  found,"  he 
writes,  "  many  Hebrew  books,  which  were  entirely  new  to  me.  I  have 
brought  away  St.  Basil  on  the  Creation  and  his  homilies  on  the 
Psalms ;  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles ;  the 
Lives  of  some  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  by  Plutarch,  as  likewise  his 
Symposium  ;  some  treatises  upon  grammar  and  mathematics ;  some 
poems  of  deep  significance  upon  the  Christian  religion,  which,  if  I 
mistake  not,  were  composed  by  Gregory  Nazianzen ;  and  also  a  few 
speeches  and  prayers.  If  you  can  now  spare,  without  inconvenience 
to  yourself  your  copy  of  the  Greek  gospels,  I  beg  you  to  lend  them 
to  me  for  a  while."  At  the  conclusion  he  writes ;  "  you  wish  to  have 
a  more  particular  description  of  my  method  of  instruction.  I  have 
followed  your  counsel.  All  learning  is  futile  which  is  acquired  at  the 
expense  of  piety.  Dated  at  Deventer." 

In  the  light  of  all  that  we  have  now  cited,  and  of  the  letters  of 
Agricola  to  Hegius  also, — Hegius  appears  to  have  been  a  man,  who 
was  animated  by  an  enthusiastic  love  for  classical  studies,  and  who 
yet,  with  the  humility  of  the  true  scholar,  suffered  himself  to  learn, 
even  in  his  age,  from  Agricola.  In  his  dialogues  we  detect  the  prac 
ticed  and  clear  headed  logician.  He  gives  much  attention  therein  to 
mathematics  and  natural  philosophy.  And  with  a  far  higher  degree 
of  learning  than  was  common  in  the  times  in  which  he  lived,  he  nev- 
ertheless ranked  all  knowledge,  without  exception,  below  godliness 

His  estimable  character,  by  which  he  was  especially  fitted  for  the 

given  a?  follows  :  "  Impressum  Daventriae  per  me  Richnrdum  Pqfrc',  1503."  The  subject 
of  the  Dialogues  are  :  (1.)  de  scientia  et  eo  quod  ncitur.  (2.)  De  tribus  animae  generibus. 
(3.)  De  incarnationis  mysterio  (4.)  Dialogus  physicus.  (5.)  De  sensu  et  sensili.  (6.) 
De  arteet  inertia.  (7)  De  Rhetorica.  (8.)  De  moribus.  (9)  Farrago  citi  addita  Invectira 
in  modos  significandi.  1  wo  letters  are  given  after  the  Dialogues,  thus  completing  (In-  \\ork. 
*  We  give  an  example.  Q.  What  is  the  difference  between  knowledge  and  opinion?  A 
Knowledge  isBssent  unalloyed  by  fear.  For  he  who  knows  does  not  fear  that  he  may  be  de- 
ceived. Opinion,  on  the  coi.trary.  is  ;is  ent  mingled  with  fear.  He  who  opines  or  thinks 
fears  that  he  maybe  in  the  wrong.  Q.  What  is  error  ]  A.  Deflection  of  (he  intellect  from 
the  truth,  or  of  the  will  from  righteousness. 


ALEXANDER  HEGIUS.  (j  ; 

post  of  rector,  elicited  a  deserved  tribute  of  praise  from  many  quar- 
ters. "  Westphalia,"  says  Erasmus,  "  has  given  us  Alexander  Hegius, 
a  learned,  saintly,  and  eloquent  man;  though, from  his  contempt  for 
fame,  he  has  produced  nothing  great."  "  Hegius,"  he  says  elsewhere, 
*'  was  quite  similar  in  character  to  Agricola ;  he  was  a  man  of  gutfe- 
less  life  and  singular  learning,  one  in  whom  even  Momus  could  have 
discovered  but  a  single  fault ;  namely,  that  he  undervalued  fame  be- 
yond what  was  reasonable,  and  troubled  himself  but  very  little  for  the 
opinions  of  posterity.  If  he  wrote  any  thing,  he  did  it  more  in  sport, 
as  it  were,  than  with  a  sober  purpose ;  yet  his  writings  are  of  that 
sort,  that  in  the  judgment  of  scholars,  they  are  deserving  of  immor- 
tality." Murmellius  tells  us  that  Hegius  was  as  learned  in  Greek  as 
in  Latin.  But  Hegius'  name  has  come  down  to  the  present  day,  not 
so  much  through  his  works,  which  are  scarcely  known  to  us,  as  through 
his  distinguished  pupils.  I  will  mention  a  few  of  the  more  famous 
of  these. 

ERASMUS.  In  his  ninth  year,  in  1476,  he  entered  the  school  of 
Hegius. 

HERMANN  BUSCH,  who  was  born  in  1468,  was  placed  under  He- 
gius when  quite  young,  since  he  learned  the  first  rudiments  of  gram- 
mar in  the  Deventer  school.  Of  him  and  Erasmus  likewise  we  shall 
say  more,  farther  on. 

JOHN  MURMELLIUS,  of  Roermond  ;  first  a  soldier,  then  a  scholar 
of  Hegius.  Driven  from  Cologne  in  1498,  because  he  made  war 
upon  the  barbarous  Latin  of  the  Colognese,  he  betook  himself  for  aid 
and  counsel  to  his  teacher,  who  sent  him  to  Rudolf  Lange,  at  Muns- 
ter,  where  he  taught  for  fourteen  years:  in  1514  he  was  appointed 
over  a  school  in  Alcmaar.  Impoverished  by  a  fire,  he  returned  to 
Deventer,  where  he  died  in  1517.  He  wrote  much;  both  for  the 
promotion  of  classical  learning,  and  the  overthrow  of  "  barbarism." 

JOHN  CAESARIUS,  of  Juliers.  Driven  away  by  the  Oolognese  in 
1504,  because  he  attacked  their  old  school  books,  then  sent  by  He- 
gius to  Lange  at  Munster,  where  he  became  teacher  of  Greek.  He 
was  induced  later  by  the  solicitations  of  Count  Nuenaar,  to  return  to 
Cologne.  There  he  died  in  1551,  at  the  age  of  ninety  years.  He 
edited,  among  other  works,  Pliny's  natural  history. 

CONRAD  COCLENIUS,  born  in  1485,  at  Paderborn,  became  a  Pro- 
fessor at  Louvain,  and  was  the  teacher  of  John  Sturm.  Erasmus 
commends  him  as  a  distinguished  philologist. 

JOSEPH  HORLENIUS,  rector  of  a  school  in  Herford,  was  the  teacher 
of  Peter  Mosellanus. 

TIMANN  CAMENER,  rector  in  Munster,  from  1500  to  1530. 


68  RUDOLF  LANGE. 

The  characteristic,  which  was  common  to  all  the  above-named 
scholars  of  Hegius,  as  well  as  to  the  most  renowned  pupils  of  these 
scholars,  was  a  passionate  love  of  classical  culture,  which  did  not 
.shrink  even  from  martyrdom.  Only  two  of  those,  who  came  forth 
from  the  school  at  Deventer,  bore  no  traces  of  the  general  stamp. 
These  were  Pope  Adrian  VI.,  who  was  there  when  a  boy  ;  and  Ortuin 
Gratius,  whom  the  " Epistolae  obscurorum  virorum"  erected  into  a 
very  unenviable  notoriety. 

RUDOLF    LANGE    AND    HERMANN    BUBCH. 

AGRICOLA  and  Hegius  had  many  friends,  who  labored  with  zeal  for 
the  spread  of  classical  study.  Among  these  RUDOLF  LANGE  has  been 
already  mentioned.  He  was  born  about  the  year  1439  at  Munster. 
Sent  by  his  uncle  to  the  school  at  Deveuter,  he  afterward  went  to  the 
university  of  Erfurt,  where  he  was  made  master  of  philosophy ;  then 
he  journeyed  to  Italy,  where  he  enjoyed  the  teachings  of  Philelphus, 
Theodore  Gaza  and  others.  Returning  to  Munster,  he  devoted  his 
life  to  the  cause  of  school  education.  Sent  by  the  college  in  that 
place,  in  the  year  1480,  to  Pope  Sixtus  IV.,  he  delivered  in  his 
presence  an  admirable  Latin  speech,  and  was  heartily  recommended 
by  him  and  Lorenzo  de  Medici  to  the  bishop  of  Munster.  Thereby 
he  acquired  so  much  consequence  that  he  was  emboldened  to  oppose 
the  Colognese  Academy,  when  it  maintained  an  adherence  to  the  old 
school-books,  the  Doctrinal  of  Alexander*  and  the  like.  Lange 
appealed  to  the  arbitration  of  the  Italian  scholars.  After  these  had 
decided  in  his  favor,  the  school  at  Munster  was  completely  re-arranged 
after  his  directions;  and  at  his  instance,  Camener  and  Murmellius, 
scholars  of  Hegius,  were  appointed  teachers  therein.  The  teachers 
took  counsel  with  Lange  upon  the  authors  to  be  read  in  the  school, 
and  they  made  a  diligent  use  of  Lange's  library,  which  was  very  rich 
in  both  Greek  and  Latin  classics.  Lange  was  a  poet  likewise.  There 
is  an  epic  from  his  pen,  upon  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus ; 
a  second,  upon  the  siege  of  N'yon  on  the  Rhine ;  and  a  third,  in 
honor  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  Hegius  sung  of  Lange's  poetical  talents  ;f 

*  ALEXANDER  DE  VILLA  DEI,  a  Minorite  of  Dole,,  a  grammarian  and  a  poet,  who  lived  at 
the  beginning  of  the  13th  century,  composed  a  doctrinal  for  boys,  (doctrinale  puerorum,)  or  a 
Latin  grammar  in  verse.     He  was  the  author,  likewise,  of  a  poetical  summary  of  the  subjects 
ot  all  the  chapters  of  both  the  Old  and  New  Testamenf. 
T  The  epigram  of  Hegius  upon  Lange  reads  as  follows  : 

"-ZVzV  est  quod  fieri  nequeat,jamferre  poetas 
Barbaric  in  media,  Weslphalis  orapoiest. 
Langius  hnnc  decor  at,  ma  jorum  sanguine  clarus 

Monasteriaci,  laiifique  decusque  soli 
Primus  Melpomencn  qui  riira  in  Westphala  duxit 
fhim  caneret  laudes  maxime  Paule  tuas." 


HERMANN  BUSCH.  69 

and  Agricola  reposed  the  highest  confidence  in  his  philological 
researches. 

Luther's  Theses  appeared  when  Lange  was  well  advanced  in  years, 
and  as  he  read  them,  he  said,  "  the  time  is  at  hand,  when  the  darkness 
shall  be  removed  from  church  and  from  school,  when  purity  shall 
return  to  the  churches,  and  a  pure  Latinity  to  the  schools."  This 
latter  expression  is  significant  of  the  ideal  of  the  more  earnest  German 
scholars  of  that  day. 

After  an  extremely  active  and  devoted  life,  Lange  died  in  1519, 
two  years  subsequent  to  the  dawn  of  the  Reformation,  in  his  eightieth 
year.  He  was  provost  of  Munster  at  his  death.  His  nephew,  whose 
troubled  life  extended  far  into  the  epoch  of  the  Reformation,  was  the 
before-mentioned 

HERMANN  BUSCH,  who  was  born  in  1468,  of  a  noble  family  of 
Westphalia.  Sent  by  Lange  to  the  school  of  Hegius  at  Deventer,  he 
was  there  noticed  by  Agricola,  who  said  to  him,  "  you  have  a  poetical 
head  ;  you  are  destined  to  be  a  poet."  From  Deventer,  Busch  went 
to  Heidelberg,  there  attended  the  lectures  of  Agricola,  and,  on  his 
advice,  studied  Cicero  with  great  diligence.  Then  he  visited  Tubingen, 
where  he  formed  a  friendship  with  Simler,  who  was  afterward  Melanc- 
thon's  teacher.  In  the  year  1480  he  accompanied  Lange  to  Italy ; 
in  1486  he  took  a  second  journey  thither,  when  he  made  the  ac- 
quaintance of  Picus,  Politian  and  other  Italian  scholars.  On  his 
return  to  Germany,  he  fell  into  a  strife  at  Cologne  with  the  notorious 
Hochstraten,  and  was  compelled  to  leave  the  city.  And  from  this 
time  he  traveled  during  many  years  through  Germany,  England  and 
France,  giving  his  time  principally  to  the  universities,  and  delivering 
longer  or  shorter  courses  of  lectures  upon  the  classics  at  various 
places;  among  others,  at  Hamm,  Munster,  Osnabruck,  Bremen, 
Hamburg,  Lubeck  and  Wismar. 

His  lectures  at  Gripswald,  (about  1505,)  the  reformer  Bugenhagen 
attended,  while  a  student  there.  At  Rostock  he  attacked  a  certain 
Heverling,  who  read  lectures  in  German,  upon  Juvenal.  This  one 
took  his  revenge  by  putting  in  train  a  series  of  machinations,  which 
resulted  in  Busch's  expulsion  from  the  place;  Busch  in  his  turn 
retorted  by  a  collection  of  epigrams,  in  which  among  other  things  he 
reproached  Heverling  with  reading  lectures  in  the  vulgar  tongue,* 

*  Here  is  a  specimen  : 

"Quidguid  Heverlingus  legit  auditoribus,  illud 

Vulgari  lingua,  Teutonicaque  ducet. 
Ergo  ad  Heverlingum  perget,  meliore  relicto, 
Discere  qui  sordes,  barbariemque  velit." 


70  HERMANN  BUSCH. 

namely  the  German ;  a  censure,  by  the  way,  which  was  but  too 
characteristic. 

At  Erfurt,  Busch  effected  a  formal  banishment  of  the  mediaeval 
school  books;  in  Leipzic  in  1506  Helt  and  Spalatiii  were  among  his 
auditors.  Magdeburg  denied  him  admittance ;  and  on  his  second 
establishment  in  Leipzic,  in  1510,  he  was  expelled  by  Duke  George. 

After  much  journeying  to  and  fro,  he  came  a  second  time  to 
Cologne,  and  was  a  second  time  driven  from  thence,  at  the  instigation 
chiefly  of  Ortuin  Gratius,  because  he  wrote  against  that  old  gram- 
matical text-book,  the  Doctrinal.  Hereupon  he  became  rector  of  a 
school  in  Wesel,  where  he  gave  to  the  world  a  defense  of  the  recently 
revived  classical  studies  against  the  boorish  attacks  of  the  monks.* 

When  the  Reformation  began,  Busch  read  with  avidity  the 
writings  of  Luther  and  Melancthon,  and  in  1522  resigned  his  office  at 
Wesel,  and  went  to  Wittenberg,  and  there  applied  himself  with  ardor 
to  the  study  of  the  Bible  and  the  Fathers.  At  the  recommendation 
of  the  reformers,  he  was  invited  by  Philip  of  Hesse  to  Marburg,  to 
take  the  historical  professorship.  Here  he  read  lectures  on  Livy  and 
Augustine;  in  1529  he  wrote  upon  the  authority  of  the  Bible.  At 
the  Marburg  Eucharist  controversy,  which  he  attended,  he  declared 
for  Luther  and  against  Zwingle. 

About  the  time  when  the  Anabaptist  disturbances  began  at 
Munster,  Busch  retired  from  Marburg  to  Dulmen,  where  he  had  a 
small  estate,  left  him  by  his  mother.  Invited  to  Munster  by  the 
magistracy,  he  went  thither  on  the  7th  of  August,  1533,  to  hold  a 
disputation  in  German  with  the  Anabaptists, — the  notorious  Rothman 
especially.  Busch  endeavored  to  prove  the  validity  of  infant  baptism 
by  an  appeal  to  the  Scriptures ;  but  Rothman  only  retorted  with  in- 
solent scorn.  After  a  long  dispute  Busch  was  seized  with  a  sudden 
indisposition,  which  compelled  him  to  leave  the  hall,  and  on  the  way 
the  fanatical  populace  jeered  at  him,  as  one  whom  God  was  punishing 
for  his  blasphemy.  Troubled  in  mind,  he  returned  to  Dulmen,  and 
soon  after  died  of  grief,  in  1534,  in  the  sixty-sixth  year  of  his  age. 

Busch  was  a  man  of  eminent  talents.  Erasmus  thus  describes  him  : 
"He  would  have  been  a  successful  poet;  in  his  prose  he  shewed 
himself  a  man  of  strong  intellect,  extensive  reading,  keen  judgment, 
and  no  little  energy  ;  his  style  was  more  after  the  pattern  of 
Quintilian,  than  that  of  Cicero." 

A  traveling  teacher  and  apostle  of  classical  culture,  he  endured 
much  persecution  for  the  cause. 

*  The  treatise  was  entitled  Vallum  humanitatis.  The  Dominicans  of  Cologne  in  their 
sermons  called  poets  "  knaves,"  orators  "  swine,"  and  their  works  "  the  husks  of  the  devil.' 


ERASMUS  AND  HIS  EDUCATIONAL  VIEWS. 


DESIDERIUS  ERASMUS,  a  Latinized  Greek  rendering  of  his  Dutch 
name,  Gerard  us  Gerardi,  was  born  at  Rottendam,  on  the  28th  of 
October,  1467.  At  the  age  of  four  years  he  was  put  to  school  at 
Terqau  or  Utrecht,  where  by  his  own  account,  he  made  little  pro- 
gress. In  his  ninth  year  he  joined  the  school  of  the  Hieronymians,  at 
Daventer,  where  the  better  teaching  of  Alexander  Hegius  and  John 
Swinthein,  rapidly  developed  his  genius,  so  that  Rudolph  Agricola, 
during  an  examination  of  the  themes  of  the  boys,  was  surprised  and 
delighted  with  the  originality  and  style  of  that  of  Erasmus,  and  en- 
couraged him  by  his  timely  praise  and  exhortation  to  continued  dili- 
gence. The  great  scholar  in  his  letters  often  speaks  of  the  value  of 
this  timely  recognition  of  his  school-boy  proficiency.  On  the  other 
hand,  his  spirits  were  much  broken  by  a  severe  and  undeserved 
chastisement,  against  which,  in  teachers,  he  often  inveighs  as  the 
cause  of  more  dullness  than  it  cured. 

While  on  a  visit  to  the  monastery  of  Steyne,  in  his  seventeenth 
year,  he  encountered  an  old  schoolmate,  a  certain  Cornelius,  who 
persuaded  him  to  take  the  dress  of  a  novice  and  make  the  religious 
profession  of  the  Augustinian  friars.  Here  he  became  intimate 
with  William  Hermann,  of  Gouda,  a  young  man  of  like  disposition, 
studious  habits  and  classical  attainments.  They  read  together  the 
best  Roman  authors,  and  devoted  much  time  to  Latin  composition, 
in  which  Erasmus  acquired  great  facility  and  felicity  of  expression. 

In  1495,  Hermann  de  Bergis,  with  whom  Erasmus  resided  two 
years,  Bishop  of  Cambray,  and  by  whom  he  was  ordained  priest  on 
the  25th  of  February,  1493,  sent  him  to  Paris  to  continue  his  theo- 
logical studies.  Here  he  resided  in  the  college  of  Montague,  and 
eked  out  the  irregular  and  slender  remittances  of  his  patron  Bishop, 
by  teaching.  Among  his  pupils  was  an  English  nobleman,  Lord 
Mountjoy,  who  made  him  an  annual  allowance,  and  was  ever  after  a 
steady  friend  and  benefactor.  At  Pails,  he  entered  on  the  mastery 
of  the  Greek  language  with  a  true  scholarly  enthusiasm. 


72  ERASMUS. 

A  portion  of  1497,  was  spent  as  private  tutor  in  the  family  of  the 
Marchioness  of  Vere,  in  Burgundy,  and  in  1498,  he  visited  England 
on  the  invitation  of  his  pupil,  Lord  Mountjoy.  Here  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Grocyn,  Pace,  Lenacre,  Sir  Thomas  More,  Colet, 
and  Lily.  With  the  two  last,  on  a  subsequent  visit,  he  helped  to 
establish  St.  Paul's  School  in  London,  and  organize  its  course  of  in- 
struction. He  was  also  at  Oxford,  and  taught  Greek  in  the  Univer- 
sity. On  his  return  to  France,  he  published  his  treatise  "De  Copia 
Verborum  el  Rerum"  and  " de  Conscribendis  Epistolis"  But  his 
"Adagia"  or  explanation  of  Greek  and  Latin  proverbs,  published  in 
1500,  gave  him  an  European  reputation.  In  1503,  his  "  Manual  of 
a  Christian  Soldier,"  and  translations  into  Latin  of  parts  of  Eurip- 
ides, Plutarch,  and  other  Greek  authors  appeared. 

In  1506,  Erasmus  visited  Italy,  and  was  complimented  at  Bologna, 
with  the  doctorate  of  divinity.  At  Venice,  he  superintended  the 
printing  of  his  "Adages"  at  the  celebrated  press  of  Aldo,  in  whose 
house,  he  lodged.  At  Rome,  he  was  received  in  the  most  flattering 
manner  by  scholars  and  clergy,  and  great  inducements  were  held 
out  to  him  to  take  up  his  residence  there.  But  the  solicitations  of 
Mountjoy,  and  the  new  friends  he  had  made  on  his  former  visit,  in- 
duced him  to  leave  Italy  for  England,  where  he  spent  several  years. 
During  this  visit  he  printed  his  "Encomium  Morice"  or  "Praise  of 
Folly"  which  was  composed  in  the  house  of  Sir  Thomas  More. 

In  1514,  he  was  made  by  Charles,  Archduke  of  Austria,  after- 
wards Emperor  Charles  V,  one  of  his  counselors,  with  a  good 
stipend,  and  for  several  years  led  an  itinerating  life,  residing  for  brief 
periods  at  Louvain,  Antwerp,  and  Basil.  While  at  Basil  he  printed 
(1516,)  the  works  of  St.  Jerome,  at  the  press  of  Froben,  and  editions 
of  Terence,  Suetonius,  Plautus,  Cicero,  Seneca,  with  a  translation 
of  the  Greek  Grammar  of  Gaza,  and  various  smaller  works,  which 
were  great  helps  to  the  study  of  the  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome. 

In  1517,  first  appeared  his  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament  with  a 
Latin  translation,  and  notes  grammatical  and  explanatory,  and  was 
received  with  great  favor.  This  publication  places  him  among  the 
greatest  benefactors  to  biblical  literature.  From  Pope  Leo  X.,  to 
whom  the  work  was  dedicated,  he  received  a  flattering  letter.  He 
was  offered  a  professorship  at  Louvain,  and  Ingoldstadt,  was  flooded 
with  letters  from  cardinals,  bishops,  and  scholars;  and  crowned  heads 
solicited  the  honor  of  his  residence  at  their  courts.  But  he  prized 
his  liberty,  even  with  poverty,  to  a  residence  in  college,  or  at  court 
with  constantly  recurring  duties  even  with  wealth.  "  Courts  are 
splendid  misery,  and  as  for  wealth  and  honors,  I  want  them  not.' 


ERASMUS.  73 

About  this  period  lie  became  involved  in  the  religious  reformatory 
discussions  of  the  day — but  without  gaining  special  favor  with  either 
party.  In  1522,  the  first  edition  of  his  "Familiar  Colloquies"  was 
issued,  by  which  he  has  become  more  widely  known  to  succeeding 
generations  than  by  all  his  other  publications.  He  printed  his 
"Irencpus"  in  1526,  his  "Chrytostom"  in  1526,  and  his  "Augustin" 
in  1528.  His  "Ciceronian*"  and  treatise  "On  the  right  Pronuncia- 
tion of  the  Latin  and  Greek  Languages"  appeared  about  the  same 
time.  Erasmus  died  on  the  12th  of  July,  1536,  at  Basle. 

EDUCATIONAL   VIEWS. 

"THE  CICERONIAN"  of  Erasmus  merits  special  attention  in  a  history 
of  education,  since  it  advocates  in  a  clear  and  pointed  manner  that 
ideal  of  culture  which  began  to  prevail  in  the  time  of  Erasmus. 
This  ideal,  it  is  true,  concerned  itself  rather  with  methods  of  culture 
than  with  culture  itself,  and  rather  with  forms  of  instruction  than 
with  the  knowledge  to  be  imparted.  But  any  regular  and  distinct 
path  to  knowledge  will  finally  bring  us  to  our  goal,  although  through 
by-places  it  may  be,  and  by  long  and  needless  windings.  In  the 
dedication  of  the  "Ciceronian,"  Erasmus  briefly  unfolds  to  Blattenius 
his  design.  "A  school  has  arisen,"  says  he,  u  self-styled  'Ciceronian,' 
that  in  its  insufferable  arrogance  rejects  all  writings  which  do  not 
wear  the  features  of  Cicero ;  that  deters  youth  from  the  perusal  of 
other  authors,  and  inculcates  upon  them  a  superstitious  imitation  of 
Cicero  alone,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  does  not  itself  display  one 
particle  of  Cicero's  spirit."  He  then  intimates  his  belief  that  a  sinister 
design  lurks  behind  these  teachings  of  the  Ciceronians,  viz. :  to 
convert  Christians  into  Pagans.  In  this  connection,  he  alludes  to 
certain  German  youths,  who,  on  returning  from  Italy,  and  from  Rome 
in  particular,  had  proved  to  have  become  strongly  tinctured  with 
Paganism;  and  he  closes  by  indicating  his  purpose  to  show  the  true 
way  in  which  Cicero  should  be  imitated,  so  that  his  surpassing  eloquence 
may  be  engrafted  on  the  spirit  of  Christian  piety. 

The  speakers  in  the  dialogue  are  Bulephorus,  (in  whom  we 
recognize  Erasmus  himself,)  and  Hypologus,  his  fellow-partisan. 
Both  unite  in  the  endeavor  to  reclaim  Nosoponus,  an  ultra-Ciceronian, 
from  his  misdirected  studies,  and  they  are  at  last  successful. 

Nosoponus  begins  with  the  emphatic  declaration,  that  he  abominates 
whatever  is  un-Ciceronian,  and  that  he  indulges  no  higher  wish  than  to 
be  himself  called  a  Ciceronian  by  the  Italians  ;  but  he  laments  that  as  yet 
of  all  the  Cis- Alpines,  Longolius  alone  enjoys  that  honor.  Then  he 
goes  on  to  narrate  the  manner  in  which  he  is  prosecuting  his  purpose. 


74  ERASMUS  ON  CLASSICAL  EDUCATION. 

For  seven  years  lie  has  read  Cicero  alone, — not  a  single  other 
author, — with  the  view  to  purge  himself  thoroughly  of  every  un- 
Ciceronian  phrase.  And  he  has  stored  nearly  the  whole  of  Cicero  in 
his  memory.  Now  he  intends  to  spend  another  seven  years  upon  the 
imitation  of  his  model.  All  the  words  used  by  Cicero  he  has 
arranged  alphabetically  in  a  huge  lexicon  ;  all  his  phrases,  in  another; 
and,  in  a  third,  all  the  feet  which  commence  and  terminate  his 
periods.  In  addition  to  these  labors,  he  has  prepared  comparative 
tables  of  all  those  words  which  Cicero  has  used  in  two  or  more 
different  senses  in  different  passages.  He  is  not  content  with  a  - 
reference  to  the  paradigms  of  the  grammars,  but  perplexes  himself 
over  Cicero's  use  of  amo,  amas,  amat,  instead  of  amamus,  amatis, 
amant,  of  amabam,  instead  of  amabamus  /  or,  in  compound  words, 
with  his  use  of  one  form  instead  of  another,  as  perspicio  instead  of 
dispicio.  Nosoponus  overrides  all  grammatical  rules,  ignores  every 
other  author  received  as  classical,  and  attaches  no  weight  even  to 
analogy.  He  thinks  that  a  genuine  Ciceronian  should  never  employ 
even  the  most  insignificant  particle,  unless  he  can  show  his  master's 
authority  for  it.  He  then  goes  on  to  describe,  without  appearing  to 
realize  its  absurdity  in  the  least,  the  plan  which  he  himself  pursues  in 
writing  Latin.  If,  for  instance,  he  wishes  to  pen  a  note  to  Titius,  on 
the  occasion  of  returnmg  a  borrowed  book,  perhaps,  he  first  rummages 
all  the  letters  of  Cicero,  together  with  each  of  those  special  lexicons, 
that  he  himself  lias  compiled  with  so  much  labor,  and  selects 
appropriate  words,  phrases,  etc.  Six  whole  nights  he  is  thus 
accustomed  to  spend  in  composing  an  epistle  of  only  as  many 
sentences ;  then  he  revises  it  ten  times ;  then  lays  it  aside  for  a  future 
perusal.  And,  after  all  these  repeated  revisions,  possibly  not  a  single 
word  of  the  original  draft  will  remain.  Bulephorus  thereupon 
suggests,  that  haply  thus  the  letter  might  be  delayed  so  long  that  it 
would  be  of  no  use.  "  No  matter  for  that !"  says  Nosoponus, 
"provided  that  it  is  only  Ciceronian  at  last."  "But,"  rejoins 
Bulephorus,  "how  is  it  in  speaking  Latin,  where  such  delay  is 
impracticable  ?"  "  In  such  case,"  Nosoponus  replies,  "  I  avoid 
speaking,  if  possible ;  or,  for  ordinary  purposes,  I  make  use  of  Dutch 
or  French  ;  when,  however,  I  must  use  Latin,  I  resort  to  my  memory, 
in  which  I  have  carefully  stored  up  for  such  emergencies  a  full  stock 
of  Ciceronian  phrases  upon  various  subjects." 

After  Nosoponus  has  thus  unfolded  the  full  extent  of  his  folly, 
Bulephorus  begins  the  attack;  gently  at  first,  but  soon  he  exerts  more 
vigorous  efforts,  and  steadily  progresses  to  the  overpowering  complete- 
ness of  the  argument.  " Quintilian,"  says  he,  "recommends  the 


ERASMUS  ON  CLASSICAL  EDUCATION.  ^5 

perusal,  not  of  one  author  alone,  but  of  many.  Only  he  singles  out 
Cicero,  as  the  most  worthy  of  attention."  "  For  this  very  reason," 
rejoins  Nosoponus,  "  Q.uintilian  could  not  have  been  a  Ciceronian." 
"But,"  Bulephorus  asks,  "when  subjects  are  to  be  treated  which 
do  not  occur  in  Cicero,  what  are  we  to  do  ?  To  seek  the  Elysian 
tields,  and  consult  with  the  orator  himself  in  person?" 

To  this  Nosoponus  responds :  "  I  would  discard  all  subjects  that 
do  not  admit  of  being  discussed  in  Cicero's  recorded  words." 

Bulephorus  now  proceeds  to  criticise  the  aim  of  the  Ciceronians ; 
which  is,  to  assimilate  themselves  as  far  as  possible  to  Cicero. 
"Apart  from  the  fact,"  says  he,  "that  many  of  the  writings  of  this 
exemplar  have  perished,  those  which  are  extant,  through  the  care- 
lessness of  copyists,  abound  in  errors  and  interpolations.  Here  then, 
to  what  perils  do  the  Ciceronians  expose  themselves !  Time  would 
fail  us  to  reckon  up  the  number  of  pseiulo  Ciceronianisms,  which  they 
have  thus  received  and  lauded  as  the  genuine  words  of  their  master. 
But,  again,  in  Cicero  himself,  some  grammatical  blunders  have  been 
detected ;  and  also,  verses,  which  he  has  translated  from  the  Greek, 
are  not  always  faithful  to  the  original.  Yet  all  these  defects  likewise 
have  been  praised  and  copied  by  these  worshipers  of  his.  But  their 
imitation  is  mainly  of  the  most  superficial  nature.  Particles,  special 
phrases,  modes  of  ending  sentences,  and  the  like, — to  such  things 
they  pay  exclusive  attention,  applying  them  in  a  quite  arbitrary 
manner,  and  often  inappropriately.  Because  their  master  has  so 
frequently  commenced  his  periods  with  etsi,  quanquam,  quum,  etc., 
they  conclude  that  they  themselves  will  be  perfect  Ciceros,  if  they 
only  commence  their  sentences  in  like  manner.  Such  men  would 
accredit  the  'Books  to  Herennius'  to  Cicero,  for  the  sole  reason  that 
they  commence  with  etsi.  And  again,  since  Cicero  did  not  date  his 
letters,  they  likewise  must  needs  omif  the  year  of  our  Lord  in  their 
correspondence ;  nor  do  they  affix  titles  to  their  works,  for  they  find 
none  in  Cicero.  Those  Christian  greetings,  with  which  we  commence 
our  letters,  such  as  '  Gratia,  pax,  et  misericordia  a  Deo  Patre  et 
Domino  Jesu  Christo,'  the  Ciceronian  holds  in  derision,  as  similar 
phrases  at  their  close ;  and  yet  they  are  far  more  appropriate  to  the 
Christian  character  than  '  Salutem  dicit,'  or  '  Bene  vale.'  Cicero,  it 
is  true,  made  no  use  of  them ;  but  this  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  for 
he  knew  nothing  of  the  things  signified  by  them.  And  in  fact,  how 
many  thousand  subjects  are  there,  upon  which  we  have  frequent 
occasion  to  speak,  that  Cicero  possibly  never  even  dreamed  of! 

"And  he  himself,  I  doubt  not,  were  he  now  living,  would  implore 
these  narrow-minded  imitators  to  spare  his  good  name.  A  lifeless 


76  ERASMUS  ON  CLASSICAL  EDUCATION. 

imitation  is  cold  and  passionless ;  and  by  no  mere  affectation  can  we 
ever  hope  to  appropriate  the  higher  excellencies  of  the  orator  whom 
we  have  taken  for  our  pattern.  We  look  in  vain  among  these 
Ciceronians  for  Cicero's  happy  invention,  his  clear  arrangement,  the 
skill  with  which  he  treats  his  subject,  his  power  over  the  passions, 
and  his  large  experience;  for,  instead  of  a  just  and  appreciative 
reproduction  of  his  spirit,  they  present  us  only  with  a  ghastly  and 
hollow  mask  of  his  form." 

"  Every  age,"  continues  JBulephorus,  "  has  its  special  characteristics, 
and  on  this  account  demands  its  particular  style  of  eloquence. 
Cicero's  speeches  would  not  have  suited  the  sterner  times  of  Ennius, 
and  Cato  the  censor,  to  say  nothing  of  the  present  day.  Since 
the  age  of  Cicero  every  thing  has  changed, — religion,  government, 
authority,  manners  and  laws.  Should  it  be  required  of  us  at  the 
present  day  to  speak  and  write  as  Cicero  spoke  and  wrote,  we  must 
have  consuls,  tribunes,  praBtors  and  ediles  again ;  in  short,  the  insti- 
tutions of  ancient  Rome  must  all  be  restored.  Whoever,  therefore, 
desires  to  conform  to  the  present  age,  and  to  adapt  himself  to  the 
circumstances  in  which  he  is  placed,  (and  without  such  desire  and 
aim  it  is  impossible  for  any  one  ever  to  become  an  orator,)  must 
differ  widely  from  Cicero.  Of  what  service  can  Cicero's  style  of 
eloquence  prove  to  the  Christian  orator,  addressing  Christian  men  and 
women  upon  repentance,  prayer,  or  alms-giving, — subjects  in  regard 
to  which  Cicero  was  entirely  uninformed?"  To  illustrate  this  point, 
Bulephorus,  (speaking  for  Erasmus,)  brings  up  the  case  of  a  Cicero- 
nian, whom,  on  a  certain  Easter-Eve,  he  had  heard  preach  before 
Pope  Julius  II.  "The  sermon,"  said  he,  "consisted  mainly  of  a 
panegyric  upon  the  Pope,  whom  the  orator  called  *  Jupiter  Optimus 
Maxim  us,'  in  the  plenitude  of  his  power  wielding  the  forked  thunder- 
bolt, and  guiding  the  universe  by  his  nod.  Then  he  spoke  of  the 
Decii,  and  of  Q.  Curtius,  who,  for  their  country's  sake,  had  sacrificed 
themselves  to  the  Dii  Manes,  and  of  Iphigenia,  Cecrops  and  others, 
to  whom  their  country  was  dearer  even  than  life.  To  such  persons 
the  ancients  erected  statues  in  commemoration  of  their  deeds ;  but 
Christ,  in  return  for  all  the  good  which  he  accomplished  among  the 
Jews,  was  crucified.  In  short,"  said  Bulephorus,  "  the  Roman  spoke 
so  like  a  Roman,  that  the  speech  contained  no  mention  of  Christ's 
death  at  all.  And  yet  the  Ciceronians  at  Rome  pronounced  his 
sermon  a  marvelous  effort,  worthy  of  a  Roman,  and  worthy  even  of 
Cicero  himself.  Had  a  school-boy  addressed  his  mates  in  such  a 
speech,  it  might  have  passed  muster  as  a  tolerably  good  thesis ;  but 
what  had  it  to  do  with  such  a  day,  with  such  an  audience,  and  with 


ERASMUS  ON  CLASSICAL  EDUCATION.  77 

such  an  occasion  ?  Surely  these  men,  who  have  Cicero  ever  in  their 
mouths,  only  slander  his  fair  fame.  And,"  he  continues,  "it  is  aston- 
ishing with  what  arrogance  they  look  down  upon  what  they  style  the 
barbarism  of  Thomas  Aquinus,  Scotus,  Durandus  and  others ;  and 
yet,  if  we  scan  the  merits  of  these  authors  critically,  although  they 
laid  ncr  claim  either  to  eloquence,  or  yet  to  Ciceronianism,  we 
shall  perceive  that  in  both  these  respects  they  far  outstrip  their 
detractors,  this  blustering  crew,  who  all  the  while  deem  themselves 
not  merely  Ciceronians,  but  veritable  Ciceros." 

As  Nosoponus  appears  astonished  at  this  emphatic  declaration, 
Bulephorus  proceeds  to  explain  more  minutely,  in  what  an  orator 
should  resemble  Cicero.  "  He  should  speak  upon  every  subject  in 
that  clear  and  perfect  manner  that  only  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
subject  can  give,  and  he  ought  moreover  always  to  speak  from  the 
heart.  Hence,  it  follows  that  the  Christian  orator  must  understand 
the  mysteries  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  must  study  the  sacred 
writings  with  no  less  diligence  than  did  Cicero  the. works  of  philoso- 
phers, poets,  jurists  and  historians.  Through  his  intimacy  with  these 
it  was,''  continues  Bulephorus,  "  that  Cicero  became  so  great.  But 
if  we,  who  claim  to  be  called  spiritual  teachers,  are  familiar  neither 
with  the  law  nor  the  prophets,  neither  with  sacred  history  nor 
exegesis,  and  what  is  more,  if  we  despise  and  abominate  them  all, 
what  title  have  we  or  can  we  have  to  the  name  of  genuine  Ciceroni- 
ans ?  Must  not  every  one  of  our  addresses  bear  the  Christian  stamp, 
if  we  would  pass  not  only  for  good  orators,  but  even  for  good  men  ? 
And,  how  is  this  possible,  if  we  use  only  those  words  and  phrases 
which  we  can  find  in  Cicero  ?  Are  we  to  substitute  the  language  of 

&          O 

Cicero  for  that  of  the  church  ?  Instead  of  God  the  Father,  are  we 
to  say  'Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus?'  instead  of  Jesus  Christ,  Apollo? 
and,  instead  of  Mary,  Diana  ?  Are  we  to  say  sacred  republic  instead 
of  church,  and  Christian  persuasion  instead  of  Christian  faith  ? 
Shall  we  style  the  Pope,  Flamen  Dialis,  the  priest  of  Jupiter,  and 
call  the  prophecies  oracles  of  the  gods  ?  Be  it  so  then,  and  let  us  see 
whither  it  will  lead  us.  Take,  for  instance,  the  following  brief 
summation  of  our  faith  : — '  Jesus  Christ,  the  Word  and  the  Son  of 
the  Eternal  Father,  according  to  prophecy,  came  into  the  world,  and, 
having  become  a  man,  voluntarily  surrendered  himself  to  death,  and 
so  redeemed  his  church,  and  delivered  us  from  the  penalty  of  the  law, 
and  reconciled  us  to  God,  in  order  that,  justified  by  grace  through 
faith,  and  freed  from  the  bondage  of  sin,  we  might  be  received  into 
his  church,  and  persevering  in  its  communion,  might,  after  this  life, 
be  admitted  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.'  And  how  would  a  Ciceronian 


Y8  ERASMUS  ON  CLASSICAL  EDUCATION. 

express  it?  Somewhat  in  this  manner,  viz.:  'The  interpreter 
and  son  of  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus,  our  saviour  and  our  sovereign, 
according  to  the  responses  of  the  oracles,  came  down  to  the  earth 
from  Olympus,  and,  having  assumed  the  human  shape,  of  his  own 
free  will  sacrificed  himself  for  the  safety  of  the  republic  to  the  Dii 
Manes,  and  so  restored  to  it  its  lost  liberty,  and,  having  turned  aside 
from  us  the  angry  thunder-bolts  of  Jupiter,  won  for  us  his  favor,  in 
order  that,  through  our  acknowledgement  of  his  bounty,  having 
recovered  our  innocence,  and  having  been  released  from  the  servitude 
of  flattery,  we  might  be  made  citizens  of  his  republic,  and  having 
sustained  our  parts  with  honor,  might,  when  the  fates  should  summon 
us  away  from  this  life,  enjoy  supreme  felicity  in  the  friendship  of  the 
immortal  gods.'" 

Nosoponus  now  asks  Bulephorus  whether  he  would  commend  the 
style  of  Thomas  Aquinus  and  Scotus ;  to  which  he  replies :  "  If  you 
will  admit  that  he  who  conforms  his  language  to  his  subject  is  to  be 
admired,  then  I  prefer  the  manner  in  which  Thomas  and  Scotus 
handle  sacred  things  far  before  that  of  the  Ciceronians.  Yet  there  is 
a  medium  between  Scotus  and  these  apes  of  Cicero.  Latin  words  not 
to  be  found  in  Cicero  are  not  on  that  account  to  be  rejected ;  words 
relating  to  agriculture  we  can  adopt  from  Cato  and  Varro ;  words 
relating  to  the  church,  from  Tertullian  and  Augustine.  Every  art, 
science,  or  institution  has,  too,  its  peculiar  technical  terms ;  gramma- 
rians, for  instance,  use  gerund  and  supine  ;  mathematicians,  fraction 
and  equation  ;  the  church,  amen  and  apostle,  etc.  Were  Cicero  now 
living,  and  were  he  a  Christian,  he  certainly  would  not  affect  indif- 
ference to  the  language  of  the  church  ;  he  would  say  '  faith  in  Christ,' 
'  the  Comforter,'  etc.  And  why  then  should  we  not  cite  the  authority 
of  Holy  Writ,  as  Cicero  quotes  from  Ennius  and  others?  Is  Solomon 
inferior  to  Plato  ?  are  the  psalms  of  less  account  than  Pindar  ?  or  does 
Holy  Writ  any  where  rank  below  the  writings  of  uninspired  men  ? 
Certainly  not.  How  comes  it  then,  that  Hannibal,  the  Carthaginian 
general,  sounds  more  agreeable  to  our  ears  than  Paul  the  Apostle  of 
the  Gentiles?"  Hypologus  imputes  this  state  of  things  to  the 
extensive  use  which  is  made  of  the  classics  in  education,  through 
which  the  language  in  which  they  are  written,  becoming  familiar  to 
us,  captivates  our  imaginations  in  a  degree  disproportionate  to  its 
true  merits ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  language  of  the  Bible, 
receiving  but  little  attention,  appears  not  only  unattractive  in  our 
eyes,  but  even  barbarous.  To  this  Bulephorus  adds  :  X)ur  heathenish 
proclivities,  (nostra  paganitas,)  pervert  both  our  taste  and  our  under- 
standing. We  are  Christians  only  in  name ;  we  confess  Jesus  with 


j&UASMUS  ON  CLASSICAL  EDUCATION.  79 

our  mouths,  but  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus  and  Romulus  are  in  our 
hearts.  Were  it  not  so,  what  name  could  sound  sweeter  in  our  ears 
than  the  name  of  Jesus  ?  Should  we  extirpate  these  pagan  notions 
of  ours,  as  we  ought  to  do,  then  a  far  different  style  of  oratory  would 
prevail.  Yet  even  now,  no  one  will  acknowledge  himself  to  be  a 
pagan,  although  so  many  glory  in  being  called  Ciceronians. 

At  this  point,  the  conversation  is  directed  to  the  inquiry,  "  How 
far  is  Cicero  to  be  imitated  ?"  "  It  is  foolish,"  says  Bulephorus,  "  to 
endeavor  to  write  another  man's  sentiments,  to  labor  that  our  works 
should  be  the  echo,  for  instance,  of  Cicero's  thoughts.  Thou  must 
properly  digest  all  thy  manifold  reading,  not  merely  storing  it  in  thy 
memory  or  in  an  index,  but  by  reflection  assimilating  it  to  thy  soul. 
So  thy  spirit,  nourished  by  all  kinds  of  spiritual  food,  shall  pour 
forth  an  eloquence  all  its  own,  and  there  shall  be  no  savor  therein  of 
this  or  that  flower^  leaf,  or  herb,  but  it  shall  partake  throughout  of 
the  very  essence  and  bent  of  thine  own  spirit;  and  thus  the  reader 
will  not  find  thy  writings  to  be  fragments  from  Cicero,  cunningly 
joined  together,  but  the  reflection  of  a  mind  filled  with  all  knowledge. 
The  bees,"  he  added,  "  gather  their  honey,  not  from  a  single  flower 
alone,  but  with  marvellous  diligence  they  visit  every  flower  and  shrub ; 
and  even  then  they  have  not  gathered  pure  honey,  but  they  so 
prepare  and  refine  it  afterward  in  their  stomachs,  that  we  can  perceive 
neither  the  taste  nor  the  odor  of  any  of  the  various  flowers  from' 
which  it  comes." 

Bulephorus  now  asks  further :  "  On  what  occasion  can  we  make 
use  of  this  Ciceronian  eloquence?  Is  it  in  the  court- room  ?  There, 
causes  are  handled  by  attorneys  and  advocates,  people  who  are  any 
thing  but  Ciceronians.  As  little  can  we  use  it  in  the  senate-chamber, 
where  French  is  employed,  or  else  German.  Can  we  then  use  it  in 
preaching  ?  But  the  hearers  do  not  understand  Latin ;  hence  it  is 
not  adapted  to  the  pulpit.  Where  then  shall  we  use  this  species  of 
eloquence?  At  best,  in  embassies  to  Rome,  to  deliver,  according  to 
custom,  an  elaborate  but  useless  harangue,  which  often  has  need  to 
be  interpreted  for  the  benefit  of  those  to  whom  it  is  addressed.  All 
important  business  is  there,  as  well  as  elsewhere,  transacted  either  by 
writing,  or  orally,  through  the  medium  of  the  French  language. 
What  purpose,  then,  can  this  accomplishment  of  the  Ciceronian 
subserve  ?  That  of  writing  letters  to  the  learned  ?  But  no  one  of 
these  insists  that  Latin  should  be  altogether  Ciceronian,  with  the 
exception  of  four  Italians,  who  boast  themselves,  of  late,  to  have 
become  perfect  copyists  of  Cicero." 

And  now  Eulephorus  calls  over,  one  by  one,  the  names  of  a  number 


gO  ERASMUS  ON  CLASSICAL  EDUCATION. 

of  Latin  authors,  both  ancient  and  modern,  and  asks  Nosoponus,  at  the 
mention  of  the  successive  names,  whether  he  considers  this  or  that 
man  a  Ciceronian  ;  but  none  of  them  all  is  acknowledged  by  him. 
"  Pliny,  the  younger,"  says  he,  "  is  so  little  of  a  Ciceronian,  that  we 
have  forbidden  our  youths  to  peruse  any  of  his  letters,  lest  they  should 
become  Plinians,  instead  of  Ciceronians.  Among  the  moderns  like- 
wise, we  reckon  none  as  Ciceronians,  neither  Valla,  nor  Politian,  nor 
Budaeus ;  Peter  Mosellanus,  however,  would  undoubtedly  have 
gained  this  distinction,  had  he  not  died  too  soon."  "  How  is  it  with 
Erasmus?"  asks  Bulephorus.  "Him,"  replies  Nosoponus,  "  I  do  not 
even  style  a  writer,  much  less  a  Ciceronian.  A  polygraphist  truly  he 
is,  who  blots  much  paper  with  his  ink.  He  hurries  through  with 
every  thing ;  he  will  write  you  a  whole  volume,  stans  pede  in  uno  ; 
he  can  never  prevail  upon  himself  even  to  look  over  what  he  has 
once  written  ;  and,  besides  being  no  Ciceronian,  he  employs  theological 
and  even  vulgar  expressions."  In  like  manner  he  disposes  of  Agri- 
cola,  Hegius,  Busch,  Wirnpheling,  Reuchlin,  Melancthon,  Hutten, 
Pirkheimer,  and  others.  At  last  Bulephorus  exclaims  ;  "  So  many 
lands  have  you  diligently  searched  through,  and  there  is  no  Ciceronian 
anywhere  to  be  found!"  "  Longolius  alone,"  rejoins  Nosoponus, 
"  forms  an  exception  :  although  he  is  a  Brabanter,  and  was  educated 
at  Paris,  yet  he  has  been  recommended  by  the  Italians  as  a  pure 
Ciceronian."  " Longolius"  says  Bulephorus,  " paid  for  his  renown 
with  his  life  ;  and  the  speeches,  which  he  made  in  Rome,  had,  it  is 
true,  an  air  of  elaborate  refinement  about  them,  but  they  were  based 
upon  an  artificial  reproduction  of  a  long  vanished  age,  and  not  upon 
the  living  relations  of  the  present  time.  Such  speeches  are  forced 
and  unnatural,  and  weary  the  listener ;  they  are  in  no  wise  fitted  for 
any  thing  but  the  declamations  of  school-boys." 

Thereupon,  Bulephorus  again  defines  a  genuine  imitation,  as  opposed 
to  servile  copying.  "  The  one,"  says  he,  '*  consists  in  a  living,  spiritual 
assimilation  of  the  classics,  while  the  other  calls  out  merely  the 
external  adornments  of  words  and  phrases.  The  writer,  or  the  ora- 
tor, who  would  not  deceive*  us  by  acting  out  of  character,  must  not 
attempt  to  personate  another  individual's  mind.  The  language  of  the 
Christian,  at  least,  should  not  be  perverted,  nor  his  character  disgraced 
by  such  a  preposterous  imitation  of  Cicero."  In  such  an  independent 
manner,  unmoved  and  unbiased  by  the  false  notions  of  his  contempo- 
raries, did  Erasmus  render  his  verdict  against  their  misuse  of  Cicero ; 
a  verdict  which  applies  with  equal  propriety  in  the  case  of  all  the 
classics.  How  justly,  too,  does  he  express  himself  upon  the  only  true 
method  of  studying  authors,  that  method  which  exerts  so  immediate 


ERASMUS  ON  CLASSICAL  EDUCATION.  81 

And  so  marked  an  influence  upon  our  own  productive  faculties 
"While  thus  the  reader  grows  spiritually,  his  own  creative  powers  are 
strengthened  and  matured." 

In  the  like  fearless  and  perspicuous  manner,  did  Erasmus  give  his 
opinion  upon  the  necessity  of  practical  knowledge  in  order  to  a  correct 
interpretation  of  the  classical  authors.  We  will  single  out  a  passage 
on  this  point  from  his  "  Dialogue  on  Pronunciation."  The  speakers 
are  the  Lion  and  the  Bear. 

"Bear.  —  Do  you  style  that  man  a  grammarian,  who,  when  he  is 
addressed  in  Latin,  is  able  to  reply  without  making  any  blunder  ? 

Lion. — In  our  day,  such  a  person  is  commonly  esteemed  a 
grammarian. 

Bear. — But  Quintilian  requires  of  the  grammarian,  facility  in  ex- 
plaining the  poets,  acquaintance  with  history,  knowledge  of  antiquity, 
etc.  Should  he  possess  no  thorough  knowledge  of  these  things,  yet  he 
must  not  be  entirely  unfamiliar  with  them,  if  he  wishes  to  be  deemed 
capable  of  instructing  youth.  Because  the  grammarian  is  expected  to 
comment  on  ths  "  Arma  v.rumque,"  we  must  not  on  that  account 
expect  him  to  be  a  Pyrrhus,  or  a  Hannibal  ;  nor,  because  he  is  to  in- 
terpret Virgil's  Georgics,  should  we  require  him  to  be  an  experienced 
agriculturist.  If  again  he  is  to  expatiate  upon  the  voyage  of  ^Eneas, 
we  ought  not  to  demand  that  he  be  a  thorough-bred  sea-captain  ;  nor 
that  he  be  an  Apicius,  when  he  is  about  to  treat  of  a  passage  upon 
cookery.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  what  dependence  is  to  be  placed 
upon  the  grammarian,  who  is  entirely  ignorant  both  of  the  construction 
and  the  use  of  fire-arms  and  tools,  or  who  knows  nothing  even  of  the 
disposition  arid  organization  of  an  army  ?  Could  he  learn  these 
things  by  experience,  it  would  profit  him  not  a  little,  but,  where  this 
is  out  of  the  question,  he  should  inform  himself  from  books,  or  from 
conversation  with  men,  who  have  been  personally  connected  with 
such  matters,  or,  so  far  as  may  be  necessary,  from  accurate  drawings. 
And  the  same  method  is  applicable  to  every  other  art  to  which  he  may 
have  occasion  to  refer. 

Lion. — Such  grammarians,  as  you  have  described,  there  may  have 
been  formerly,  but  they  are  now  out  of  fashion. 

Bear. — That  is  very  true  ;  and  hence  our  children,  after  they  have 
grown  old  almost,. under  the  present  race  of  teachers,  return  to  their 
homes,  without  being  able  to  call  a  single  tree,  fish,  or  plant,  by  its 
right  name." 

Similar  demands,  likewise,  Erasmus  urged  in  his  essay,  "  On  the 
correct  method  of  pursuing  study."  In  this,  he  inculcates  upon 

teachers  the  necessity  of  attending  to  many  branches  of  science,  such 
6 


82  ERASMUS  ON  CLASSICAL  EDUCATION. 

as  geography,  natural  history,  etc.  "  It  is  incredible,"  says  he,  "  how 
profoundly  ignorant  in  respect  to  such  matters  the  generality  of  teach- 
ers are  at  the  present  day."  Yet  Erasmus  himself  regarded  the  natu- 
ral sciences  merely  as  indispensable  means  to  a  correct  interpretation 
of  the  classics,  nor  did  he  appear  to  have  had  the  remotest  idea  of 
their  importance  in  themselves.  How  far  in  advance  of  him,  in  this 
respect,  was  Luther,  whose  keen-sighted  intellect,  in  spite  of  the  be- 
numbing influence  of  school  and  cloister,  remained  ever  vigorous 
and  active  !  "  We  are  now,"  said  Luther  on  a  certain  occasion,  "in 
the  morning-dawn  of  a  better  life;  for  we  are  beginning  again  to  re- 
cover that  knowledge  of  the  creation,  which  we  lost  through  Adam's 
fall.  By  God's  grace,  we  are  beginning  to  recognize,  even  in  the 
structure  of  the  humblest  floweret,  his  wondrous  glory,  his  goodness, 
and  his  omnipotence.  In  the  creation  we  can  appreciate  in  some 
measure  the  power  of  Him,  who  spake  and  it  was  done,  who  com- 
manded and  it  stood  fast.  Consider  the  peach-stone  :  although  it  is 
very  hard,  yet,  in  its  due  season,  it  is  burst  asunder  by  the  force  of  the 
very  tender  germ,  which  is  inclosed  within  the  shell.  But  all  this, 
Erasmus  passes  by,  not  regarding  it  for  a  moment ;  and  views  this 
new  knowledge  of  the  creature,  only  as  cows  look  upon  a  new  gate." 

His  treatise  upon  "  Study,"  by  reason  of  its  succinctness,  gives  us 
no  exhaustive  methodology,  but  only  single  rules  for  the  direction  of 
teachers.  Some  of  these  rules  are  worthy  of  careful  attention ;  es- 
pecially those  relating  to  the  improvement  of  the  scholar's  style. 
For  this  end,  Erasmus  commends,  above  all  other  means,  frequent 
exercise  in  translating  from  Greek  into  Latin  ;  as  this  not  only  assists 
in  the  understanding  Greek  authors,  but  also  gives  an  insight  into 
the  peculiarities  of  both  languages.  This  counsel  applies  with  equal 
force  in  our  day  to  translating  from  foreign  languages  into  our  mother- 
tongue.  Then  too,  while  any  particular  author  is  being  read,  the 
teacher  should  comment  and  explain  only  so  far  as  may  be  necessary 
4o  a  thorough  understanding  of  the  sense ;  but  he  must  scrupulously 
refrain  from  an  ostentatious  and  inappropriate  display  of  his  own 
erudition  at  every  passage.  ' 

Erasmus  was  moreover  directly  instrumental  in  promoting  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  Greek  language,  through  his  translation  of  the  Greek 
grammar  of  Theodore  Gaza. 

But  no  one  of  all  his  works  has  played  so  important  a  part  in  the 
school-world,  as  the  Dialogues,  (Colloquia.)  The  first  edition  of  these, 
Erasmus  himself  was  dissatisfied  with  :  the  second,  published  in  the 
year  1522,  he  dedicated  to  the  son  of  Frobenius,  then  but  six  years 
of  age,  as  also  the  third,  published  in  1524.  In  the  dedication  to  the 


ERASMUS  ON  CLASSICAL  EDUCATION.  83 

last,  he  says,  "  the  book  was  so  much  liked,  met  with  such  a  rapid 
sale,  and  was  so  generally  used  by  youth,  that  he  was  induced  at 
once  to  prepare  another  and  an  enlarged  edition.  Many  have  become 
such  superior  Latinists,  and  likewise  so  much  better,  (Latiniores  et 
meliores,)  by  the  use  of  this  book,  that  he,  (the  boy,)  would  not  be 
put  to  the  blush  in  their  society." 

But  this  book,  designed  to  make  boys  both  better  and  better 
Latinists,  was  condemned  by  the  Sorbonne,  prohibited  in  France, 
burned  in  Spain,  and  at  Rome  interdicted  to  all  Christendom. 

And  whoever  peruses  these  dialogues,  will  not  be  at  all  astonished 
at  this.  For  they  abound  in  most  insidious  attacks  and  sharp  satires 
upon  monks,  cloister-life,  fasts,  pilgrimages,  and  other  matters  pertain- 
ing to  the  church.  And  this  fact  is  enough  of  itself  to  have  occa- 
sioned the  condemnation  of  the  book,  without  any  reference  to  the 
many  frivolous  and  improper  expressions  which  it  contains. 

We  are  astonished  that  such  a  book  should  ever  have  been  intro- 
duced into  so  great  a  number  of  schools  as  it  was.  What  have  boys 
to  do  with  those  satires  ?  Reformation  is  the  work  of  mature  men 
alone.  What  have  boys  to  do  with  conversations  upon  so  many  sub- 
jects, of  which  they  know  absolutely  nothing  ?  with  conversations 
where  teachers  are  made  sport  of,  where  two  women  discuss  the 
respective  merits  of  their  husbands,  where  a  lover  is  urging  his  suit 
with  a  maiden,  or,  above  all,  with  a  conversation  like  the  "  Colloquium 
adolescentis  et  scorti  ?"  This  latter  reminds  us  of  Schiller's  distich, 
entitled  "Artifice:" 

Would  you  at  once  delight  both  the  men  of  the  world  and  the  godly, 
Paint  for  us  pleasure,  but  paint  ye  the  devil  therewith. 

Erasmus  here  depicts  the  vilest  of  pleasures,  but  adds  his  censure 
for  edification.  And  such  a  book  this  learned  theologian  gravely 
recommends  to  a  boy  of  eight  years  of  age,  as  one  whose  perusal  will 
make  him  better,  though  at  the  same  time  as  one  which  will  perfect  him 
in  Latin  ;  and  to  this  end  it  is  admirably  adapted.  For  the  various 
personages  of  Erasmus  here  express  themselves  with  astonishing 
facility  upon  subjects,  which  we  would  scarcely  have  believed  capable 
of  being  handled  in  the  Latin  tongue,  such  as  horse-dealing,  the  chase, 
taverns,  and  the  like. 

Teachers,  who  were  wont  to  give  the  plays  of  Terence  to  their 
scholars  to  commit  to  memory  and  to  act,  took  no  offense  at  the 
nature  of  these  Dialogues,  so  long  as  they  secured  what  they  consid- 
ered the  highest  aim  of  all  culture,  viz.:  a  readiness  in  speaking  and 
in  writing  Latin. 

Terence  is  not  responsible  for  the  misuse  that  was  made  of  him 


84  EIIASMUS  ON  CLASSICAL  EDUCATION. 

after  the  lapse  of  fifteen  hundred  years:  but  Erasmus,  the  theo- 
logian,  is  responsible  for  his  frivolous  book,  nay  doubly  so,  inasmuch 
as  he  designed  it  for  youth,  even  though  they  should  become  thereby 
Latinists  of  the  first  eminence. 

In  Luther's  Table-talk,  there  are  some  expressions  in  regard  to 
these  Dialogues,  which  teachers  would  do  well  to  lay  to  heart. 
"  Erasmus,"  says  he,  "  lurks  behinds  the  fence,  does  nothing  openly, 
and  never  comes  boldly  into  our  presence, — and  for  this  reason  are  his 
books  very  pernicious.  When  I  die,  I  will  forbid  my  children  to  read 
his  Dialogues;  for  in  them  he  utters  and  teaches  many  a  wicked  senti- 
ment by  the  mouths  of  his  fictitious  characters,  with  the  deliberate 
design  to  injure  the  church  and  the  Christian  faith.  Erasmus  is  a 
crafty  knave ;  that,  one  sees  in  all  his  books,  but  especially  in  his 
Dialogues,  in  which  he  is  particular  to  say  ;  *  I  myself  speak  not  here, 
but  my  personages.'  To  Lucian  I  give  some  praise,  for  he  comes  out 
boldly,  and  indulges  in  open  mockery  ;  but  Erasmus  sophisticates 
every  thing  which  is  from  God,  and  every  thing  holy,  and  does  it  all 
in  the  name  of  holiness  ;  for  this  reason  he  is  much  more  mischievous 
and  corrupting  than  Lucian." 

The  Dialogues  at  least,  can  not  but  have  an  injurious  effect  upon 
the  moral  sentiments  of  youth.  Cold,  unloving  satire,  frivolity  and 
shuffling,  act  as  poison  upon  the  simplicity  and  artlessness  of  the 
young.  Erasmus  is  wonderfully  clear  and  eloquent,  when  he  treats 
of  any  thing  purely  scientific ;  but  he  was  not  the  man  to  write 
books  of  instruction,  to  address  children  from  a  fatherly  heart,  and  to 
care  for  the  good  of  their  souls. 

The  unhappy  man  had  no  father's  house,  no  country,  and  no  church  ; 
in  short,  he  had  no  object  to  which  he  could  devote  his  powers  in  self- 
sacrifice  ;  therefore  did  he  become  selfish,  timid,  and  double-minded, 
for  love  was  a  stranger  to  his  breast.  We  do  not  wonder  then  that 
he  dissolved  all  connection  with  the  upright,  outspoken  Luther,  that 
true-hearted  and  affectionate  pastor  of  his  beloved  Germans. 


THE  SCHLETTSTADT  SCHOOL,  AND  JOHN  REUCHLIN. 

[Translated  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education,  from  the  German  of  Karl  von  Raumer.j 


Louis  Dringenberg.     Wimpheling.     Crato.     Sapidus.     Platter. 

WE  have  confined  ourselves  thus  far  to  the  labors  of  North 
Germans  and  Netherlander^  for  the  restoration  of  classical  learning, 
and  for  the  cause  of  popular  education. 

Some  of  the  men  above-noticed  led,  as  we  have  seen,  a  migratory 
life  as  it  were :  Wessel,  Agricola  and  Erasmus,  all  lived  a  longer  or  a 
shorter  time  in  South-Germany  and  Switzerland,  and  exerted  an  in- 
fluence upon  learning  there.  Three  places  in  the  south  became  by 
this  means  centers  of  intellectual  light,  namely,  Schlettstadt,  Heidel- 
berg and  Tubingen.  We  will  now  consider  what  took  place  at 
Schlettstadt;  Heidelberg  and  Tubingen  shall  receive  due  attention 
when  we  come  to  Melancthon. 

Schlettstadt,  a  small  imperial  town  of  Lower  Alsace,  grown  wealthy 
on  its  lucrative  wine  traffic,  determined,  about  the  middle  of  the  15th 
century,  to  found  a  school,  and  for  that  purpose  invited  the  West- 
phaliau,  Louis  DRINGENBERG,  to  become  its  first  rector.  He  took  his 
name  from  Dringenberg,  his  native  place,  a  small  town  six  miles  to 
the  east  of  Paderborn :  he  was  educated  at  the  school  of  the  Hierony- 
mians  at  Deventer.  Of  his  method  of  instruction  we  only  know  this, 
namely,  that  he  gave  his  pupils  a  religious  training,  and  that,  with 
regard  to  the  medieval  school  books,  the  Doctrinal,  especially,  though 
he  did  not  venture  to  throw  them  aside,  he  nevertheless  aimed  to 
make  them  as  harmless  as  possible.  But  if  the  tree  may  be  known 
by  its  fruits,  then  the  many  distinguished  men,  who  were  sent  forth. 
from  Dringenberg's  school,  are  our  best  witnesses  that  his  method 
was  a  good  one. — He  died  in  1490,  after  having  been  at  the  head  of 
the  school  for  forty  years. 

Among  his  pupils  the  name  of  JACOB  WIMPHELING  has  become 
the  most  familiar  to  us.  He  was  born  at  Schlettstadt  in  1450,  and 
died  there  in  1528.  At  the  close  of  his  school-education,  he 
studied  at  Freyburg,  Basle  and  Erfurt.  He  took  his  master's  degree 
at  Heidelberg  in  1479,  was  created  dean  of  the  philosophical  faculty 
there,  and  during  the  years  1481  and  1482  he  was  Rector  of  the 
university.  Afterward  he  became  a  preacher  at  Spires,  where  he 


86  THE  SCHLETTSTADT  SCHOOL. 

lived  somewhat  longer  than  at  Heidelberg ;  then  he  went  again  to 
Heidelberg,  where  he  read  lectures  upon  St.  Jerome,  and  also  directed 
the  studies  of  many  young  men,  Count  Wolfgang  Lowenstein  among 
the  rest.  To  the  latter  he  dedicated  his  educational  treatise,  entitled 
"Adolescentia"  in  which  he  gave  prominence  to  moral  precepts, 
illustrating  and  enforcing  them  by  quotations  both  from  the  Bible 
and  the  classics.  A  second  work,  the  Isidoneus,  (tfff&Soe,  introduction,) 
is  devoted  on  the  other  hand  mainly  to  his  method  of  conducting  the 
study  of  the  liberal  arts  in  general,  but  with  a  special  application  to 
the  classics :  his  l'Elegantiae  majores  "  and  "JBlegantiarum  medulla  " 
are  school  books.  His  epitome  of  German  history  was  likewise 
designed  for  a  manual  of  instruction. 

One  of  Wimpheling's  pupils,  the  distinguished  James  Sturm,  we 
shall  meet  with  again.  For  him  it  was  that  Wimpheling  composed 
the  essay  "De  integritate"  containing  rules  for  study  and  for  the 
conduct  of  life,  and  enjoining  upon  him,  above  all  things,  a  dili- 
gent perusal  of  the  Bible.  Some  expressions  in  this  essay,  reflecting 
upon  the  monks,  drew  from  the  Augustinians  demonstrations  of 
hostility  toward  the  author,  to  which,  however,  Pope  Julius  II.  put 
an  end. 

Of  Wimpheling's  efficiency  at  Strasburg  we  shall  speak  in  another 
place.*  Strongly  as  he  inveighed  against  the  corruptions  of  the 
church,  yet  he  did  not  go  over  to  the  side  of  the  Reformation.  This 
violent  movement  and  schism  in  the  church,  coming  as  it  did  in  his 
old  age,  accordingly  occasioned  him  much  anxiety  and  care.f  He 
retired  to  Schlettstadt  to  the  house  of  his  sister,  Magdalena,  where  he 
died  in  his  seventy- eighth  year. 

A  second  scholar  of  Dringenberg's  was  George  Simler,  afterward 
Melancthon's  teacher,  both  at  Pforzheim  and  Tubingen ;  a  third, 
Eitelwolf  Stein,  is  known  to  us  by  his  active  friendship  for  Hutten. 

Dringenberg's  successor  in  the  rectorate  was  Crato,  (or  Craft 
Hofmann,)  who  may  lay  claim  to  Beatus  Rhenanus  as  one  of  his 
scholars.  The  real  name  o,f  Rhenanus  was  BILD.  He  was  born  at 
Schlettstadt  in  1485,  and  died  at  Strasburg  in  154Y.  He  labored 
much  in  the  field  of  German  history,  wrote  annotations  on  Tacitus, 
edited  Vellius  Paterculus,  Procopius,  etc. 

Rhenanus  continued  at  the  Schettstadt  gymnasium  under  the  rec- 
torate of  Crato's  successor  Gebwiler,  and  with  him  John  Sapidus, 

*  Under  "John  Sturm." 

t  "  In  addition  to  other  calamities,  which  put  Wimpheling's  virtue  sorely  to  the  test,  this  fatal 
division,  which  has  extended  throughout  the  whole  church,  came  in,  and  with  its  superinduced 
weight,  well  nigh  crushed  him  ;  he  had  110  sympathy  with  this  corrupt  age." — Erasmus. 


JOHN  REUCHLIN.  87 

(Witz,)  a  nephew  of  Wimpheling's.  This  latter,  born  at  Schlettstadt 
in  1490,  about  the  year  1514,  after  traveling  and  studying  at  Paris, 
himself  became  Rector  of  the  gymnasium  in  question. 

And  under  his  rectorate  the  school  grew  so  rapidly  that  in  1517  it 
numbered  no  less  than  900  scholars.  Among  these  was  Thomas 
Platter  of  Switzerland,  whose  autobiography*  calls  up  before  us  a 
vivid  picture  of  life  and  manners,  as  he  found  them  at  the  school. 

But  the  school  did  not  long  continue  to  be  so  full.  As  early  as 
1520  Sapidus  joined  himself  to  the  reformatory  movement,  and  in 
consequence  became  alienated  from  Wimpheling.  And,  because 
Schlettstadt  declared  decisively  against  the  Reformation,  Sapidus  left 
the  place  and  settled  in  Strasburg,  where  he  was  employed  as  a 
teacher  in  the  new  gymnasium,  and  where  he  died  in  1561. 

After  a  while  the  Schlettstadt  school  lost  its  reputation,  and  the 
Jesuits  obtained  control  over  it.  The  original  school  house  is 
standing  to  this  day. 

JOHN    BEUCHL1N. 

[Born  at  Pforzheim,  Dec.  28*A,  1455.     Died  at  Stuttgart,  June  30<A,  1522.] 

REUCHLIN'S  parents  were  worthy  and  honorable  people.  The 
young  John  early  made  a  marked  progress  in  the  languages  and  in 
music.  Because  of  his  good  voice  he  was  taken  to  the  court  at 
Baden;  in  3473,  when  eighteen  years  of  age,  he  accompanied  the 
Margrave,  Frederick  of  Baden,  to  Paris.  Here  he  formed  the  ac- 
quaintance of  Wessel ;  and  here  Hermonymus  of  Sparta  gave  him 
lessons  in  Greek,  whereupon  he  studied  Aristotle  before  all  other 
authors,  bestowing  diligent  study  the  while  upon  Latin. 

In  his  twentieth  year  he  w7ent  to  Basle,  there  continued  his  Greek 
under  the  tuition  of  Andronicus  Contoblacus,  a  native  of  Greece,  at  the 
same  time  reading  Latin  and  Greek  authors.  At  that  period  he  also 
compiled  a  Latin  dictionary,  under  the  title  "  Vocabularius  breviloquus." 

He  now  revisited  France,  studied  law  in  1479  at  Orleans,  and  in 
1480  at  Poictiers,  teaching  at  the  same  time  ;  then  returned  to  Tubin- 
gen, married,  and  entered  upon  the  active  duties  of  the  legal  profession. 

In  the  year  1482  Reuchlin  accompanied  Eberhard,  the  elder,  on  a 
journey  from  Wittenberg  to  Rome ;  he  was  selected,  principally  for 
the  facility  with  which  he  spoke  Latin,  and  for  his  correct  pronuncia- 
tion.f  He  delivered  a  most  admirable  speech  in  the  presence  of  Sixtus 

*  We  give  extracts  from  Platter's  Autobiography,  on  pages  79-90. 

t  When  the  ambassadors  of  the  Pope  met  Eberhard,  his  chancellor  replied  in  Eberhard's 
name  to  their  greeting  as  follows:  (mark  the  pronunciation !)  Oi'/sissimus  et  -Ei/lustrissimus 
waoster  Prainceips  etntellexit,  etc.  This  the  Italians  did  not  understand,  and  accordingly 
Reuchlin  was  called  on  to  reply  to  them.— When  a  certain  French  ambassador  had  addressed 
the  Emperor  Maximilian  in  a  Latin  speech,  the  Count  of  Zollern  replied  in  th«  emperor's 
behalf,  but  in  a  broad  and  barbarous  Swabian  accent.  To  the  question  of  Philip,  Maximilian's 


gg  JOHN  REITCHLIN. 

IV. ;  and  soon  after,  together  with  Eherhard,  waited  upon  Lorenzo  di 
Medici. 

In  the  year  1486,  Reuchlin  was  sent,  with  two  other  ambassadors, 
by  Eberhard  to  Frankfort,  to  attend  the  coronation  of  Maximilian  I. ; 
and  in  1489  he  took  charge  of  an  embassy  to  Rome.  During  this 
latter  journey  he  became  acquainted  with  Picus  Mirandola,  at  Florence. 
In  1492,  he  attended  Eberhard  to  Linz,  to  the  court  of  the  Emperor 
Frederick  III.,  who  raised  Reuchlin  to  the  rank  of  nobility,  and 
created  him  Count  Palatine.  He  there  made  a  valuable  acquisition, 
in  the  acquaintance  of  James  Jehiel  Loans,  the  emperor's  physician, 
a  learned  Jew,  who  gave  him  a  most  careful  and  accurate  course  of 
instruction  in  Hebrew.  Frederick  presented  Reuchlin  with  a  Hebrew 
Old  Testament,  valued  at  300  gold  florins. 

The  excellent  duke,  Eberhard,  the  elder,  died  in  the  year  1496, 
and  was  succeeded  by  a  profligate  ruler,  Eberhard,  the  younger.  He 
appointed  for  his  chancellor,  Holzinger,  an  unprincipled  Augustinian 
monk,  who  had  once  been  arrested  through  Reuchlin's  means. 
Under  the  government  of  such  persons,  Reuchlin  had  nothing  but  evil 
to  look  for  ;  and  hence  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1497  he  returned 
to  Heidelberg,  where  he  received  a  most  friendly  welcome  at  the 
hands  of  Dalberg.  There  he  wrote  Sergius,  a  satirical  comedy  in 
ridicule  of  Holzinger ;  a  second  comedy,  which  he  transferred  from 
the  French,  Dalberg  gave  to  the  students  to  act. 

In  the  year  1498  Reuchlin  was  sent  by  the  Elector-Palatine  Philip 
on  an  embassy  to  Pope  Alexander  VI.,  before  whom  he  delivered  a 
Latin  address.  He  remained  a  year  at  Rome,  and  took  lessons  in 
Hebrew  daily  of  Abdias,  the  Jew,  to  whom,  for  every  hour  of  instruc- 
tion, he  gave  a  gold  florin :  while  there,  he  also  attended  the  lectures 
of  Argyropulus  on  Thucydides.  The  first  time  that  he  heard  Argy- 
ropulus,  this  one  asked  him  to  what  country  he  belonged,  and  then, 
whether  he  had  paid  any  attention  to  Greek  before  ?  when  Reuchlin 
replied,  that  he  was  from  Germany,  and  was  not  wholly  unacquainted 
with  Greek,  Argyropulus  put  a  copy  of  Thucydides  into  his  hands, 
with  the  request  that  he  -would  read  him  some  of  it.  Hereupon 
Reuchlin  translated  the  Greek  text  very  correctly  and  into  pure  Latin, 
so  that  Argyropulus  cried  out  in  admiration,  "Our  bereaved  and 
exiled  Greece  has  at  last  found  a  home  beyond  the  Alps." 

Eberhard,    the    younger,    was    formally    deposed    in     1498,    and 

son, "  what  sort  of  Latin  is  that  ?"  the  Wirtemberg  chancellor,  Lampart.  replied, "  that,  princes, 
is  Hechingen  Latin."  "Where  did  the  count  learn  it?"  continued  Philip.  "At  Hechingen, ' 
said  the  chancellor,  "a  small  Swabian  town  on  the  count's  domains,  where  very  coarse 
sackcloth  is  made.  There  the  count's  Latin  was  woven  too."  This  incident  afterward  caused 
all  such  Latin  to  be  designated  by  the  name,  Hechingen  Latin. 


JOHN  REUCIILIN.  gg 

Reuchlin  returned  soon  after,  in  1499,  to  Wirtemberg.  From  1502 
to  1513  he  was  one  of  the  three  judges  of  the  Swabian  league  formed 
in  1488. 

In  the  year  1506  he  issued  his  "Rudimenta  Hebraicae  linguae," 
the  fruit  of  his  vigorously  prosecuted  and  expensive  Hebrew  studies, 
and  the  means  through  which  the  Hebrew  tongue  was  first  introduced 
into  the  sphere  of  ordinary  study.  He  said,  that  he  had  composed  his 
Hebrew  grammar  without  any  assistance  from  others,  "  that  so  the 
Holy  Scriptures  might  shed  their  light  and  healing  upon  the  world, 
and  our  students  might  have  wherewith  to  delight  and  to  build 
themselves  up :  before  me,  there  has  been  no  one  who  has  troubled 
himself  with  the  attempt  to  set  forth  the  whole  Hebrew  tongue  in 
order  in  a  book."  In  another  passage  he  speaks  of  the  toil  and  the 
money  which  the  Hebrew  grammar  and  lexicon  have  cost  him.  "To 
this,"  he  says,  "  the  invaluable  worth  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  was  a 
sufficient  inducement."  "All  the  sacred  writings,"  he  says  in  his 
commentary  on  the  seven  Penitential  Psalms,  **  both  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament and  the  New,  I  was  ignorant  of,  as  they  were  in  their  original 
languages ;  wherefore  I  applied  myself  with  diligence  to  these,  that 
by  their  help  I  might  the  better  and  with  the  more  insight,  discern 
the  prophecy  and  its  fulfillment."  He  wrote  to  Cardinal  Hadrian 
as  follows :  "  I  gave  my  attention  to  Hebrew,  because  I  foresaw  the 
great  service  which  it  would  bring  to  religion  and  to  a  true  knowledge 
of  God.  All  my  literary  labors  hitherto  I  have  shaped  with  reference 
to  this  end,  as  I  shall  continue  to  do  in  the  future,  and  that  with 
increased  zeal.  As  a  faithful  follower  of  our  Saviour,  I  have  done 
what  lay  in  my  power  toward  the  reestablish ment  and  the  exaltation 
of  the  true  church  of  Christ." 

Reuchlin  fully  appreciated  the  importance  of  his  "  Rudimenta"  for 
he  closed  it  with  these  words,  "Exeyi  monumentum  acre  perennius" 
And  he  wrote  on  the  subject  to  Amerbach  thus :  "  For  if  I  live,  then 
by  God's  help  the  Hebrew  tongue  shall  be  built  up.  And  if  I  die, 
the  foundation  that  I  have  laid  can  not  be  easily  destroyed." 

Reuchlin  was  brought  by  his  Hebrew  studies  into  very  unpleasant 
relations  both  with  Jews,  proselytes  from  Judaism,  and  Dominicans ; 
but  the  lawsuits  and  controversies  in  which  he  was  entangled  by  the 
means  were  productive  of  at  least  one  good  result, — they  hastened 
the  coming  Reformation. 

In  the  year  1505  he  published  the  German  letter  to  a  nobleman, 
on  the  reason  why  the  Jews  have  so  long  been  under  God's  displeas- 
ure. He  says,  "  It  is  because  they  slew  the  true  Messiah,  have  never 
ceased  to  defame  him,  and  are  full  of  hatred  to  Christians.  Their 


90  JOHN  REUCHLIN. 

punishment  shall  endure,  until  they  acknowledge  Christ  as  the 
Messiah."  '*  If,"  he  says,  "  any  among  them  will  shew  himself  willing 
to  be  taught  concerning  the  Messiah  and  our  true  faith,  I  will  joyfully 
take  his  part  and  render  him  such  aid  that  he  need  have  no  care  for 
his  daily  bread,  but  may  serve  God  in  peace,  and  live  untroubled  by 
anxious  thoughts  for  the  future." 

Thus  Reuchlin  pronounces  a  clear  and  correct  opinion  respecting 
the  Jews,  and  at  the  same  time  displays  a  genuine  Christian  love,  in 
looking  to  the  only  possible  emancipation  of  the  Jews,  namely,  their 
being  grafted  again  into  the  true  olive  tree. 

In  the  year  1510  commenced  those  memorable  controversies  re- 
specting Jewish  literature,  which  for  nine  years  so  completely 
engrossed  Reuchlin's  attention.  They  originated  in  the  following 
manner :  A  converted  Jew,  John  Pfefferkorn  by  name,  wrote  appeals 
to  magistrates  and  people,  urging  them  to  a  general  persecution  of 
the  Jews,  and  also  called  upon  the  emperor  in  particular  to  suppress 
all  their  books,  with  the  exception  of  the  Old  Testament.  Reuchlin 
received  an  order  from  the  Elector  of  Mentz  to  render  a  verdict  in  the 
matter.  He  decided  to  the  effect,  that  none  of  the  writings  of 
the  Jews  should  be  seized  and  burned,  save  those  alone  which  were 
directly  aimed  at  Christianity  ; — as  it  had  been  done  formerly.*  This 
verdict  drew  down  upon  him,  not  merely  the  hatred  of  Pfeflerkorn, 
but  the  enmity  of  that  powerful  body,  the  Dominicans,  especially 
those  of  Cologne,  with  the  notorious  Hochstratten  at  their  head. 
Sharp  polemical  treatises  flew  back  and  forth.  It  was  to  no  purpose 
that  the  bishop  of  Spires,  who  was  appointed  by  the  Pope  to  adjudge 
the  case,  decided  in  Reuchlin's  favor.  The  Dominicans  carried  the 
suit  to  Rome.  But  there,  too,  Reuchlin  was  about  to  win  his  cause, 
when  Leo  X.  issued  a  "Mandatum  de  supersedendo"  the  effect  of 
which  was  to  defer  the  termination  of  the  suit  so  long  as  it  might 
please  the  Pope,  who  stood  in  awe  of  the  monks. 

From  this  time  forward  the  monks  continued  to  shew  their  hostility 
to  Reuchlin  in  every  conceivable  manner,  acting  as  though  they  had 
already  gained  their  cause.'  But  help  soon  came  to  him  from  many 
quarters.  The  league  of  the  Reuchlinists,  so  called,  was  formed, 
which  declared  for  Reuchlin,  for  classical  learning  and  a  pure  church, 
against  the  perverse,  corrupt  monks,  and  their  decadent,  hideous 
scholasticism,  now  in  its  dotage.  Nearly  all  the  distinguished  men 

*  Many  singular  remarks  are  to  be  found  in  Reuchlin's  verdict ;  for  instance,  "when  Christ 
says,  'Search  the  Scriptures,'  (writings,)  he  did  not  mean  the  Old  Testament,  but  those  Rab- 
binical writings,  from  which,  later,  the  Talmud  ;'  (this,  by  the  way,  Reuchlin  had  not  read; 
"was  compiled."  Reuchlii.'s  love  for  the  Cabbala  and  for  Jewish  literature  probably  had 
some  influence  in  determining  the  mildness  of  his  verdict. 


JOHN  REUCHLIN.  01 

of  Germany  of  that  age  joined  this  league ;  men,  who  afterward, 
almost  without  exception,  formed  a  mighty  intellectual  power  on  the 
side  of  the  Reformation.  Ulrich  Hutten  and  Bilibald  Pirkheimer 
were  especially  active  in  keeping  the  league  together,  and  strength- 
ening it  against  the  pugnacious  attacks  of  the  Dominicans. 

The  severest  blow  which  the  Dominican  brotherhood  thus  received 
in  the  persons  of  some  of  its  members  was  the  publication,  in  the  year 
1517,  of  the  famous  "Epistolae  obscurorum  virorum"  The  probable 
authors  of  these  burlesque  letters  are  Hermann  Busch,  Crotus  Rubia- 
nus  and  Wolfgang  Angst ;  Ulrich  Hutten  and  others  may  have  made 
some  subsequent  additions.  The  letters  are  directed  to  Ortuin 
Gratius,  to  whom  we  have  previously  alluded  as  a  scholar  of  Hegius, 
and  a  professor  at  Cologne  :  the  purported  writers  are  partly  histori- 
cal, and  partly  fictitious  characters.  The  Latin  is  wretched,  and, 
together  with  the  subject-matters  treated  of,  gives  a  vivid  impression 
of  the  thoroughly  repulsive,  ignorant,  profligate  and  villainous  lives 
and  acts  of  the  Dominicans.  And  through  the  agency  of  this  book 
the  very  name  of  Dominican  became  a  scorn  and  a  reproach. 

At  last  in  the  year  1519  Francis  von  Sickingen  put  an  end  to  the 
strife,  by  definitely  assigning  to  Hochstratten  and  the  brothers  of  his 
order  one  month  in  which  to  decide  "  whether  they  would  for  the 
future  wholly  discontinue  their  insolence  toward  his  teacher,  Dr. 
Reuchlin,  'that  aged,  discreet,  pious  and  accomplished  man/  and 
make  good  all  the  costs  of  court  which  had  been  put  upon  him ;  and 
furthermore,  whether  they  would  give  him  security  at  once  and 
forever  against  all  further  persecutions  ?  If  not,  then  he,  Francis  von 
Sickengen,  would  carry  out  to  the  letter  the  original  decree  of  Spires, 
oronounced  in  Reuchlin's  favor,  that  so  this  'good  old  man  might 
upend  the  remainder  of  his  honorable  life  i»  peace.' "  The  monks 
paid  Reuchlin  in  full,  and  he  had  no  more  trouble  from  them.  So 
ended  this  long  strife,  and  the  rather  also,  because  a  far  more  violent 
warfare  had  commenced  at  Wittenberg.  Thither,  since  1517,  had  all 
eyes  been  directed. 

"  Praised  be  God,"  said  Reuchlin,  when  Luther  appeared  on  the 
stage ;  "  now  they  have  found  an  opponent  who  will  give  them  so 
much  to  do,  that  for  very  weariness  they  will  be  forced  to  leave  the 
old  man  to  his  repose."  On  the  other  hand,  Luther  wrote  to  Reuch- 
lin, in  the  year  1518  :  "Thou  wast  an  instrument  of  the  divine  pur- 
pose. I  was  one  of  that  number,  who  desired  to  aid  thee ;  but  there 
was  no  opportunity.  Yet  that  which  was  denied  to  me  as  thy  com- 
rade, will  most  richly  come  to  my  share  as  thy  successor.  The  teeth 
of  that  Behemoth  are  fastening  upon  me,  that  they  may,  if  possible, 


92 


JOHN  REUCHLIN. 


wipe  out  the  disgrace  which  they  have  received  at  thy  hands.  I  go 
to  encounter'  them  with  less  strength  of  intellect  and  less  learning 
than  thou  hast  shown,  but  with  an  equally  cheerful  heart." 

But,  nevertheless,  in  the  closing  years  of  his  life,  Reuchlin  did  not 
find  that  settled  repose,  to  which  he  had  looked.  For  in  the  year 
1519,  a  war  broke  out  between  Duke  Ulrich  of  Wurtemberg,  and 
the  Swabian  League.  Ulrich  was  sent  into  exile.  Sickingen,  who 
was  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  League,  protected  Reuchlin  in  Stutt- 
gart. He  afterwards  went  to  Ingoldstadt,  where,  in  1520,  he  received 
from  William,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  a  salary  of  200  gold-crowns,  and 
read  lectures  on  Hebrew  Grammar,  and  on  the  Plutus  of  Aristopha- 
nes, to  more  than  three  hundred  hearers.  But  he  soon  returned  to 
Wurtemberg,  where,  however,  he  did  not  remain,  but,  went  by  invita- 
tion, to  Tubingen,  to  teach  Hebrew  and  Greek  grammar  in  the 
university  there.  In  the  summer  of  1522,  he  was  taken  sick,  and 
died  on  the  30th  of  June,  aged  67. 

Reuchlin  was  a  man  of  an  imposing  and  dignified  aspect ;  says  one 
of  his  contemporaries,  "  of  senatorial  majesty."  He  was  mild  in  his 
manners,  and  in  the  midst  of  trouble,  anxious  and  timid. 

He  and  Erasmus  were  the  forerunners  of  the  Reformation,  of  the 
schools  as  well  of  the  church.  But  each,  how  different !  How 
worthy  appear  Reuchlin's  life,  his  labors  in  his  country's  behoof,  and 
his  holy,  earnest  love  for  the  church,  compared  with  the  unloving, 
undevout,  altogether  trifling  disposition  of  Erasmus  !  Reuchlin's  per- 
severance in  learning  Hebrew,  and  the  repugnance  which  Erasmus 
exhibited  toward  the  very  first  rudiments  of  the  language,  are  both 
characteristic.  And  to  the  different  traits  thus  indicated,  we  may  as- 
scribe  the  aversions  of  Erasmus  to  mysticism,  and  Reuchlin's  tendency 
toward  it.  This  tendency  is  abundantly  manifest  in  two  works  of 
Reuchlin's,  namely,  the  "De  verbo  mirijico"  and  the  "  De  arte  Ca- 
balistica  ;"  in  both  of  which  he  evinces  a  strong,  spiritual  affinity 
with  Picus  di  Mirandola.  In  the  dedication  of  the  latter  work, — it 
is  addressed  to  Leo  X., — Reuchlin  says :  "  Marsilius  has  edited  Plato 
for  Italy,  John  Faber  StapUlensis  restored  Aristotle  for  France,  and  I 
will  now  make  the  number  complete,  and  will  give  to  the  Germans 
Pythagoras,  whom  my  labors  have  re-animated."  If  Reuchlin  erred, 
it  was  the  error  of  a  mind  of  great  depth  and  forecast,  an  error  of 
which  Erasmus  was  wholly  incapable.  And  was  not  the  spirit  which 
stirred  in  Picus  and  Reuchlin,  when  as  yet  the  world  was  unprepared 
to  receive  it, — was  not  this  spirit  destined  sooner  or  later  to  crown 
the  faithful  and  manifold  labors  of  their  many  successors,  in  a  glad 
and  copious  harvest  ? 


RETROSPECT.  93 

Toward  the  conclusion  of  the  work,  "  De  arte  Cabalistica"  Reuch- 
lin  says :  "  I  was  the  first  to  restore  Greek  to  Germany,  and  I  too  was 
the  first  of  all  to  introduce,  and  to  deliver  to  the  church  the  art  and 
the  study  of  Hebrew.* 

As  Erasmus  prepared  the  way  for  the  Reformers,  by  his  version  of 
the  New  Testament,  so  did  Reuchlin  by  means  of  his  Hebrew  labors. 

Erasmus,  too,  undermined  the  influence  of  the  monks  by  ridicule. 
Reuchlin  and  the  Reuchlinists  did  the  same;  but,  in  addition  to  this, 
they  formed  a  positive  intellectual  power,  a  phalanx  of  strength, 
which  at  Luther's  appearance  in  full  spiritual  armor,  ranged  itself 
under  his  banner,  eager  for  the  contest. f 

And  while  the  double  minded  Erasmus  employed  all  the  arts  of  a 
subtle  sophistry  to  justify  himself  toward  the  Pope,  Reuchlin,  on  the 
contrary,  in  the  above  mentioned  dedication,  came  boldly  before  Leo 
X.,  appealing  to  the  emperor,  and  to  many  princes,  bishops  and 
cities,  to  bear  witness  to  his  integrity. 

RETROSPECT. 

The  period  which  we  have  thus  far  contemplated,  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury especially,  may  be  termed  a  transitional  period,  looking  back  to 
the  middle  ages,  and  forward  to  the  present  day.  For  here  the  ele- 
ments of  ancient  and  modern  times  enter  upon  a  conflict,  which, 
increasing  in  intensity,  at  last,  in  the  first  half  of  the  16th  century, 
bursts  out  into  full  flame. 

First  in  order  comes  the  attack  upon  the  wide-spread  corruptions 
of  the  church,  corruptions  which  had  infected  the  whole  body  to  the 
very  core.  This  begins  in  Italy  as  early  as  the  fourteenth  century, 
undertaken  by  Dante,  Petrach,  and  Boccaccio,  and  extending  down  to 
the  sixteenth  century.  But  in  Italy,  alas !  no  Reformation  results 
therefrom ;  Savonarola,  to  be  sure,  takes  a  step  in  that  direction,  but 
his  aim  is  defeated. 

Germans  and  Netherlander  too,  from  the  fourteenth  century  on, 
are  in  various  modes  preparing  the  way  for  the  Reformation.  The 
Hieronymians  lay  bare  the  dissolute  lives  and  deeds  of  the  monks, 
the  mendicant  order  chiefly,  urge  reform,  and  diffuse  as  far  as  possible, 
a  knowledge  of  the  Bible  among  the  common  people.  Wessel 
observes  many  deficiencies  in  the  teachings  of  the  church,  (being  herein 
a  predecessor  of  Luther) ; — Erasmus,  as  we  have  seen,  undermines  the 

*Reuchlin's  lectures  upon  Greek  authors,  delivered  in  1475,  at  Basle,  were  probably  the 
first  of  the  kind.  Rudolf  Agricola,  and  Erasmus,  together  with  Reuchlin,  were  the  earliest 
teachers  and  disseminators  of  Greek. 

t  To  Reuchlin's  influence  alone  may  we  attribute  it,  that  Melancthon  went  from  Tubingen 
to  Wittenberg  ;  and  what  he  did  thereby  directly  toward  the  Reformation  is  incalculable. 


Q4  RETROSPECT. 

prestige  of  the  monks  by  means  of  ridicule ;  and  the  skirmish  of 
Reuchlin  and  the  Reuchlinists  with  the  Dominicans,  raises  up  a 
Reformatory  host,  well  drilled  for  the  battle. 

Side  by  side  with  this  conflict  in  the  church,  we  have  a  conflict  in 
the  schools  likewise,  commencing  with  the  restoration  of  the  ancient 
classics.  Petrach  and  Boccaccio  here  too,  take  the  lead  in  this  battle 
of  classical  learning,  with  mediaeval  scholasticism.  But  we  find  in 
Dante  both  styles  of  culture  harmoniously  united.  In  exact  propor- 
tion to  an  advancing  sense  of  the  beauty  of  classical  forms,  there 
arises  an  antipathy  to  the  deformity  of  scholastic  expressions.  Many 
of  the  Italians  become  so  enamored  of  the  ancients,  as  to  go  over  to 
paganism  ;  and  but  very  few  of  them  bring  their  linguistic  attainments 
to  the  interpretation  of  the  Bible.  But  not  so  with  the  Germans. 
For  these  press  all  the  knowledge  that  they  have  gained  from  profane 
writers  into  the  service  of  the  church.  Erasmus,  by  his  edition  of  the 
New  Testament,  and  Reuchlin  by  his  Hebrew  labors,  prepare  the  way 
for  a  sounder  exegesis. 

Thus,  through  the  study  of  the  original  languages  of  the  Bible, 
scholastic  theology,  previously  tottering,  is  shivered  to  its  foundation. 
The  monks,  however,  who  have  grown  up  amid  its  barbarous  jargon, 
struggle  in  its  defense ;  nor  can  they  follow  the  leadings  of  the  new 
era,  even  though  disposed  to  do  it.  They  contend  likewise  for  the 
Mediaeval  school  books,  the  "  Doctrinal"  the  "  Mammotrectus," 
etc.  And  Busch,  Caesarius,  and  others,  who  are  desirous  to  teach 
better  things  in  a  better  way,  they  drive  from  city  to  city.  The 
Dominicans,  whose  head  quarters  are  at  Cologne,  are  the  chief  actors 
in  this  warfare,  against  the  men  of  the  new  school. 

Those  who  do  battle  for  the  old  order  of  things,  are  called,  "  theo-4 
logians,"  and  "  artists ;"  the  champions  of  the  new  culture  are  styled 
by  their  adversaries,  "poets,"  and  "jurists."  And  it  is  only  after  the 
victory  of  the  Reformation  in  the  church  that  classical  learning  ob- 
tains a  complete  ascendency.  Then  scholasticism,  which  after  the 
lapse  of  centuries  has  become  a  caricature,  succumbs. 

For  the  time  had  at  length  arrived,  when  the  learned  classes  were 
to  be  freed  from  the  bondage  of  ungainly,  unmeaning,  and  intangible 
forms  of  thought  and  speech.  And  how  enchanting  must  the  clear- 
ness and  freedom  of  Greek  and  Roman  thought  and  imagination, 
and  the  splendor  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  languages,  have  appeared 
to  them  after  their  dark  and  gloomy  imprisonment.  Is  it  to  be  won- 
dered at,  that  in  their  rapture,  they  neither  knew  nor  desired  any 
thing  higher  or  nobler  than  to  imitate  the  classics  ?  And  that  it 
seemed  to  them  as  if  now  for  the  first  time  their  spiritual  eye  were 
opened,  their  soul  awakened  to  life,  and  their  tongue  set  free? 


RETROSPECT.  95 

And  is  it  any  the  more  to  be  wondered  at,  that  in  the  excess  of  their 
enthusiasm  for  the  new,  they  should  be  unjustly  biased  against  the 
generations  gone  by,  and  should  even  go  so  far  as  to  welcome  every 
thing  new,  if  for  no  other  reason,  simply  because  it  was  new? 

In  fact  Picus  di  Mirandola  and  Erasmus  were  themselves,  as  we 
have  seen,  not  slow  to  acknowledge  that  the  moderns  often  rejected 
the  good  with  the  bad,  and  thrust  aside  the  profoundest  speculations, 
if  they  did  not  appear  in  a  Ciceronian  dress. 

These  exaggerated  estimates  of  the  "  poets,"  are  the  less  to  be  dis- 
regarded, inasmuch  as  they  left  their  stamp  upon  the  character  of  the 
next  succeeding  generations.  It  was  of  a  piece  with  their  exaltation 
of  the  ancients,  that  these  men  should  so  generally  exchange  their 
honorable  German  names,  for  those  of  Latin  or  Greek  extraction ;  in 
fact,  this  practice  is  more  significant  than  at  first  sight  it  would  appear. 
Capnio,  Melancthon,  Sapidus,  Brassicanus,  Oecolampadius,  and  the 
like,  are  such  names.  A  correspondent  of  Reuchlin's,  who  in  sooth 
could  not  boast  of  a  very  euphonious  name, — it  was  John  Krachen- 
berger, — thus  writes  in  one  of  his  letters :  "  You  will  recollect  the 
request  that  I  made  you,  to  invent  me  a  Greek  name,  which  would 
have  a  more  respectable  look  at  the  end  of  my  Latin  epistles,  than  my 
own,  that  has  the  look  of  barbarism;  if  you  have  not  yet  done  it,  I 
beg  leave  in  this  place  to  repeat  my  request."* 

The  name  "  poets,1'  was  probably  applied  to  all  who  were  so  in 
love  with  mere  beauty  of  form,  as  for  its  sake  to  overlook  the  subject 
and  substance.  And  really,  quite  a  multitude  of  the  speeches  and 
poems  of  that  day  consist  solely  of  choice  scraps  stitched  together, 
and  are  pure,  unalloyed  imitations.  Every  one  who  imitated  the 
style  of  a  classical  writer  with  some  degree  of  skill,  was  compared  to 
such  writer.  Hence  it  was  that  that  period  was  so  prolific  of  epithets, 
"  a  second  Cicero,  a  second  Flaccus,"  and  the  like ;  and  all  faith 
in  the  possibility  of  becoming  something  better,  of  being  one's  self  a 
first,  an  original,  gradually  died  out.f 

The  following  citation  may  be  adduced  as  an  extreme  instance  of 
this  mania  for  epithets  :  said  Trithemius,  of  Dalberg;  "Among  phi- 
losophers, he  was  a  Plato, — among  musicians,  a  Timotheus, — among 
astronomers,  a  Firmicus, — among  mathematicians,  an  Archimedes, — 

*  From  the  "  Clarorum  virorum  epistolae  ad  Reuchlinum :"  "  There  are  many  barbarous 
names  among  you,"  said  Sapidus  to  his  scholars.     "  These  I  must  Latinize  somewhat." 

t  Erasmus  styled  Agricola   "a  second  Maro  "    Murmellius  said  of  Lange,   "  Aequiparas 
Flaccum  lyrici  modulamine  cantus  ;"  Lange,  of  Busch, 

"  Hinc  tua  dulcffluo  manans  elegia  leporp. 

A  Sulmonensi  nee  procul  ipsa  C/ie/y  est  ;" 

Ulsanius,  of  Busch,  «  Busch  ius  antiquis  non  cedit  jure  poefis ;"  Busch,  of   Murm«lliu» 
"Carmina  Murmelli  priscis  aequanda  poetis  ;"  etc.,  etc. 


96  RETROSPECT. 

among  poets,  a  Virgil, — among  geographers,  a  Strabo, — among 
priests,  an  Augustine, — and  among  the  devout,  (cultures  pietatis,)  a 
Xuma  Pompilius." 

When  the  whole  force  of  a  generation  is  thrown  into  any  new  style 
of  culture  whatsoever,  such  abnormal  outgrowths  and  excrescences  are 
always  most  frequently  to  be  observed. 

In  accordance  with  the  demands  of  the  new  culture,  the  schools 
were  metamorphosed.  Lange,  Hegius,  Dringenburg,  Busch,  Wim- 
pheling,  and  others,  did  every  thing  to  expel  the  scholastic  method  of 
instruction,  and  to  bring  in  the  classical.  But  these  were  only  the 
beginnings,  and  these  teachers  themselves,  grown  up  under  the  old 
methods,  were  themselves  merely  beginners.  Even  the  able  Rector, 
Hegius,  was  compelled  to  learn  from  Agricola,  the  meanings  of  some 
of  the  Greek  and  Latin  words,  and  to  avail  himself  of  Agricola's 
greater  familiarity  with  syntax.  It  was  only  at  a  later  date,  and 
through  the  instrumentality  chiefly  of  Melanctbon,  that  the  grammai 
schools  received  a  thorough  organization,  and  were  provided  with 
competent  teachers  and  sensible  text-books.  The  first  steps  toward 
popular  education,  were  early  taken,  as  we  have  remarked,  by  the 
Hieronymians ;  and  there  were  likewise  many  labors  in  this  field  un- 
dertaken by  benevolent  individuals  ;  such  for  instance,  as  those  of 
Gerard  Zutphen  ;  but  permanent,  well-organized  popular  schools  had 
no  existence.  These  are  chiefly  the  work  of  Luther ;  the  German 
Bible,  the  shorter  German  Catechism,  those  most  important  school 
books  for  the  people,  as  well  as  spiritual  songs  in  German,  both  for 
the  church  and  the  school, — all  these  are  his  work. 


MARTIN  LUTHER-EDUCATION  AND  EDUCATIONAL  VIEWS. 

Abridged  from  Life  of  Luther,  by  BARNAS  SEARS,  D.  D. 


MARTIN  LUTHRB  was  born  in  the  Electorate  of  Saxony,  at  Eisle- 
ben,  in  the  county  of  Mansfeld,  November  10,  1483  ;  but  his  father, 
when  Martin  was  six  months  old,  removed  to  Mansfeld,  which  be- 
came henceforward  the  home  of  his  childhood.  He  always  spoke 
of  himself  and  of  his  ancestors  as  belonging  to  the  peasantry.  *  I 
am  a  peasant's  son.  My  father,  my  grandfather,  and  my  forefathers 
were  all  true  peasants.  Afterwards  my  father  went  to  Mansfeld. 
and  became  an  ore-digger.'  Luther's  father,  after  he  became  a 
miner,  rose  by  industry  and  effort  from  the  condition  of  a  peasant 
to  that  of  a  burgher  or  free  citizen.  He  commenced  his  career  at 
Mansfeld  in  penury,  but  with  a  force  of  character  that  could  not 
leave  him  in  that  state.  '  My  parents,'  says  Luther,  *  were,  in  the 
beginning,  right  poor.  My  father  was  a  poor  mine-digger,  and  my 
mother  did  carry  her  wood  on  her  shoulders ;  and  after  this  sort 
did  they  support  us,  their  children.  They  had  a  sharp,  bitter  expe- 
rience of  it;  no  one  would  do  likewise  now.'" 

It  was  not  till  about  seventeen  years  afterwards,  when  Luther 
was  a  member  of  the  university,  that  his  father  had  the  means  of 
paying  the  expenses  of  his  education.  His  honesty,  good  sense, 
energy  and  decision  of  character  won  for  him  the  respect  of  his 
fellow-citizens.  He  was  open-hearted  and  frank,  and  was  wont  to 
follow  the  convictions  of  his  understanding,  fearless  of  conse- 
quences. His  firmness  was  characterized  by  severity,  sometimes 
approaching  to  obstinacy. 

The  maiden  name  of  Luther's  mother  was  Margaret  Lindemann. 
She  was  born  at  Neustadt,  a  small  town  directly  south  of  Eisenach, 
and  west  of  Gotha.  Her  father,  who  had  been  a  burgher  there, 
had  removed  from  that  place  to  Eisenach.  It  was,  no  doubt,  here 
that  Luther's  father  formed  an  acquaintance  with  her.  The  circum- 
stance that  three  of  her  brothers  were  liberally  educated  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  she  belonged  to  an  intelligent  family.  Melanc- 
thon  says,  '  She  had  many  virtues  agreeing  to  her  sex ;  and  was 


98  MARTIN  LUTHER. 

especially  notable  for  her  chaste  conversation,  godly  fear,  and  dili- 
gent prayer,  insomuch  that  other  honorable  women  looked  upon 
her  as  a  model  of  virtue  and  honesty.' 

Luther's  parents  bestowed  great  care  upon  his  early  training. 
In  the  strictest  sense,  he  was  brought  Up  in  the  fear  of  God,  and 
with  reverence  for  the  then  existing  institutions  of  religion.  The 
intentions  of  his  parents  were  of  the  most  laudable  character ;  the 
faults  of  their  discipline  were  those  of  the  age  in  which  they  lived. 
They  were  highly  conscientious,  earnest  and  zealous  in  the  discharge 
of  their  parental  duties.  But  the  age  was  one  of  rudeness  and 
severity,  and  they  themselves  had  more  talent  than  culture,  more 
force  and  sternness  of  character  than  skill  in  awakening  and  foster- 
ing the  generous  impulses  of  childhood.  Their  discipline  was, 
almost  exclusively,  one  of  law  and  authority.  The  consequence 
was,  that  Martin,  instead  of  feeling  at  ease  and  gamboling  joyfully 
in  their  presence,  became  timid  and  shy,  and  was  kept  in  a  state  of 
alarm,  which  closed  up  the  avenues  of  his  warm  and  naturally  con- 
fiding heart.  *  Once,'  says  he,  *  did  my  father  beat  me  so  sharply, 
that  I  fled  away  from  him,  and  was  angry  against  him,  till,  by  dili- 
gent endeavor,  he  gained  me  back.'  *  Once  did  my  mother,  for  a 
small  nut,  beat  me  till  the  blood  came  forth.'  'Their  intent  and 
purpose  were  of  the  best  sort ;  but  they  knew  not  how  to  put  a 
difference  between  dispositions,  and  to  order  their  discipline  ac- 
cordingly ;  for  that  it  should  be  exercised  in  a  way  that  the  apple 
might  be  put  with  the  rod.' 

To  this  rigid  domestic  discipline  is  to  be  traced,  in  a  measure, 
his  being  long  subject  to  sudden  alarms,  or  being  harsh  and  violent 
when  he  rose  above  them.  Though  in  later  life  he  was  fully*  aware 
that  many  errors  had  been  committed  in  his  domestic  training ;  and 
though,  as  he  himself  says,  he  tried  in  vain  to  remove  all  the  effects 
of  it  upon  his  feelings  arid  habits,  still  he  found  in  it  much  more  to 
approve  than  to  condemn.  Alluding  to  his  own  case,  and  that  of 
others  of  his  age,  he  says  :  'Children  should  not  be  entreated  too 
tenderly  of  their  parents,  but  should  be  forced  to  order  and  to  sub- 
mission, as  were  their  parents  before  them.1 

The  fact  that,  from'  three  or  four  brothers,  Martin  alone  was  des- 
ignated for  a  liberal  education,  is  sufficient  proof  that  he  gave  some 
early  indications  of  talent.  It  is  also  evident  that  the  father  took 
a  religious  view  of  this  subject  and  desired  for  his  son  something 
higher  and  better  than  mere  worldly  distinction.  An  early  writer 
states,  that  he  had  heard  from  the  relations  of  Luther  at  Mansfeld, 
that  the  father  was  often  known  to  pray  earnestly  at  the  bedside  of 


MARTIN  LUTHER.  99 

his  son,  that  God  would  bless  him  and  make  him  useful.  Mathesius 
says  that  Luther's  father,  not  only  for  his  own  gratification,  but 
especially  for  the  benefit  of  his  son,  frequently  invited  the  clergy- 
men and  school-teachers  of  the  place  to  his  house.  Thus  were 
domestic  influences  brought  in  aid,  in  every  suitable  way,  to  form 
a  taste  for  moral  and  intellectual  culture. 

Mansfeld  was  situated  in  a  narrow  valley  along  the  brook  Thai- 
bach,  skirted  by  hills  on  both  sides.  From  that  part  of  the  town 
where  Luther's  father  resided,  it  was  some  distance  to  the  school- 
house,  which  was  situated  on  a  hill.  The  house  is  still  standing, 
and  the  first  story  of  it  remains  unaltered.  One  writer  says  (on 
what  authority  we  do  not  know),  that  Luther  commenced  going  to 
school  at  the  age  of  seven.  Certainly  he  was  so  young  that  he  was 
carried  thither  by  older  persons.  When  forty-four  years  old,  two 
years  before  his  death,  he  wrote  on  the  blank  leaf  in  the  Bible  of 
Nicholas  Oemler,  who  had  married  one  of  his  sisters,  the  twenty- 
fourth  verse  of  the  14th  chapter  of  John,  and  under  it:  'To  my 
good  old  friend,  Nicholas  Oernler,  who  more  than  once  did  carry 
me  in  his  arms  to  school  and  back  again,  when  I  was  a  small  lad, 
neither  of  us  then  knowing  that  one  brother-in-law  was  carrying 
another  in  his  arms.'  In  this  school,  though  its  teachers  were  fre- 
quently guests  at  his  father's  house,  he  was  brought  under  a  much 
harsher  discipline  than  he  had  been  subject  to  at  home.  It  was 
not  without  allusion  to  his  own  experience,  that  he  afterwards  speaks 
of  a  class  of  teachers,  *  who  hurt  noble  minds  by  their  vehement 
storming,  beating  and  pounding,  wherein  they  treat  children  as  a 
jailor  doth  convicts.'  He  somewhere  says,  that  he  was  once  flogged 
fifteen  times  in  a  single  forenoon  at  school.  Again,  he  say's,  'I  have 
seen,  when  I  was  a  boy,  divers  teachers  who  found  their  pleasure  in 
beating  their  pupils.'  '  The  schools  were  purgatories,  and  the  teach- 
ers were  tyrants  and  task-masters.' 

The  injurious  manner  in  which  such  treatment  acted  upon  his 
fears  is  illustrated  by  an  anecdote  related  by  Luther  in  bis  Commen- 
tary on  Genesis.  '  When  I  was  a  lad,  I  was  wont  to  go  out  with 
my  companions  begging  food  for  our  sustentation  while  we  were  at 
the  school.  At  Christmas,  during  divine  service,  we  went  around 
among  the  small  villages,  singing  from  house  to  house,  in  four  parts, 
as  we  were  wont,  the  hymn  on  the  child  Jesus  born  at  Bethlehem. 
We  came  by  chance  before  the  hut  of  a  peasant  who  lived  apart  at 
the  end  of  the  village ;  and  when  he  heard  us  singing,  he  came  out, 
and  after  the  coarse  and  harsh  manner  of  the  peasants,  said, 
'Where  are  you,  boys?'  at  the  same  time  bringing  us  a  few  saus- 


100  MARTIN  LUTHER. 

ages  in  his  hand.  But  we  were  so  terrified  at  these  words,  that  we 
all  scampered  off,  though  we  knew  no  good  reason  why,  save  that 
from  the  daily  threats  and  tyranny  practiced  by  the  teachers  toward 
their  pupils  at  that  time,  we  had  learned  to  be  timid.'  This  inci- 
dent, which  has  commonly  been  referred  to  the  time  when  Luther 
was  at  Magdeburg,  probably  belongs  to  the  period  of  his  earlier 
childhood  at  Mansfeld.  For  it  was  when  he  was  '  a  small  boy,'  and 
was  under  severe  teachers,  which  seems  not  to  have  been  the  case 
except  at  Mansfeld.  The  circumstance  that  Luther  was  then  living 
at  his  father's  house,  will  be  no  objection,  if  we  consider  the  cus- 
toms of  the  times  and  the  poverty  of  the  family  at  that  early 
period.  We  are  elsewhere  informed  that  Luther  was  then  accus- 
tomed to  attend  funeral  processions  as  a  singer,  for  which  he  re- 
ceived a  groschen  (about  three  cents),  each  time. 

The  school  at  Mansfeld,  at  that  time,  was  taught  by  one  master, 
assisted  by  two  members  of  the  church  choir,  that  is,  two  theologi- 
cal students,  who,  for  a  small  stipend,  attended  on  the  daily  services 
of  the  church.  Here  it  becomes  necessary  to  describe  the  charac- 
ter of  the  lower  schools  of  Germany  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  They  were  called  '  trivial  schools,'  because  originally  the 
first  three  of  the  seven  liberal  arts,  namely,  grammar,  rhetoric,  and 
logic,  were  taught  in  them. 

At  this  time,  however,  and  particularly  at  Mansfeld,  a  little  monk- 
ish Latin,  the  pieces  of  music  commonly  sung  at  church,  and  the 
elements  of  arithmetic,  constituted  the  studies  of  the  lower  schools. 
These  schools  were  all  taught  by  a  master,  assisted  by  theological 
students  and  candidates  for  some  of  the  lower  clerical  offices.  But 
as  nearly  .all  the  offices  of  state  at  that  time  were  in  the  hands  of 
the  clergy,  there  was  a  general  rush  to  the  schools  on  the  part  of 
all  who  were  seeking  to  rise  above  the  common  walks  of  life.  The 
great  mass  of  the  youth  were  wholly  destitute  of  education.  All 
the  others,  except  a  few  from  the  sons  of  the  rich,  went  through  a 
clerical  or  ecclesiastical  course  of  instruction.  No  matter  to  what 
offices  they  were  aspiring,  t;hey  must  study  under  the  direction  of 
the  church  and  under  the  tuition  of  monks  and  priests,  or  candi- 
dates for  the  priestly  office. 

The  arrangements  of  the  schools  were  these :  The  teachers,  and 
the  pupils  who  were  from  abroad,  occupied  large  buildings  with 
gloomy  cells.  A  sombre  monastic  dress  distinguished  them  both 
from  other  persons.  A  large  portion  of  the  forenoon  of  each  day 
was  devoted  to  the  church.  At  high  mass  all  must  be  present. 
The  boys  were  educated  to  perform  church  ceremonies,  while  but 


MARTIN  LUTHER.  1  (j  [ 

little  attention  was  given  to  what  is  now  commonly  taught  in 
schools.  The  assistant  teacher,  candidates  for  the  clerical  office, 
generally  taught  a  few  hours  in  the  day,  and  performed,  at  the  same 
time,  some  daily  inferior  church  service,  for  both  of  which  they 
received  but  a  trifling  reward. 

Thus  the  schools  were  but  a  part  and  parcel  of  the  church.  The 
assistants  were  commonly  taken  from  those  strolling  young  men 
who  infested  the  country,  going  from  place  to  place  either  as 
advanced  students,  and  changing  their  place  at  pleasure,  or  seeking 
some  subordinate  employment  in  the  schools  or  in  the  church. 
When  they  failed  to  find  employ,  they  resorted  to  begging,  and 
even  to  theft,  to  provide  for  their  subsistence.  The  older  students 
would  generally  seek  out  each  a  young  boy  as  his  ward,  and  initiate 
him  into  the  mysteries  of  this  vagrant  mode  of  life,  receiving  in 
turn  his  services  in  begging  articles  of  food,  and  in  performing 
other  menial  offices. 

We  have  a  living  picture  of  the  manners  and  habits  which  pre- 
vailed in  these  schools,  in  the  autobiography  of  Thomas  Platter,*  a 
contemporary  of  Luther  and  a  native  of  Switzerland. 

'At  that  time,'  that  is,  in  his  tenth  year,  he  says  in  his  biography,  'came  a 
cousin  of  mine,  who  had  been  at  the  schools  [to  become  a  priest]  in  Ulm  and 
Munich  in  Bavaria.  My  friends  spake  to  him  of  me,  and  he  promised  to  take 
me  with  him  to  the  schools  in  Germany :  for  I  had  learned  of  the  village  priest 
to  sing  a  few  of  the  church  hymns.  When  Paul  (for  that  was  my  cousin's 
name)  was  ready  to  go  on  his  way,  my  uncle  gave  me  a  gulden  [sixty-three 
cents],  which  I  put  into  the  hands  of  Paul.  I  must  promise  that  I  would  do 
the  begging,  and  give  what  I  got  to  him,  my  bacchant  (protector),  for  his  dis- 
posal. We  journeyed  to  Zurich,  where  Paul  would  wait  till  he  should  be  joined 
by  some  companions.  Then  we  determined  to  set  out  for  Misnia  [in  the  pres- 
ent kingdom  of  Saxony].  Meanwhile  I  went  a-begging,  and  thus  furnished 
the  sustentation  of  Paul.  After  tarrying  eight  or  nine  weeks,  we  left  Zurich 
and  went  on  our  way  to  Misnia,  in  a  company  of  eight,  whereof  three  of  us 
were  young  schutze  [wards] ;  the  rest  were  large  bacchantes,  as  they  are 
called.  Of  all  the  wards  I  was  the  youngest.  When  I  was  so  weary  that  I 
could  hardly  go,  my  cousin  Paul  would  go  behind  me  and  scourge  me  on  my 
bare  legs,  for  I  had  no  hose  and  only  poor  shoes.  While  on  the  way,  I  heard 
the  bacchantes  tell  how  that  in  Misnia  and  Silesia  the  scholars  were  wont  to 
steal  geese  and  ducks  and  other  things  for  food,  and  that  no  other  notice  was 
taken  thereof,  if  one  could  but  only  escape  from  the  owners.  Then  said  I  to 
my  companions,  '  When  shall  we  come  to  Misnia,  where  I  may  go  out  stealing 
geese?'  They  replied,  'We  are  already  there.'  ....  We  went  to  Halle, 
in  Saxony,  and  there  we  joined  ourselves  to  the  school  of  St.  Ulrich.  But  as 
our  bacchantes  entreated  us  roughly,  some  of  us  communed  on  the  matter  with 
my  cousin  Paul,  and  we  agreed  together  that  we  would  run  away  from  them, 
and  depart  to  Dresden.  Here  we  found  no  good  school,  and  the  houses,  more- 
over, were  infested  with  vermin.  Wherefore  we  went  from  that  place  to  Bres- 
lau.  We  suffered  much  in  the  way  from  hunger,  having  on  certain  days  noth- 
ing to  eat  but  raw  onions  with  salt.  We  slept  oftentimes  in  the  open  air, 
because  we  could  not  get  an  entrance  into  the  houses,  but  were  driven  off.  and 
sometimes  the  dogs  were  set  upon  us.  When  we  came  to  Breslau  we  found 
abundant  stores,  and  food  was  so  cheap  that  some  of  our  company  surfeited 

*  Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Education,  V.,  p.  79. 


102  MAllTIN  LUTHER. 

themselves  and  fell  sick.  "We  went  at  the  first  into  the  school  at  the  dome 
[cathedral]  of  the  Holy  Cross ;  but  learning  that  there  were  some  Switzer 
youth  in  the  parish  of  St.  Elizabeth,  we  removed  thither.  The  city  of  Breslau 
hath  seven  parishes,  with  a  school  in  each.  No  scholar  is  suffered  to  go  around 
singing  in  another  parish;  and  if  any  one  taketh  upon  him  to  do  so,  he  getteth 
a  round  beating.  Sometimes,  it  is  said,  sundry  thousands  of  scholars  are  found 
in  Breslau,  wfeo  get  their  living  by  begging.  Some  bacchantes  abide  in  the 
schools  twenty  and  even  thirty  years,  having  their  sustentation  from  what  their 
wards  beg.  I  have  oftentimes  borne  five  or  six  loads  home  to  the  school  the 
selfsame  evening  for  my  bacchantes ;  for  being  small,  and  a  Switzer  besides,  I 
was  kindly  received  by  the  people,  ...  In  the  winter,  the  small  boys  were 
wont  to  sleep  on  the  floor  of  the  school-house,  the  bacchantes  in  the  mean 
season  sleeping  in  the  cells,  whereof  there  are  not  a  few  hundreds  at  the  school 
of  St.  Elizabeth.  In  the  warm  parts  of  the  year,  we  were  wont  to  lie  on  the 
ground  in  the  churchyard ;  and  when  it  rained,  to  run  into  the  school-house, 
and  if  it  stormed  vehemently  to  sing  responses  and  other  pieces  the  whole 
night  long  with  the  sub-chanter.  Ofttimes  after  supper,  in  the  summer  even- 
ings, did  we  go  into  the  beer-houses  to  buy  beer,  and  sometimes  would  drink 
so  much  that  we  could  not  find  our  way  back.  To  be  short,  there  was  plenty 
of  food,  but  not  much  studying  here.  At  St.  Elizabeth's,  nine  bachelors  did 
teach  every  day,  one  hour  each  in  the  selfsame  room.  The  Greek  tongue  was 
not  studied  at  all.  No  printed  ,books  did  the  students  have  of  their  own.  The 
preceptor  alone  had  an  imprinted  Terence.  What  should  be  read  was  at  the 
first  dictated  and  copied,  and  then  construed  and  explicated,  so  that  the  bac- 
chantes bore  away  great  heaps  of  manuscripts.' 

It  was  from  such  strolling  bacchantes,  as  are  portrayed  to  the  life 
by  Platter,  that  the  assistant  teachers  were  taken,  who  assumed  the 
name  of  locati  (located  or  settled),  when  they  obtained  a  place. 
Their  education  consisted  of  a  knowledge  of  the  church  service,  of 
church  music,  of  a  little  Latin,  and  of  writing  and  arithmetic. 
Their  character  corresponded  to  that  of  the  church  at  large  in  that 
rude  and  licentious  age.  They  were,  for  the  most  part,  mere  adven- 
turers and  vagabonds,  neither  loving  nor  understanding  the  art  of 
teaching  any  better  than  they  did  the  nature  of  true  religion,  whose 
servants  they  professed  to  be.  They  remained  but  a  short  time  in 
a  place,  never  pretended  to  study  the  character  and  disposition  of 
their  pupils,  taught  mechanically,  and  ruled  not  by  affection  but  by 
brute  and  brutal  force.  The  greater  part  of  what  they  taught  was 
nearly  useless.  Study  was  a  mere  exercise  of  the  memory. 

The  school  at  Mansfeld  was  no  exception  to  the  general  character 
of  the  schools  in  the  smaller  towns  at  that  time.  We  are  not  left 
to  conjecture  whether  Luther  was  familiar  with  such  scenes  as  have 
been  alluded  to.  Speaking,  at  a  later  period  of  life,  on  the  duty  of 
maintaining  good  public  schools,  he  says,  somewhat  indignantly : 
'  Such  towns  as  will  not  have  good  teachers,  now  that  they  can  be 
gotten,  ought,  as  formerly,  to  have  locati  and  bacchantes,  stupid 
asses,  who  cost  money  enough,  and  yet  teach  their  pupils  nothing 
save  to  become  asses  like  themselves.'  *  Not  a  single  branch  of 
study,'  says  he,  in  another  place,  *  was  at  that  time  taught  as  it 
should  be.'  Referring  to  their  brutality,  he  says,  *  When  they  could 


MARTIN  LUTHER.  }Q3 

not  vent  their  spleen  against  the  higher  teachers,  they  would  pour 
it  out  upon  the  poor  boys.' 

In  respect  to  the  studies  of  Luther  at  Mansfeld,  which  continued 
up  to  his  fourteenth  year,  Mathesius,  his  intimate  friend,  says  he 
learned  there  'his  Ten  Commandments,  the  Apostles'  Creed,  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  Donatus,  the  Child's  Grammar,  Cisio  Janus,  and 
church  music.'  Donatus  was  to  Latin  grammar  of  the  middle  ages 
what  Murray  has  been  to  English- grammar.  Cisio  Janus  are  the 
first  words  of  a  church  calendar  in  monkish  Latin  verse,  made  up 
of  mutilated  words,  cisio,  standing  for  circumcisio  (circumcision). 
Next  to  monastic  works,  Terence  and  Plautus,  the  two  Roman  come- 
dians, were  most  studied,  as  they  furnished  the  readiest  means  of 
learning  the  colloquial  Latin,  so  important  to  the  clergy  at  that 
time. 

Luther  laments  that  he  had  not,  in  those  schools  which  he  attend- 
ed in  his  boyhood,  '  read  the  poets  and  historians,  which  no  one 
taught  him?  instead  of  which  he  i  learned  with  great  labor  what 
with  equal  labor  he  now  had  to  unlearn.'  *  Is  it  not  plain,'  he  some- 
where says,  *  that  one  can  now  teach  a  boy  in  three  years,  by  the 
time  he  is  fifteen  or  eighteen  years  old,  more  than  was  aforetime 
learned  in  all  the  universities  and  cloisters?  Twenty,  yea  forty 
years  have  men  studied,  and  yet  known  neither  Latin  nor  German, 
not  to  mention  the  scandalous  lives  which  the  youth  there  learned 
to  lead.'  '  It  was  pitiful  enough  for  a  boy  to  spend  many  years 
only  to  learn  bad  Latin  sufficient  for  becoming  a  priest  and  for  say- 
ing mass,  and  then  be  pronounced  happy,  and  happy,  too,  the 
mother  who  bore  him.'  *  And  he  is  still  a  poor  ignorant  creature — 
can  neither  cluck  nor  lay  eggs ;  and  yet  such  are  the  teachers  which 
we  have  everywhere  had.' 

Luther  was  educated  under  that  peculiar  type  of  religion  which 
prevailed  in  Thuringia.  Here  it  was  that  Boniface,  the  Apostle  of 
Germany,  in  the  eighth  century,  with  other  missionaries  from  the 
British  Islands,  carried  on  their  most  important  operations  for  evan- 
gelizing Germany,  founding  there  the  Papal  church,  and  thus  cor- 
rupting Christianity  at  its  very  introduction.  Here  was  the  great 
cloister  of  Fulda,  the  chief  seminary  of  sacred  learning,  and  the 
centre  of  religious  influence  for  the  surrounding  country.  It  was 
in  Thuringia  that  St.  Elizabeth,  the  Thuringian  landgravine,  whose 
memory  lived  in  popular  legends  till  Luther's  times,  and  who  was  a 
favorite  saint  with  him,  was  the  embodiment  of  the  religious  spirit 
of  the  people,  a  spirit  of  deep  sincerity  united  with  childish  sim- 
plicity and  superstition.  The  Thuringians  are  proverbially  an  hon- 


JQ^  MARTIN    LUTHER. 

est  and  simple-hearted  people.  Luther's  mother  appears  to  have 
been  of  this  character;  possessing,  perhaps,  more  earnestness  in 
matters  of  religion,  than  others.  His  father  was  also  a  genuine 
Thurinarian  of  the  better  sort. 

& 

Either  because  Luther  sympathized  more  readily  with  the  warm 
and  credulous  piety  of  the  mother  than  with  the  more  sober  and 
discriminating  piety  of  the  father,  or  because  he  was,  in  early  life, 
more  under  the  influence  of  the  former  and  of  priests  and  monks 
who  strengthened  her  influence,  he  eagerly  imbibed  the  popular 
religious  sentiments  of  his  neighborhood.  At  .Mansfeld,  in  partic- 
ular, the  religious  views  here  described  prevailed.  As  late  as  1507, 
one  of  the  counts  of  Mansfeld  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem. 
Two  countesses  of  the  same  family  were  in  the  nunnery  at  Eisle- 
ben  during  nearly  all  the  period  that  Luther  remained  at  home  with 
his  parents.  The  cloister  of  Mansfeld,  about  two  miles  east  of  the 
town,  was  supposed  to  be  the  scene  of  several  miracles  wrought  by 
St.  Elizabeth,  with  all  of  which  Luther  was  necessarily  very  familiar 
in  his  boyhood. 

The  account  of  the  Papal  church  in  Thuringia,  given  by  Myco- 
nius,  who  was  preacher  at  Gotha,  perfectly  agrees  with  what  has 
here  been  said  on  other  authorities,  as  do  also  the  many  incidental 
notices  of  it  by  Luther  in  his  writings.  There  can  be  no  doubt, 
therefore,  that  we  have  before  us  a  true  description  of  the  religious 
influence  under  which  Luther  spent  his  childhood.  We  also  know 
that  his  susceptible  mind  yielded  itself  like  wax  to  receive  the  im- 
pressions which  his  mother  and  his  religious  teachers  attempted  to 
make.  The  unsuspecting  and  confiding  simplicity  of  his  character 
must  be  constantly  borne  in  mind,  if  we  would  rightly  interpret 
his  actions  and  understand  his  history. 

Of  a  part  of  his  religious  education,  he  afterwards  speaks  with 
approbation ;  but  of  the  rest,  far  otherwise.  These  are  his  words : 
*  In  the  house  or  church  of  the  pope  was  I  baptized ;  and  there  did 
I  learn  the  catechism  and  the  Bible.  ...  I  will  hold  my  father's 
house  in  great  honor,  and  fall  prostrate  before  it,  if  it  will  but  leave 
me  my  Christ  and  my  conscience  without  a  burden.'  *  I  can  not 
set  forth  in  a  better  or  simpler  way  what  one  should  believe,  do, 
leave  -undone,  or  know  in  religion,  than  hath  been  done  from  the 
beginning  in  these  three  pieces,  to  wit,  the  ten  commandments,  the 
creed,  and  the  Lord's  prayer.  .  .  .  But  these  ought  not  to  be 
taught  as  they  were  in  time  past,  by  making  them  stick  only  in  the 
memory.' 

When  Luther  was  a  boy,  the  common  belief  in  witches  was  at 


MARTIN  LUTHER.  JQ5 

its  height.  Of  the  very  celebrated  work  entitled  'The  Maul  for 
Witches '  (Malleus  Maleficarum),  teaching  priests  and  magistrates 
what  rules  to  observe  in  their  proceedings  against  witches,  and  cir- 
culated with  both  the  papal  and  imperial  sanction,  three  editions 
were  printed  while  Luther  was  a  boy,  and  was  in  his  father's  house 
at  Mansfeld.  He  tells  a  story  of  a  witch  that  lived  near  by,  and 
used  to  trouble  his  mother  very  much  ;  another,  of  an  attempt  of 
the  devil,  in  human  form,  to  separate  husband  and  wife  ;  and  another 
still,  of  an  instance  where  the  devil  actually  entered  the  pulpit  and 
preached  for  a  minister.  Some  of  these  stories  he  seems  to  believe, 
others  he  ridicules.  '  I  myself,'  he  observes,  *  have  seen  monks, 
shameless  and  wicked  fellows,  who  feigned  to  cast  out  the  devil, 
and  then  to  sport  with  him  as  with  a  child.  Who  can  recount  all 
their  crafty  tricks  done  in  the  name  of  Christ,  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
of  the  holy  cross,  of  St.  Cyriac  ?' 

Though  Luther  afterwards  became  much  more  enlightened  on 
these  subjects,  still  the  superstitions  in  which  he  was  educated  in 
his  childhood  clung  to  him  to  the  last.  No  one  is  ignorant  of  the 
story  of  his  inkstand  thrown  at  the  devil  in  his  cell  in  Erfurt. 
Though  it  may  be  an  apocryphal  story,  it  still  is  a  true  illustration 
of  the  character  of  Luther.  We  find  him  afterward  holding  such 
language  as  the  following:  'The  devil  is  all  about  us,  though  he 
often  putteth  on  a  mask.  I  myself  have  seen  that  he  sometimes 
appeareth  as  if  he  were  a  swine,  and  sometimes  as  a  burning  wisp 
of  straw.'  'The  devil  often  beguileth  the  outward  senses,  so  that 
men  think  something  taketh  place  before  them  which  doth  not,  .  .  . 
as  was  the  case  in  Hesse  with  the  child  that,  when  it  was  not  dead, 
the  devil  so  blinded  the  eyes  of  the  people  that  they  thought  it  to 
be  dead.  The  devil  held  the  child's  breath,  as  he  hath  power  to  do.' 

That  Luther  in  his  boyhood,  was  thoroughly  initiated  into  the 
tastes,  manners  and  habits  of  the  miners,  is  certain.  This  might 
be  inferred  from  the  fact  of  his  being  a  miner's  son  and  living  at 
Mansfeld ;  but  we  have  statements  in  respect  to  his  maturer  life 
which  can  be  explained  on  no  other  supposition.  He  always  treat- 
ed miners  with  particular  attention.  He  was  familiar  with  all  their 
habits  and  even  their  amusements ;  he  knew  their  songs  and  their 
plays,  and  could,  through  life,  entertain  them  as  few  others  could. 
Mathesius,  in  one  of  his  discourses  on  Luther's  life,  says : 

'  To-day  let  us  hear  about  Luther's  love  and  affection  for  mining  and  to 
miners.'  The  council  of  Wittenberg  had  a  festival  which  lasted  several  days. 
Luther  was  invited  to  attend.  But  as  he  had  been  the  means  of  doing  away 
several  Catholic  festivals  on  account  of  the  excesses  committed  at  them,  he 
thought  it  imprudent  to  attend,  and  therefore  declined  the  invitation.  The 
young  people,  according  to  ancient  custom,  went  about  the  streets  in  masks, 


106  MARTIN  LUTHER. 

and  sought  admittance  to  the  houses  of  the  citizens.  'At  one  time,'  continues 
Mathesius,  '  some  of  them  came  to  Luther's  house  or  cloister.  But,  to  avoid 
offense  and  scandal,  he  did  not  admit  them  into  his  house.  Albeit,  at  length, 
a  company,  disguised  as  miners,  came  along,  with  their  mining  hammers,  and  a 
chess-board  for  their  amusement.  '  Let  them  come  in,'  said  Luther,  '  they  are 
my  countrymen,  and  the  fellow-workmen  of  my  father.  Since  they  pass  whole 
weeks  under  ground  in  a  damp  atmosphere  and  amid  impure  exhalations,  we 
must  allow  them  proper  recreation.'  They  came,  placed  their  chess-board  up- 
on his  table,  and  he  joined  them.  'Now,  miners,'  said  he,  'whosoever  will  go 
into  this  or  other  deep  shafts  and  come  out  unharmed,  or  not  close  up  the  pas- 
sage with  refuse,  must,  as  the  saying  is,  not  have  his  eyes  in  his  pocket.'  Luther 
easily  won  the  game;  and  they  all  remained,  and,  under  due  restraint,  indulged 
in  merriment,  singing  and  frolicking,  as  our  doctor  was  inclined  to  be  sportive 
at  proper  times,  and  was  not  displeased  when  he  saw  the  young  playful  and 
merry,  if  it  was  but  with  propriety  and  moderation.' 

Luther  was  the  son  of  a  peasant,  that  is,  of  a  poor  miner  who 
sprung  from  the  peasantry.  How  did  this  circumstance  affect  his 
character  ?  It  had  more  effect  upon  his  language,  habits  and  asso- 
ciations than  upon  his  sentiments  and  subsequent  standing  in  soci- 
ety. For  as  his  father  became  a  burgher  and  magistrate,  and  as  he 
himself  was  a  man  of  education,  he  came  to  regard  society  from  a 
higher  point  of  view.  But  born  and  bred  as  he  was,  he  was  never 
adapted  to  court-life.  He  always  appeared  uneasy  when  speaking 
or  writing  to  princes  or  nobles,  not  out  of  fear,  but  from  a  con- 
sciousness that  he  was  not  familiar  with  the  modes  of  intercourse 
and  of  address  customary  among  them.  His  language,  though  un- 
commonly rich  and  varied,  and  sparkling  with  sense  and  wit,  was 
often  homely.  His  illustrations  were  often  drawn  from  common 
and  low  life.  A  vein  of  slight  vulgarity,  as  well  as  drollery,  per- 
vades all  his  writings.  His  pungent  wit,  his  creative  genius,  and 
his  sterling  sense  follow  him  everywhere.  He  was  the  man  of  the 
people,  knowing  all  their  thoughts  and  feelings,  and  employing  all 
their  words  and  expressions  in  his  magnificent,  but  still  rude  elo- 
quence. 

But  from  the  flower  of  his  youth,  through  life,  Luther  was  asso- 
ciated with  burghers  and  attached  to  them,  the  middling  class, 
between  the  nobles  and  the  peasants,  the  mercantile,  enterprising, 
patriotic  inhabitants  of  the  larger  towns  and  cities.  To  this  class 
he  was  introduced,  partly  by  his  father's  later  connections  and 
partly  by  his  own  cultivated  practical  sense  and  his  hearty  devoted- 
ness  to  the  good  of  all  the  people.  He  was  never  fond  of  princes 
and  nobles ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  of  the  sottish,  blind,  and  dis- 
orderly peasantry.  In  all  his  writings,  he  treats  both  classes,  a  few 
individuals  excepted,  somewhat  roughly.  He  did  not  depend  on 
either  for  carrying  forward  the  Reformation,  but  addressed  himself 
more  immediately  to  the  magistrates  and  free  denizens.  He  wished 
neither  the  authority  of  kings  nor  the  violence  of  peasants  to  be 


MARTIN  LUTHER.  107 

brought  to  his  aid,  but  preferred  that  these,  no  less  than  the  mid- 
dling classes,  should  be  controlled  by  intelligence  and  virtue.  He 
uniformly  checked  the  two  former,  while  he  directed,  stimulated 
and  supported  the  latter. 

His  position  as  a  man  of  education,  always  practical,  led  to  the 
same  result.  Learning  with  him  was  not,  as  with  so  many  others, 
a  matter  of  profession,  but  a  source  of  practical  wisdom.  He  en- 
couraged and  sympathized  with  men  of  classical  learning  only  so 
far  as  they  aided  in  explaining  the  Scriptures  and  in  enlightening 
the  people.  He  wrote  more  and  better  in  the  language  of  the 
people  than  in  the  language  of  the  learned.  This  circumstance 
strengthened  his  alliance  with  intelligent,  active  and  patriotic  men. 
Thus,  when  he  came  to  act  the  part  of  a  reformer,  he  occupied  the 
central  ground  of  society,  the  point  where  extremes  meet  and  oppo- 
site influences  neutralize  each  other. 

With  this  agreed  his  geographical  position.  Thuringia  is  the 
most  German  of  all  the  German  districts.  It  belonged  to  no  sec- 
tion, but  was  the  middle  portion,  often  holding  the  balance  of  power. 
In  the  Middle  Ages,  it  was  neither  the  scholastic  south,  nor  the 
barbarous  north,  but  the  enlightened,  sober,  practical  district  of 
Erfurt,  and  yet  the  chivalrous  vicinity  of  the  Wartburg,  renowned 
in  arms  and  in  song.  In  language,  too,  it  was  near  the  northern 
verge  of  the  high  German,  and  consequently  not  far  south  of  the  line 
beyond  which  the  low  German  was  spoken.  Had  Luther  lived 
either  north  or  south  of  Thuringia  and  Saxony,  he  could  not  have 
molded  the  national  language  as  he  has  done  ;  nor  have  found  the 
wide-spread  sympathy  which  he  did  find ;  nor  have  acted  from  the 
heart  of  the  nation  out  to  all  its  extremities. 

Luther  had  now  reached  his  fourteenth  year,  when  the  ordinary 
or  trivial  school  of  Mansfeld  no  longer  met  his  wants.  Hard  as 
his  life  had  thus  far  been,  a  harder  lot  awaited  him.  He  was  to 
leave  the  paternal  roof,  and  go  forth,  young  and  inexperienced,  to 
,try  his  fortune  among  strangers.  Without  money  and  without 
friends,  he  was  to  commit  himself  to  the  charities  of  mendicant 
monks  and  of  the  people  of  a  great  ecclesiastical  metropolis.  He 
did  not,  however,  take  his  departure  entirely  alone.  He  was  sent 
in  company,  or,  as  Mathesius  intimates,  under  the  care  of  John 
Reineck,  a  fellow-student  of  more  experience,  the  son  of  a  respect- 
able citizen  of  Mansfeld.  This  friendship,  formed  at  the  school, 
lasted  through  life ;  and  it  was  this  same  person  who  accompanied 
Luther  in  his  journey  to  the  diet  of  Worms.  Luther  in  his  corres- 
pondence calls  him  '  one  of  his  best  friends,'  and  the  letter  of  Me- 


108  MARTIN  LUTHER. 

lancthon  to  him  and  to  his  distinguished  son,  educated  at  Witten- 
berg, breathe  the  warmest  friendship.  Virtuous  and  choice  friend- 
ships formed  in  early  life  are  often  of  far  greater  importance  than 
the  young  are  apt  to  suppose. 

Melancthon  says,  the  *  Latin  schools  of  Saxony  were  then  in  good 
repute,'  and  Mathesins  says,  '  the  school  at  Magdeburg  was  more 
celebrated  than  many  others.'  Not  far  from  the  south  gate  of  the  city 
was  the  school  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Life  in  Common.  Near  this 
was  the  celebrated  cathedral  school,  and  in  the  north-west  part  of 
the  town,  the  school  of  the  Franciscan  monks.  It  was  to  the  Fran- 
ciscan school  that  Luther  and  his  friend  are  said  to  have  resorted. 
As  this  is  the  only  monastic  school  which  he  attended  in  his  boy- 
hood, we  must  suppose  that  he  had  this  particularly  in  mind  when 
he  afterward  wrote  on  the  subject.  In  1497,  then,  two  boys,  the  one 
quite  young  and  indigent,  the  other  older  and  in  better  circumstances, 
left  their  home  in  a  romantic  town  on  the  border  of  the  Hartz  Moun- 
tains, and  journeyed  on  foot,  north,  about  fifty  miles,  through  a  rich 
and  level  country  to  the  large  and  fortified  city  of  Magdeburg,  then 
under  the  civil  rule  of  the  archbishop  and  the  place  of  his  residence. 
The  direct  road  would  lead  them  to  the  west  of  Hettstedt  (the  last 
considerable  town  in  the  county  of  Mansfeld),  to  Aschersleben,  at 
which  point  the  mountains  and  forests  begin  to  disappear,  to  Egeln, 
beyond  the  territory  of  Halberstadt,  and  within  that  of  Magdeburg, 
and  thence  to  the  place  of  their  destination.  The  mode  of  travel 
was  probably  not  very  different  from  that  described  by  Platter 
above. 

The  Franciscans  wore  a  gray  robe  with  black  scapularies,  and 
were  especially  employed  in  attending  on  the  sick,  and  in  the  burial 
of  the  dead.  The  boy,  in  whose  heart  was  a  sealed  fountain  of 
fervent  and  joyous  passion,  found  nothing  under  his  new  masters 
and  in  his  new  mode  of  life  to  satisfy  his  internal  wants.  The  few 
incidents  which  he  records,  from  his  recollections  of  this  period,  are 
strikingly  characteristic  of  the  order,  and  indeed  of  the  church  at 
large.  *  I  have  seen,'  says  he,  '  with  these  eyes,  in  my  fourteenth 
year,  when  I  was  at  school  in  Magdeburg,  a  Prince  of  Anhalt, 
brother  of  Adolphus,  Bishop  of  Merseburg,  going  about  the  streets 
in  a  cowl,  begging  bread  with  a  sack  upon  his  shoulders,  like  a 
beast  of  burden,  insomuch  that  he  stooped  to  the  ground.  .  .  He 
had  fasted  and  watched  and  mortified  his  flesh  till  he  appeared  like  to 
an  image  of  death,  with  only  skin  and  bones,  and  died  soon  after.' 

He  speaks  of  a  painting,  symbolical  of  the  sentiments  entertained 
by  the  church,  seen  by  him  about  this  time,  and  leaving  a  deep 


MARTIN   LUTHER.  JQQ 

impression  upon  his  mind.  'A  great  ship  was  painted,  likening  the 
church,  wherein  there  was  no  layman,  not  even  a  king  or  prince. 
There  was  none  but  the  pope  with  his  cardinals  and  bishops  in  the 
prow,  with  the  Holy  Ghost  hovering  over  them ;  the  priests  and 
monks  with  their  oars  at  the  side  ;  and  thus  they  were  sailing  on 
heavenward.  The  laymen  were  swimming  along  in  the  water 
around  the  ship.  Some  of  them  were  drowning ;  some  were  draw- 
ing themselves  up  to  the  ship  by  means  of  ropes,  which  the  monks, 
moved  by  pity,  and  making  over  their  own  good  works,  did  cast 
out  to  them,  to  keep  them  from  drowning,  and  to  enable  them  to 
cleave  to  the  vessel,  and  go  with  the  others  to  heaven.  There  was 
no  pope,  nor  cardinal,  nor  bishop,  nor  priest,  nor  monk  in  the  water, 
but  laymen  only.  This  painting  was  an  index  and  summary  of 
their  doctrine.  ...  I  was  once  one  of  them,  and  helped  teach 
such  things,  believing  them  and  knowing  no  better.' 

We  know  but  little  of  this  Franciscan  school,  and  of  Luther's 
residence  there,  except  that  in  the  mode  of  instruction  there  was 
no  material  improvement  upon  that  which  he  had  received  at  Mans- 
feld.  So  great  were  the  privations  and  sufferings  of  young  Luther 
at  Magdeburg,  that  it  was  decided  by  his  father  that  he  should 
remove  to  Eisenach,  where  his  maternal  grandparents  and  other 
relatives  resided,  and  where  also  there  was  a  good  Latin  school.  It 
was  hoped  that  he  would  here  be  so  far  provided  for  as  to  be 
relieved  from  pressing  want.  But  parents,  who  themselves  were 
familiar  with  hardships,  would  expect  that  their  son  should  be  ex- 
posed to  them  also. 

We  can  easily  imagine  with  what  different  feelings  the  boy  per- 
formed the  journey  home,  from  those  with  which  he  passed  over 
the  same  ground  when  he  first  went  abroad  into  the  wide  world. 
After  indulging  in  the  exquisite  pleasures  of  home  as  they  are  felt 
by  a  boy  on  returning  from  his  first  absence — for  Mansfeld  was 
directly  on  the  way  to  Eisenach — he  must  have  gone  forth  with 
moderated  and  yet  pleasing  expectations.  Moderated,  because  he 
had  taken  one  sad  lesson  in  the  knowledge  of  the  world ;  and 
pleasing,  because  he  was  about  to  go,  not  among  utter  strangers, 
but  among  the  kindred  of  his  mother.  What  strange  emotions 
would  have  filled  the  breast  of  the  boy,  had  he  then  had  a  prophetic 
vision  of  the  tragic  events  that  should  take  place  a  quarter  of  a 
century  after,  in  the  places  through  which  he  was  now  to  pass ! 
About  twenty  miles  on  his  way  from  Mansfeld,  he  might  see  All- 
stedt,  where  Muncer  was  to  become  the  leader  in  the  bloody  Peas- 
ants' War.  To  the  west  is  seen  the  river  Helme,  on  whose  beautiful 


MARTIN  LUTHER. 

banks  is  situated  the  Golden  Meadow  (Goldene  Aue),  extending 
more  than  thirty  miles  to  the  neighborhood  of  Nordhausen.* 

At  a  distance  of  about  sixteen  miles  from  Allstedt  is  Franken- 
hausen,  where  the  decisive  battle  was  fought,  May  5,  1525,  and 
Muncer  and  his  party  completely  routed.  Still  farther  on,  toward 
Eisenach,  lies  Miihlhausen,  which  was  the  headquarters  of  Muncer's 
army.  Eisenach  lies  about  twenty  miles  south  of  Miihlhausen. 
Between  these  two  places  is  one  of  the  largest  of  the  five  ranges  of 
hills,  which  it  is  necessary  to  cross  in  taking  this  route.  Just 
before  reaching  Eisenach  we  cross  the  most  southerly  range.  As 
one  enters  the  town  from  the  north,  he  looks  down  upon  it,  and 
sees  it  lying  before  him  in  a  valley,  under  the  castle  of  Wartburg 
towering  on  the  right. 

Next  to  Wittenberg  and  Erfurt,  this  is  the  place  richest  in  histor- 
ical recollections  in  respect  to  Luther.  Here  he  found  the  end  of 
his  sorrows  arising  from  poverty.  Here  he  first  found  sympathizing 
and  skillful  teachers,  under  whose  influence  he  acquired  a  love  of 
learning.  Here  his  musical  talent,  his  taste  and  imagination  were 
first  developed,  throwing  their  cheerful  serenity  over  his  sorrowful 
and  beclouded  mind.  Here,  too,  he  subsequently  lived  in  his  Pat- 
inos,  or  desert,  as  he  playfully  termed  the  Castle  of  Wartburg,  in  the 
character  of  Squire  George,  and  passed  his  time  sometimes  in  the 
chase  on  the  mountains,  but  mostly  in  translating  the  New  Testament. 

There  were  in  Eisenach  at  this  time  three  churches,  to  which 
were  attached  as  many  parochial  schools.  Only  one  of  these,  how- 
ever, was  a  Latin  school ;  and  that  was  at  the  church  of  St.  George, 
a  little  east  of  the  center  of  the  town.  The  name  of  the  head 
master  was  Trebonius,  the  first  skillful  teacher  under  whose  care 
Luther  came,  and  to  whom  he  felt  a  personal  attachment.  Though 

*  This  tract  of  enchanted  land  extends  nearly  the  whole  distance  from  Naumburg  to  Nordhau- 
sen. Memleben,  on  the  Unstrut,  about  ten  miles  south  of  Allstedt,  was  the  favorite  residence  of 
the  German  emperors  of  the  Suxon  line.  Here  Matilda,  royal  consort  of  Henry  the  First,  found- 
ed a  nunnery.  Here,  probably,  Henry  the  Fowler  was  busying  himself  with  his  falcons  when  it 
was  announced  to  him  that  he^ was  chosen  emperor;  and  here,  too,  he  breathed  his  last  Here 
his  son  Otto,  the  First,  on  his  way  (o  the  diet  of  Merseburg,  passed  the  season  of  Lent,  and  died 
immediately  after  the  services.  A  little  farther  up  the  river,  and  on  the  opposite  side  is  Rossle- 
ben.  Here  was  an  ancient  nunnery,  afterward  converted  into  an  excellent  cloister-school  or  gym- 
nasium, in  which  Ernesti,  Von  Thiitmnel  and  other  eminent  men  received  their  elementary  edu- 
cation. Passing  another  cloister-school,  we  come  to  the  junction  of  the  Helme  and  Unstrut.  South 
is  to  be  seen  the  Palace  of  Heldrungen,  and  on  the  summit  the  ruins  of  Sachsenburg.  Ascending 
the  Helme,  west  of  Allstedt,  we  come  to  Wallhausen,  where  Otto  the  Great  built  a  palace  and 
often  resided,  as  did  his  son  after  him.  In  this  vicinity  the  German  emperors  loved  to  pass  their 
time.  A  little  farther  on,  beyond  Tilledn,  another  royal  residence,  to  the  left  of  the  Golden 
Meadow,  rises  KyrThausen  with  Frederic's  tower.  There  are  many  legends  respecting  Frederic 
Barbarossa  and  this  castle.  It  was  here  that  Henry  the  Sixth  and  Henry  the  Lion  became  recon- 
ciled to  each  other,  and  checked  for  a  time  the  feuds  between  Guelf  and  Ghibiline.  West  of  this 
is  the  peak  of  Rothenberg,  with  another  tower,  whose  history  runs  back  to  pagan  times. 


MARTIN  LUTHER.  m 

he  did  not  belong  to  the  new  school  of  classical  scholars  trained  in 
Italy,  his  Latin  was  much  purer  than  that  of  the  monks  and  priests 
generally.  His  personal  character,  too,  though  perhaps  a  little 
eccentric,  was  such  as  to  win  the  love  of  his  pupils.  In  coming 
before  them,  he  used  to  take  off  his  hat  and  bow  to  them,  and 
complained  that  his  assistants  were  disinclined  to  do  likewise.  He 
said,  with  truth,  and  with  a  sense  of  responsibility  which  showed 
that  he  understood  the  true  dignity  of  his  office,  '  among  these 
boys  are  burgomasters,  chancellors,  doctors,  and  magistrates/ 
Though  he  is  called  a  poet,  that  is  a  writer  of  Latin  verses,  we 
must  remember  that  this  was  a  trivial  school,  and  that  but  little 
more  than  Latin  hymns  and  prayers  were  read  ;  and  that  it  excelled 
other  schools  only  by  having  a  better  method,  by  employing  in 
conversation  a  purer  Latin,  and  by  having  exercises  in  Latin  verse. 
It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  Luther  studied  Greek  here,  or  even 
such  Latin  authors  as  Cicero,  Virgil  and  Livy.  He  commenced  the 
study  of  the  latter  in  Erfurt,  and  the  former  at  a  much  later  period 
in  Wittenberg,  as  professor.  The  following  is  Melancthon's  account 
of  Luther's  studies  at  Eisenach :  '  After  leaving  Magdeburg,  he 
attended  in  the  school  at  Eisenach  four  years  on  the  instructions 
of  a  teacher  who  taught  him  grammar  (Latin)  better  than  it  was 
elsewhere  taught.  For  I  remember  how  Luther  commended  his 
talents.  He  was  sent  thither  because  his  mother  was  descended 
from  an  honorable  and  ancient  family  of  that  town.  Here  he 
became  master  of  grammar ;  and  because  of  his  superior  under- 
standing and  natural  aptitude  for  eloquence,  he  made  more  pro- 
ficiency, and  easily  excelled  his  fellow-pupils,  both  in  his  powers  of 
speech  and  in  writing  prose  and  verse.'  Here  is  the  first  intimation 
we  have  of  the  manifestation  of  those  remarkable  powers  which 
distinguished  him  in  after  life.  His  teacher  undoubtedly  knew  how 
to  draw  out  of  him  what  had  hitherto  been  suffered  to  lie  dormant. 
Luther,  who  had  been  driven  from  Magdeburg  by  poverty, 
removed  to  Eisenach  in  hopes  of  sympathy  and  support  from  his 
relatives  in  that  place.  In  this  his  hopes  were  disappointed.  He 
was  still  compelled  to  beg  his  bread,  singing  in  a  choir  from  door  to 
door.  His  sufferings  appear  to  have  been  even  greater  here  than  in 
Magdeburg.  No  doubt,  the  early  indigence  of  Luther,  and  the 
fact  of  his  feeling  that  he  was  thrown  back  upon  his  own  resources, 
contributed  to  the  strength  of  his  character.  He  probably  had  his 
own  case  in  view  when  he  said,  '  The  young  should  learn  especially 
to  endure  suffering  and  want ;  for  such  suffering  doth  them  no  harm. 
It  doth  more  harm  for  one  to  prosper  without  toil  than  it  doth  to 


X12  MARTIN  LUTHER. 

endure  suffering.'  'It  is  God's  way,  of  beggars  to  make  men  of 
power,  just  as  he  made  the  world  out  of  nothing.  Look  upon  the 
courts  of  kings  and  princes,  upon  cities  and  parishes.  You  will 
there  find  jurists,  doctors,  counsellors,  secretaries  and  preachers, 
who  were  commonly  poor,  and  alway§  such  as  have  been  students, 
and  have  risen  and  flown  so  high  through  the  quill,  that  they  are 
become  lords.'  '  I  have  been  a  beggar  of  crumbs,  and  have  taken 
my  bread  at  the  door,  especially  at  Eisenach,  my  favorite  town, 
although  afterwards  my  dear  father  with  all  love  and  fidelity  sus- 
tained me  at  school  in  Erfurt,  and  by  his  sweat  and  hard  labor 
helped  me  to  that  whereunto  I  have  attained.  Nevertheless  I  have 
been  a  beggar  of  bread,  and  have  prospered  so  far  forth  with  the 
pen,  that  I  would  not  exchange  my  art  for  all  the  wealth  of  the 
Turkish  empire.  Nay,  I  would  not  exchange  it  for  all  the  wealth 
of  the  world  many  times  over.  And  yet  I  should  not  have  attained 
thereunto,  had  I  not  gone  to  school,  and  given  myself  to  the  busi- 
ness of  writing.  Therefore  doubt  not  to  put  your  boy  to  study ; 
and  if  he  must  needs  beg  his  bread,  you  nevertheless  give  unto 
God  a  noble  piece  of  timber  whereof  he  will  carve  a  great  man. 
So  it  must  always  be ;  your  son  and  mine,  that  is,  the  children  of 
the  common  people,  must  govern  the  world  both  in  the  church  and 
in  the  commonwealth.' 

One  day,  as  he  and  his  companions  were  passing  through  St. 
George  street,  not  far  from  the  school,  their  carols  were  unheeded, 
and,  at  three  successive  houses,  the  customary  charity  was  withheld. 
With  heavy  hearts  they  passed  on  to  Conrad  Cotta's  house,  where 
they  often  received  tokens  of  friendly  regard.  Madam  Gotta  had 
conceived  an  affection  for  young  Luther,  from  the  musical  talents 
which  he  had  displayed,  and  from  the  earnestness  of  his  devotions 
at  church.  She  invited  him  in,  gave  to  him  liberally,  and  after- 
wards received  him  into  her  house.  Though  probably  not  a  rela- 
tive of  his,  as  some  writers  would  have  us  believe, — he  constantly 
called  her  his  hostess, — she  treated  him  as  a  son,  and  gave  him 
support  till  he  went  to  the  university.  It  is  pleasant  to  know  that 
though  Madam  Ursula  Cotto  herself  died  in  1511,  Luther,  after 
arriving  at  an  eminence  hardly  second  to  that  of  any  man  of  the 
age,  remembered  the  debt  of  gratitude,  and  in  the  years  1541  and 
1542,  only  a  few  years  before  his  death,  received  Henry  Gotta,  Ursu- 
la's son,  into  his  house  in  turn,  and  this  act  of  kindness  towards 
him  as  a  student  at  Wittenberg  is  mentioned  in  Cotta's  epitaph  at 
Eisenach,  where  he  died  as  burgomaster. 

The  influence  of  this  connection  upon  Luther's  mind  could  hardly 


MARTIN  LUTHER.  ]J3 

be  otherwise  than  favorable.  Both  his  heart  and  his  intellect  were 
rendered  dark  and  gloomy  by  the  exclusively  monastic  character  of 
his  training.  The  path  of  his  life  thus  far  had  been  cheerless. 
Even  the  music  which  he  loved,  and  in  which  he  indulged,  was 
mostly  pensive.  Domestic  life  he  had  been  taught  to  regard  as 
impure  and  sinful ;  and  to  the  pleasures  of  a  cheerful  home  of  his 
own  he  was  forbidden,  by  his  monastic  superstition,  to  look. 
'  When  I  was  a  boy,'  he  afterwards  said,  '  I  imagined  I  could  not 
think  of  the  married  state  without  sin.'  In  the  family  of  Cotta, 
he  acquired  other  and  more  correct  views  of  life.  Here  he  became 
sensible  to  the  charms  of  refined  society.  Not  only  were  the  gen- 
erous affections  strengthened  by  exercise,  but  the  taste  was  cultiva- 
ted in  that  family  circle.  The  perversions  of  the  monastic  morality 
were  somewhat  checked,  though  not  fully  exposed  and  corrected. 
Madam  Cotta  vindicated  the  dignity  and  sancity  of  married  life, 
and  taught  Luther  that  his  preconceived  notions  on  this  subject 
were  false.  *  My  hostess  at  Eisenach,'  he  remarked,  '  said  truly, 
when  I  was  there  at  school,  '  There  is  not  on  earth  any  thing  more 
lovely  than  an  affection  for  females  (conjugal  affection)  when  it  is 
in  the  fear  of  God.' 

It  was  here  that  Luther  learned  to  play  on  the  flute.  Some  affirm 
that  he  at  this  time  also  learned  to  compose  music  and  to  touch  the 
lute.  Though  he  speaks  of  his  voice  as  '  slender  and  indistinct,'  he 
had  in  reality  a  fine  alto  voice,  and  Melancthon  says,  'it  could  be 
heard  at  a  great  distance.' 

Beneficial  as  were  these  gentle  and  bland  influences,  and  winning 
and  inspiring  as  were  the  instructions  of  the  head-master  of  the 
school,  Eisenach  itself  was  a  priestly  town,  or,  as  the  writers  of  that 
age  call  it,  'a  nest  of  priests,'  and  all  the  religious  associations  of 
the  place  were  adapted  to  nourish  and  strengthen  the  convictions 
with  which  Luther  had  grown  up.  There  were  nine  monasteries 
and  nunneries  in  and  about  the  town,  and  an  abundance  of  churches, 
priests  and  chaplains.  There,  too,  lay  the  remains  of  the  landgrave, 
Henry  Raspe,  at  whose  tomb  the  visitors  on  St.  Julian's  day  could 
obtain  two  years'  indulgence.  Here  St.  Elizabeth,  that  most  benev- 
olent and  religious  of  the  Thuringian  landgravines,  had  lived  and 
labored  for  the  good  of  the  poor,  and  monuments  of  her  zealous 
but  superstitious  piety  were  everywhere  to  be  seen. 

Early  on  the  17th  of  July,  in  1501,  at  the  opening  of  a  new  and 
great  century,  our  student  left  the  place  '  where,'  in.  his  own  lan- 
guage, *  he  had  learned  and  enjoyed  so  much,'  and  directed  his 
steps  toward  the  celebrated  city  and  university  of  Erfurt,  which 


H  4  MARTIN  LUTHER. 

towered  high  above  all  the  rest  in  influence  in  that  part  of  Germany. 
Fifteen  miles  distant  was  Gotha,  then,  as  it  is  now,  the  beautiful 
capital  of  the  duchy  of  the  same  name.  Here  lived  Mutianus,  the 
center  of  the  poetical  club  to  which  many  of  Luther's  subsequent 
Erfurt  friends  (as  Lange,  Spalatin,  Crotus,  and  others)  belonged. 
Here  Luther  preached  in  1521,  on  his  way  to  the  diet  of  Worms, 
and  his  doctrines  were  received ;  and  here  Myconius,  the  historian 
of  the  Lutheran  Reformation,  was  afterward  the  principal  Lutheran 
ecclesiastic.  Proceeding  as  much  farther,  through  a  country  ap- 
pearing, as  one  advances,  more  and  more  like  the  Saxon  plains,  he 
came  to  Erfurt,  formerly  the  great  mart  of  interior  Germany.  This 
city,  though  in  the  very  heart  of  Thuringia,  was  never  subject  to 
the  landgrave.  It  was  once  the  place  of  an  episcopal  see,  and  when 
this  was  transferred  to  Mainz,  the  archbishop  of  which  was  made 
primate  of  Germany,  Erfurt  was  retained  under  his  jurisdiction,  and 
regarded  as  the  second  capital  of  his  electoral  territory.  The  uni- 
versity of  Erfurt  had  more  than  a  thousand  students,  and  Luther 
said  that  *  it  was  so  celebrated  a  seat  of  learning  that  others  were 
but  as  grammar-schools  compared  with  it.'  At  the  time  Luther 
entered  there,  it  had  thirteen  regular  professors,  besides  the  younger 
licentiates,  or  tutors,  and  there  were  several  richly  endowed  colleges, 
or  religious  foundations,  where  the  professors  and  students  lived 
together  as  distinct  corporations.  Theology  and  the  canonical  or 
ecclesiastical  law  took  the  highest  rank  among  the  studies  pursued 
there.  In  the  two  other  learned  professions,  law  and  medicine,  the 
old  Roman  civilians  and  the  Greek  medical  writers  were  chiefly 
studied.  In  the  wide  department  of  philosophy,  a  sort  of  encyclo- 
paedia of  the  sciences,  as  contained  in  the  writings  of  Aristotle, 
constituted  the  course  of  instruction.  The  Bible  was  not  studied, 
and  none  of  the  Greek  authors  above  named  were  read  in  the  orig- 
inal. Neither  languages,  except  the  Latin,  nor  history  were  taught 
after  the  manner  which  afterward  prevailed  in  the  universities. 
Every  thing  still  wore  the  garb  of  the  Middle  Ages.  There  were 
no  experiments  or  observations  in  natural  philosophy,  no  accurate 
criticism  in  language  or  history.  Learning  was  either  a  matter  of 
memory,  or  it  was  a  sort  of  gladiatorial  exercise  in  the  art  of  dis- 
putation. In  one  of  the  foundations  at  Erfurt,  the  beneficiaries 
were  obligated  to  observe  daily  the  seven  canonical  hours,  as  they 
are  termed,  or  appointed  seasons  of  saying  prayers,  to  read  the  mis- 
erere, or  supplication  for  the  dead,  and  to  hear  a  eulogy  on  the 
character  of  the  Virgin  Mary.  The  laws  were  very  oppressive,  from 
the  minuteness  of  their  details  and  the  solemn  oaths  bv  which  men 


MARTIN  LUTHER.  U5 

bound  themselves  to  obey  them.  This  is  what  Luther  called  '  an 
accursed  method.'  '  Every  thing,'  said  he,  *  is  secured  by  oaths  and 
vows,  and  the  wretched  youth  are  cruelly  and  without  necessity 
entangled  as  in  a  net.' 

The  university  life  of  Luther  at  Erfurt  forms  a  striking  contrast 
with  his  abject  and  suffering  condition  while  begging  his  bread  at 
the  doors  of  the  charitable,  and  also  with  his  monastic  life  immedi- 
ately after  leaving  the  university.  He  now  cherished,  though  with 
great  moderation,  that  more  cheering  view  of  human  life  with  which 
he  had  been  made  familiar  in  the  house  of  Madam  Cotta.  He  was 
furthermore  stimulated  by  a  natural  love  of  acquisition  in  useful 
knowledge,  now  for  the  first  time  awakened  into  full  activity.  The 
study  of  classical  literature,  which  had  been  revived  in  Italy  and 
France,  was  beginning  to  be  cultivated  with  enthusiasm  in  Germany. 
Of  the  young  men  who  prosecuted  these  studies  with  zeal,  there 
was  a  brilliant  circle  then  at  Erfurt.  Without  formally  uniting 
himself  with  this  classical  and  poetical  club,  he  took  up  the  study 
of  the  best  Latin  writers  in  prose  and  verse,  with  an  earnestness 
that  fully  equaled  theirs,  and  imprinted  indelibly  upon  his  memory 
those  passages  which  were  most  striking,  whether  for  the  sentiment 
or  the  expression. 

During  the  first  two  years  which  he  spent  at  Erfurt,  (from  1501 
to  1503),  he  was  chiefly  engaged  in  the  study  of  Roman  literature 
and  of  philosophy,  at  the  end  of  which  period  he  took  his  first 
degree.  The  year  in  which  he  received  this  honor  is  supposed  also 
to  be  the  one  in  which  the  following  occurrence  took  place.  Early 
in  the  spring,  he  set  out  in  company  with  a  friend,  equipped  as 
usual  with  a  sword,  to  visit  his  parents.  Within  an  hour  after 
leaving  Erfurt,  he,  by  some  accident,  ran  his  sword  into  his  foot  and 
opened  a  main  artery.  A  physician  was  called  from  the  city,  who 
succeeded,  not  without  difficulty,  in  closing  up  the  wound.  An 
unusual  swelling  arising  from  the  forced  stoppage  of  the  blood,  and 
a  rupture  taking  place  during  the  following  night,  Luther  feared  the 
accident  would  prove  fatal,  and,  in  immediate  prospect  of  death, 
commended  himself  to  the  Virgin  Mary.  *  Had  I  then  died,'  he 
afterward  said,  *  I  should  have  died  in  the  faith  of  the  Virgin.' 

It  was  during  the  same  year  that  Luther  had  his  second  severe 
illness.  His  first  was  while  he  was  at  Magdeburg.  In  his  extrem- 
ity, and  while  despairing  of  life,  he  was  visited  by  an  aged  priest, 
who  spoke  those  memorable  words  which  were  afterward  regarded 
by  some  as  prophetic :  '  Be  of  good  comfort,  my  brother ;  you  will 
not  die  at  this  time.  God  will  yet  make  a  great  man  of  you  who 


HQ  MARTIN  LUTHER. 

shall  comfort  many  others.  Whom  God  loveth  and  purposeth  to 
make  a  blessing,  upon  him  he  early  layeth  the  cross,  and  in  that 
school  those  who  patiently  endure,  learn  much.' 

Of  two  of  Luther's  principal  teachers,  Usingen  and  Jodocus  of 
Eisenach,  and  of  the  subject  matter  and  manner  of  their  teaching, 
we  have  the  means  of  knowing  more  than  is  common  in  such  cases. 
The  works  which  they  published  between  1501  and  1514,  contain- 
ing undoubtedly  the  substance  of  the  very  lectures  which  Luther 
heard,  suggest  to  the  curious  reader  interesting  trains  of  thought. 
A  comparison  of  their  teachings  in  the  physical  sciences  with  what 
Luther,  long  after,  interwove  in  his  commentary  on  the  beginning 
of  Genesis,  proves  not  only  that  these  books  are  but  little  more 
than  the  printed  lectures  of  their  authors,  but  also  that  Luther 
faithfully  stored  those  instructions  away  in  his  capacious  and  reten- 
tive memory  for  future  use. 

It  was  in  1505,  two  years  after  taking  his  first  degree,  that  he 
was  made  master  of  arts,  which  entitled  him  to  teach  in  the  univer- 
sity. He  actually  entered  upon  the  duties  of  this  office,  and  taught 
the  physics  and  logic  of  Aristotle. 

We  learn  from  Mathesius,  what  we  might,  indeed,  infer  from 
Luther's  subsequent  character,  that  he  was  a  young  man  of  buoy- 
ant and  cheerful  feelings ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  that  he  began 
every  day  with  prayer,  and  went  daily  to  church  service.  Further- 
more, '  he  neglected  no  university  exercise,  was  wont  to  propound 
questions  to  his  teachers,  did  often  review  his  studies  with  his  fel- 
low students,  and  whenever  there  were  no  appointed  exercises,  he 
was  in  the  library.' 

In  1505,  Alexius,  a  friend  of  Luther  in  the  university,  was  assas- 
sinated. Soon  after,  about  the  first  of  July,  as  Luther  was  walking 
in  a  retired  road  between  Erfurt  and  Stotterheim,  probably  on  his 
way  home  to  escape  the  epidemic  then  prevailing  at  Erfurt,  he  was 
overtaken  by  a  violent  thunder  storm,  and  the  lightning  struck  with 
terrific  force  near  his  feet.-  He  was  stunned,  and  exclaimed  in  his 
terror,  *  Help,  beloved  St.  Anne,  and  I  will  straightway  become  a 
monk.' 

Besides  the  above-mentioned  occurrences,  there  was  an  epidemic 
raging  in  the  university,  many  of  the  teachers  and  pupils  had  fled, 
and  it  was  very  natural  that  Luther's  mind  should  be  in  a  very 
gloomy  state.  St.  Anne  was  the  reigning  saint  in  Saxony  at  this 

*  Such  is  the  view  in  which  the  testimony  of  Luther,  Melnncthon,  Mathesius.  and  other  early 
witnesses  is  best  united.  The  representation  of  later  writers  that  Alexius  was  killed  by  lightning 
is  now  abandoned  by  most  historians. 


MARTIN  LUTHER 


IT 


time,  having  recently  become  an  object  of  religious  regard,  to  whose 
honor  the  Saxon  town  Anneberg  was  built,  and  who,  for  a  time, 
was  the  successful  rival  even  of  the  Virgin  Mary.  Hence,  the  invo- 
cation of  this  saint  by  Luther. 

When  in  1502,  the  Elector  Frederic  of  Saxony  founded  the  uni- 
versity of  Wittenberg,  he  employed  Staupitz,*  first  as  a  counselor 
and  negotiator,  and  then  as  a  dean  or  superintendent  of  the  theo- 
logical faculty.  In  the  next  year,  the  chapter  of  the  order  chose 
him  general  vicar;  and  it  was  in  this  capacity  that  he  was  brought 
into  connection  with  Luther.  His  influence  upon  the  cloisters 
under  his  charge  was  of  the  happiest  kind ;  and  his  efforts  to  pro- 
mote biblical  studies,  and  to  revive  the  spirituality  of  his  brethren, 
no  doubt  prepared,  in  part,  the  way  for  multitudes  of  them  to  em- 
brace the  doctrines  of  Luther.  The  testimony  of  the  latter  to  his 
worth  may  properly  have  place  here  :  *  He  was  an  estimable  man  ; 
not  only  worthy  to  be  listened  to  with  reverence,  as  a  scholar  in 
seats  of  learning  and  in  the  church,  but  also  at  the  court  of  princes 
and  in  the  society  of  the  great,  he  was  held  in  much  estimation  for 
his  knowledge  of  the  world.' 

During  a  residence  of  a  little  more  than  seven  years  in  Erfurt, 
from  July  17,  1501,  to  the  autumn  of  1508,  in  which  he  had  passed 
from  youth  to  the  state  of  manhood,  both  his  intellectual  and  reli- 
gious character  underwent  a  great  transformation.  Four  years  of 
time,  devoted  with  signal  success  to  secular  learning  in  the  univer- 
sity ;  and  nearly  three  and  a  half  to  experimental  religion  and  to 
theology  in  the  monastery,  changed  the  boy,  who  knew  nothing  of 
learning  beyond  the  catechism  and  Latin  grammar,  and  nothing  of 
religion  beyond  a  gloomy  apprehension  of  it,  and  a  crude  mass  of 
superstitions,  into  a  mature  scholar  and  theologian,  to  whom  the 
young  university  of  Wittenberg  looked  as  to  one  likely  to  increase 
its  usefulness  and  its  fame.  The  appointment  was  very  peculiar. 
Such  was  his  modesty  and  his  reluctance  to  appearing  abroad  in 
any  public  capacity,  that  Staupitz,  as  provincial  of  the  order,  per- 
emptorily required  him  to  repair  to  the  monastery  at  Wittenberg, 
and  to  lecture  there  on  philosophy. 

Probably  Luther  never  saw  Wittenberg  till  he  went  to  take  his 

*  John  Von  Staupitz  was  descended  from  an  ancient  nohle  family  of  Meissen,  or  Misnia,  in  the 
kingdom  of  Saxony.  Tn  order  to  gratify  his  love  of  study  and  pious  meditation,  he  became  an 
Augustinian  monk,  and  in  various  universities  went  through  an  extended  course  of  scholastic 
philosophy  and  theology.  In  1497,  he  was  made  muster  of  arts,  lector  or  public  reader  of  his 
order,  and  connected  himself  with  the  university  of  Tubingen,  in  the  south  of  Germany.  He 
rose  rapidly  to  distinction  ;  for  in  the  following  year  he  was  appointed  prior  of  the  convent  of 
Tubingen ;  in  the  next,  he  took  the  degree  of  biblical  bachelor,  or  the  first  degree  in  theology, 
that  of  sententiary,  or  the  second  degree,  and  in  1500,  that  of  doctor  of  divinity. 


Hg  MARTIN   LUTHER. 

station  there  for  life.  And  what  a  station  was  that !  and  how  did 
he  fill  it !  Passing  beyond  Weimar,  Naumburg  and  Leipsic,  and 
directing  his  course  toward  Diiben,  which  is  about  midway  between 
Leipsic  and  Wittenberg,  he  would  see  spread  out  before  him  a  rich 
arable  tract  of  country,  dotted  with  countless  small  villages.  Only 
Eilenbnrg  on  the  right,  and  Delitsch  on  the  left,  several  miles  dis- 
tant, rise  to  the  dignity  of  towns.  Near  Diiben,  pleasant  wood- 
lands and  fine  meadows  •  begin  to  appear,  and  extend  far  in  both 
directions  along  the  banks  of  the  Mulde.  A  mile  beyond  that 
town,  Luther,  of  course,  entered  the  Diiben  heath,  a  desolate,  sandy 
region,  seven  or  eight  miles  in  extent,  covered  with  stunted  trees, 
where  an  equally  stunted  race  of  wood-cutters,  colliers  and  manu- 
facturers of  wooden-ware,  led  a  boorish  life.  Near  the  entrance  of 
the  heath  is  a  rock,  called  Dr.  Luther's  Rock,  with  the  letters 
D.  M.  L.  inscribed  upon  it,  because  he  is  said  to  have  made  a  pause 
here  once  when  on  a  journey,  and  to  have  taken  a  repast  upon  it. 
To  the  right  of  the  heath,  near  the  Elbe,  is  Schmiedeberg,  whither 
the  university  was  sometimes  temporarily  removed  in  seasons  of 
peril.  Beyond  the  river  is  the  castle  of  Lichtenburg,  where  Luther 
held  an  anxious  interview  with  Spalatin,  in  1518,  to  determine 
whether  he  should  retire  from  Wittenberg  or  not.  North  of  this 
are  Annaburg,  the  occasional  residence  of  the  electors,  and  the 
Cloister  Lochau,  so  often  mentioned  by  Luther.  Directly  on  his 
route,  lay  Kernberg,  which  was  also  connected  variously  with  the 
university.  The  last  place  he  passed  through  was  Prata,  whose 
distance  from  Wittenberg,  he  once  said,  would  give  an  idea  of  the 
width  of  the  Po,  To  the  left  lay  Segrena,  Carlstadt's  resort,  when 
he  retired  from  the  university,  and  lived  as  a  peasant.  Beyond  this 
were  seen  the  Elbe  and  the  white  sand-hills,  which  gave  to  Witten- 
berg its  name.  The  town  itself,  containing  then  three  hundred  and 
fifty-six  houses,  and  about  two  thousand  inhabitants,  lay  before  him 
on  the  north  side  of  the  Elbe,  and  two  hundred  rods  distant  from 
it,  in  a  long  oval  form,  with  the  electoral  church  and  palace  at  the 
western  extremity,  the  city  church  in  the  center,  and  the  Augus- 
teum  or  university  toward  the  Elster  gate,  at  the  eastern  extremity. 
Though  Wittenberg  was  the  capital  of  the  old  electorate,  its  ap- 
pearance was  far  from  being  splendid.  On  the  north  side  are  seen 
plains  broken  by  sand-hills  and  copses  of  wood ;  on  the  south,  a 
low  flat  heath,  behind  which  flowed  the  broad  Elbe,  fringed  here 
and  there  with  willow  and  oak  shrubs.  Many  wretched  hamlets 
were  seen  in  the  distance,  and  the  city  itself,  if  we  except  the  pub- 
lic buildings,  was  but  little  more  than  a  cluster  of  mean  dwellings. 


MARTIN  LUTHER.  H9 

The  people  were  warlike,  but  so  sensual  that  it  was  thought  neces 
sary  to  limit  their  convivialities  by  law.  At  betrothals,  for  example, 
nothing  was  allowed  to  be  given  to  the  guests,  except  cakes,  bread, 
cheese,  fruit,  and  beer.  The  last  article  so  abounded  at  Wittenberg, 
that  it  was  said,  *  The  cuckoo  could  be  heard  there  in  winter  eve- 
nings;' speaking,  of  course,  through  the  throats  of  the  bottles. 
There  were  one  hundred  and  seventy-two  breweries  in  the  city  in 
1513. 

Wittenberg  University  had  been  in  existence  six  years  when  Lu- 
ther was  appointed  professor.  Until  1507,  it  was  supported  chiefly 
from  the  funds  of  the  Elector  Frederic,  who  now  incorporated  with 
it  the  collegiate  church,  with  all  its  sources  of  income,  and  the  pro- 
vostships  of  Kemberg  and  Cloden,  the  parish  of  Orlamiinde,  &c., 
the  canons  of  the  former  becoming  lecturers  without  cost  or  trouble, 
and  the  incumbents  of  the  latter  providing  vicars  in  their  churches, 
and  removing  to  the  university,  where  they  lived  upon  their  incomes. 
The  university  was  organized  after  the  model  of  Tubingen,  and 
bore  resemblance  to  the  university  of  Erfurt.  The  rector, — who 
must  be  unmarried,  and  maintain  his  dignity  by  studied  seclusion, 
and  appear  in  public  only  in  great  pomp, — assisted  by  three  reform- 
ers, whose  duty  it  was  to  superintend  the  instruction,  and  the  deans 
of  the  four  faculties,  constituted  the  academic  Senate.  The  univer- 
sity, contrary  to  the  usual  custom,  was  under  the  protection  of  the 
elector,  and  not  of  the  pope,  or  a  cardinal,  or  an  archbishop,  a  cir- 
cumstance which  greatly  favored  the  Reformation.  None,  there- 
fore, but  the  elector  could  control  the  university  from  without,  and 
none  but  the  rector  and  his  assistants,  the  reformers,  could  do  it 
from  within.  These,  however,  had  enough  to  do.  In  the  very  year 
that  Luther  came  there,  the  students  had  so  insulted  some  of  the 
court  of  the  Bishop  of  Brandenberg,  that  he  put  the  whole  city 
under  the  interdict,  which  was  removed  only  on  the  payment  of  two 
thousand  gulden.  The  year  before,  when  Scheurl,  a  very  energetic 
man,  was  rector,  he  checked  the  prevailing  vice  of  intoxication 
among  the  students,  and  prohibited  the  practice  of  going  armed 
with  gun,  sword  and  knife.  Still,  in  1512,  another  rector  was  assas- 
sinated by  an  expelled  student ;  and  Melancthon  once  barely  escaped 
with  his  life. 

Paul  and  Augustine  were  the  patron  saints  of  the  theological 
faculty.  The  whole  university  was  to  observe  the  festivals  of  the 
saints  of  each  faculty.  The  faculties  were  the  theological,  in  which 
there  were  four  professors :  the  law,  in  which  there  were  five :  the 


120 


MARTIN  LUTHER. 


medical,  in  which  there  were  three :  and  the  philosophical,  includ- 
ing science  and  literature,  in  which  there  were  ten. 

Luther  passed  rapidly  through  all  the  degrees  conferred  in  theol- 
ogy. The  first  was  that  of  biblicus,  though  the  candidate  ordinarily 
knew  little  of  the  Bible  beyond  a  few  papal  glosses  on  favorite 
proof-texts:  the  second  was  that  of  sententiarius,  who  could  lecture 
on  the  first  two  books  of  the  Sentences  of  Peter  Louibardus :  the 
third  was  that  of  formatus,  who  could  lecture  on  the  last  two  books 
of  the  same  author  :  the  fourth  was  that  of  licentiate*,  one  licensed 
to  teach  theology  in  general :  the  fifth  was  that  of  doctor  of  divinity. 

The  reigning  Saxon  family  was  divided  into  two  branches,  the 
Albertine  and  the  Ernestine.  From  Albert  (whose  ordinary  resi- 
dence was  Dresden),  descended  Duke  George,  Luther's  bitter  ene- 
my, and  to  him  succeeded  first  Henry  and  then  Maurice.  To  Ern- 
est, who  resided  sometimes  at  Torgau  and  sometimes  at  Witten- 
berg, were  born  four  distinguished  sons,  the  Elector  Frederic  the 
Wise,  who  in  his  birth  preceded  Luther  twenty  years,  and  in  his 
death  twenty-one ;  Albert,  who  at  the  age  of  eighteen  was  Arch- 
bishop of  Mainz,  in  1482,  but  died  in  the  same  year;  Ernest,  who, 
after  being  Administrator  of  Magdeburg  for  several  years,  was  arch- 
bishop from  1489  to  1513  ;  and  John  the  Constant,  now  associated 
with  Frederic  in  the  government,  and  in  1525  his  successor. 

Luther  commenced  his  labors  in  Wittenberg  by  lecturing  on  the 
dialectics  and  physics  of  Aristotle,  without  salary  or  tuition  fees. 
It  is  remarkable  that  he  never  received  any  thing  from  students  for 
his  labors,  nor  from  booksellers  for  his  writings.*  After  he  laid 
aside  the  cowl,  the  elector  gave  him  an  allowance  of  two  hundred 
gulden  a  year. 

Luther  visited  Rome  as  a  pilgrim.  Twice  while  in  Erfurt  had 
he  vowed  to  make  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome ;  and  he  himself  affirms 
that  he  made  the  journey  in  consequence  of  his  vows.  This  state- 
ment does  not,  however,  stand  in  the  way  of  his  having  other 
objects  to  accomplish  at  the  same  time.  Rome  was  then  regarded 
as  second  only  to  Jerusalem  in  sacredness.  The  soil  was  supposed 
to  be  hallowed,  not  only  by  the  graves  of  thousands  of  martyrs, 
and  many  Roman  bishops,  but  of  the  apostles  Peter  and  Paul. 
Pilgrims  came  in  multitudes,  sometimes  two  hundred  thousand  at  a 
time,  to  visit  this  sacred  city. 

Staupitz,  who  had  interested  himself  so  deeply  in  Luther's  wel- 

*  The  publishers  of  his  works  offered  him  four  hundred  florins  a  year,  if  he  would  give  them 
his  manuscripts ;  but  he  refused  '  to  make  merchandise  of  the  gifts  with  which  God  had  endowed 
him.' 


MARTIN   LUTHER.  121 

fare  ever  since  his  first  acquaintance  with  him,  and  who,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  church,  had  undertaken  to  guide  his  steps,  was 
not  disappointed  in  the  hopes  he  had  entertained  of  his  young 
friend.  He  had  already  made  him  reader  at  table  in  the  monastery, 
substituting  the  Scriptures  in  the  place  of  Augustine's  writings, 
which  had  hitherto  been  read  to  the  monks  during  meal  times.  He 
was  raised  to  the  rank  of  licentiate  in  theology  (the  next  degree 
above  sententiarius),  the  4th  of  October,  1512,  and  finally  to  the 
degree  of  doctor  of  divinity,  on  the  19th  of  the  same  month.  His 
reluctance  to  receive  this  honor  (or  rather  office  as  it  then  was), 
appears  to  have  been  not  less  than  that  which  he  felt  when  it  was 
proposed  to  make  him  preacher.  It  was  manifested  in  a  similar 
way,  and  overcome  by  similar  arguments.  In  his  letter  of  invita- 
tion to  the  Erfurt  convent  to  attend  the  ceremony,  he  says,  he  is 
to  receive  the  degree  *  out  of  obedience  to  the  fathers  and  the  vicar.' 
In  a  dedicatory  epistle  to  the  Elector  Frederic,  written  several  years 
after,  he  says :  '  At  your  expense  was  the  doctor's  hat  placed  upon 
my  witless  head,  an  honor  at  which  I  blush,  but  which  I  am  con- 
strained to  bear  because  those  whom  it  is  my  duty  to  obey  would 
have  it  so.'  Among  the  letters  of  Luther  is  found  the  receipt  which 
he  signed  for  the  fifty  florins  furnished  him  by  the  elector  for  pay- 
ing the  costs  of  the  degree.  A  doctor's  ring  of  massive  gold  was 
presented  to  him  by  the  elector  at  the  same  time,  which  is  still  to 
be  seen  in  the  library  of  Wolfenbiittel.  On  the  19th  of  October 
the  ceremony  was  performed  with  great  pomp,  with  solemn  proces- 
sion and  the  ringing  of  the  great  bell.  This  appointment — for  it 
was  not  a  mere  honor — given  him  by  the  united  voice  of  his  reli- 
gious superiors,  his  sovereign,  and  the  university,  he  construed,  and 
ever  after  regarded,  as  a  Divine  call  to  teach  religion  in  the  most 
public  manner.  '  I  was  called,'  says  he,  *  and  forced  to  the  office, 
and  was  obliged,  from  the  duty  of  obedience,  to  be  doctor  contrary 
to  my  will,  .  .  .  and  to  promise  with  an  oath  to  teach  purely  and 
sincerely  according  to  the  Scriptures.'  Tubingen  and  Wittenberg 
were  the  only  universities  where  such  an  oath  was  required.  Under 
this  oath,  administered  to  him  by  Carlstadt,  Luther  claimed  the 
right  to  appeal  to  the  Bible  as  the  only  ultimate  authority,  and  thus 
formally  did  he  plant  himself  upon  the  fundamental  principle  of 
Protestantism. 

The  period  of  about  two  years  immediately  following  the  date 
above-mentioned,  appears  to  have  been  chiefly  taken  up  in  prepar- 
ing for  his  lectures,  and  in  acquiring  the  original  languages  of  the 
Bible.  The  only  events  mentioned  in  connection  with  him  during 


122  MARTIN   LUTHER. 

that  time,  are  a  disputation,  in  1512,  by  a  candidate  for  the  first 
degree  in  theology,  and  another  in  1513,  for  the  second  degree,  at 
both  of  which  he  was  the  presiding  officer.  Such  things  were  of 
frequent  occurrence  with  him  at  a  later  period.  Inasmuch  as  it  is 
evident  that  Luther  knew  little  of  Greek  or  Hebrew  before  the  yea* 
1513,  whereas  we  find  him  making  use  of  both  with  some  facility 
the  next  year,  the  inference  is  plain,  that  he  must  have  studied 
them  zealously  about  this  time.  Mathesius  represents  Luther  as 
'  spelling  out  the  words  of  the  Bible '  after  he  commenced  lecturing 
upon  it.  The  first  books  on  which  he  lectured  were  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans  and  the  Psalms,  which  the  same  biographer  informs  us 
took  place  immediately  after  he  was  made  doctor. 

In  the  Wolfenbiittel  library  is  preserved  Luther's  copy  of  the 
Psalms  in  Hebrew,  printed  on  a  quarto  page,  in  the  centre  of  which 
stands  the  Hebrew  text,  with  wide  spaces  between  the  lines.  On 
the  broad  margin  and  between  the  lines  are  to  be  seen  the  notes, 
in  Latin,  of  his  first  lecture  on  this  book,  delivered  probably  in 
1513.  It  is  believed  that  he  caused  copies  to  be  printed  in  this 
form  for  the  greater  convenience  of  the  students  in  taking  notes 
and  connecting  them  with  the  words  of  the  text.  The  great  value 
of  this  singular  book  consists  in  the  record  it  contains  of  Luther's 
religious  and  theological  views  at  that  period.  Jiirgens,  who  has 
carefully  examined  this  earliest  of  Luther's  Scripture  expositions 
which  have  been  preserved — it  exists  only  in  manuscript,  and  in 
Luther's  hand-writing — remarks:  'It  contains  the  clearest  indica- 
tions how  little  Luther  had  advanced  in  biblical  interpretation ;  and 
yet  it  occasionally  points  to  the  way  in  which  he  afterwards  became 
so  eminent  as  an  expositor  of  Scripture.  We  refer  particularly  to 
his  disposition  to  go  back  to  the  original  sources.  But  he  appears 
still  to  be  without  a  competent  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew.  He 
makes  use  of  a  defective  Latin  translation,  agreeing  with  the  Vul- 
gate, and  adheres  closely  to  it,  though  he  knows  the  Hebrew  text, 
and  constantly  refers  to  it  as  well  as  to  the  Greek  version.' 

The  little  information  we  have  respecting  Luther  from  the  begin- 
ning of  1515,  to  the  beginning  of  1516,  may  be  regarded  as  indi- 
rect evidence  that  he  was  going  steadily  and  prosperously  on  in  the 
course  he  had  begun,  constantly  accumulating  that  power  and  influ- 
ence which  was  so  soon  to  be  put  in  requisition.  The  interest  he 
felt  in  the  controversy  which  was  then  raging  between  Reuchlin  and 
the  stupid  Dominicans  at  Cologne,  in  respect  to  the  utility  of  the 
study  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  languages,  and  the  advancement 
which  he  himself  made  in  the  knowledge  of  these  languages  about 


MARTIX   LUTHER.  123 

this  time,  put  it  beyond  doubt  that  the  lectures  which  he  delivered 
on  the  various  books  of  the  Bible  were  founded,  more  and  more, 
on  the  original  Hebrew  and  Greek  Scriptures.  He  also  continued 
earnestly  engaged  in  academic  disputations,  for,  from  some  of  the 
older  professors,  he  still  met  with  opposition.  During  this  year, 
he  was  made  dean  of  the  theological  faculty,  and  under  him,  ac- 
cording to  the  university  records,  a  large  number  of  Augustinian 
eremites  received  their  degrees  in  theology.  Odelkop,  who  heard 
his  lectures,  particularly  those  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  at  this 
time,  says  Luther  diligently  prosecuted  his  studies  and  preached, 
and  delivered  lectures  and  held  debates.  In  this  year  were  preached 
the  first  three  discourses  of  his  which  have  been  preserved.  In 
these  he  manifests  decided  progress  in  the  clearness  and  solidity  of 
his  religious  views.  In  the  first  of  those  discourses,  he  strongly 
urges  the  doctrine,  that  piety  consists  not  in  outward  works,  but  in 
an  inward  principle ;  that  an  act,  in  itself  good,  becomes  even  sin- 
ful if  the  motive  be  sinful. 

February  2,  1516,  he  writes  to  his  intimate  friend,  John  Lange, 
prior  of  the  cloister  at  Erfurt,  a  letter  which  strikingly  illustrates 
the  state  of  his  mind  in  respect  to  the  Aristotelian  philosophy,  and 
the  scholastic  theology  founded  upon  it ;  and  also  the  relations  of 
his  old  teachers,  Truttvetter,  or  Jodocus  of  Eisenach,  as  he  gener- 
ally calls  him,  and  Usingen,  both  to  scholasticism  and  to  himself. 
He  writes : 

I  send  the  accompanying  letter,  reverend  father,  to  the  excellent  Jodocus  of 
Eisenach,  lull  of  positions  against  [the  Aristotelian]  logic,  philosophy  and  the- 
ology, that  is,  full  of  blasphemies  and  maledictions  against  Aristotle,  Porphyry, 

and  the  seutentiarists,  the  pernicious  study  of  this  our  ajre See  that 

these  be  put  into  his  hands,  and  take  pains  to  find  out  what  he  and  all  the  rest 
think  of  me  in  this  matter,  and  let  me  know.  I  have  no  other  more  eager 
desire  than  to  make  known  to  many,  and,  if  I  have  time,  to  show  to  all,  how 
ignominiously  that  old  actor,  under  his  Greek  mask,  playeth  and  maketh  pas- 
time with  the  church My  greatest  sorrow  is,  that  I  am  constrained  to 

see  brethren  of  good  parts  and  of  gifts  qualifying  them  for  study,  spend  their 
time  and  waste  their  lives  in  such  vain  pursuits,  while  the  universities  cease 
not  to  burn  and  to  condemn  good  books,  and  then  make,  or  rather  dream  out 
new  ones  in  their  room.  I  wish  Usingen  as  well  as  Truttvetter  would  leave  off 
these  studies,  or  at  least  be  more  moderate  therein.  My  shelves  are  stored  with 
weapons  against  their  writing,  which  I  find  to  be  utterly  useless ;  and  all  others 
would  see  the  same,  were  they  not  bound  to  a  more  than  Pythagorean  silence. 

In  April  1516  to  November  1517,  Luther  was  made  Vicar  of  his 
Order  in  Saxony  and  Thuringia.  Immediately  after  his  appoint- 
ment he  set  out  upon  a  journey  of  visitation,  and  passed  the  last  of 
April,  all  of  May  and  the  beginning  of  June  in  going  from  cloister 
to  cloister  in  his  province,  regulating  discipline,  encouraging  educa- 
tion and  the  study  of  the  Bible  in  particular,  dismissing  unskillful 
priors  and  appointing  others  in  their  place. 


124 


MARTIN  LUTHER. 


The  first  monastery  he  visited  was  that  of  Grrimma,  near  Leipsic, 
and  still  nearer  the  nunnery  of  Nimptschen,  where  Catharine  von 
Bora,  Luther's  future  wife,  then  a  girl  of  sixteen,  was  nun.  As 
Staupitz  and  Link  accompanied  Luther  to  this  place,  and  as  the 
former  performed  in  this  instance  the  duties  of  visitation,  it  would 
seem  that  Luther  was  here  practically  initiated  into  his  new  calling. 
While  they  were  thus  engaged  at  Grimma,  Tetzel  made  his  appear- 
ance in  the  adjacent  town  of  Wurtzen,  and  practiced  his  arts  in 
selling  indulgences  so  shamelessly  as  to  arouse  the  indignation  of 
both  Luther  and  Staupitz.  This  is  the  time  when  the  former 
resolved  to  expose  the  traffic,  and  threatened  '  to  make  a  hole  in 
Tetzel's  drum  ' 

We  next  find  him  in  Dresden,  examining  the  state  of  the  monas- 
tery of  the  Augustinians  in  that  place.  Here  he  writes  a  letter, 
May  1,  to  the  prior  in  Mainz,  requesting  him  to  send  back  to  Dres- 
den a  runaway  monk. 

'For,'  says  he,  'that  lost  sheep  belongeth  to  me.  It  is  my  duty  to  find  him 
and  bring  him  back  from  his  wanderings,  if  so  it  please  the  Lord  Jesus.  I 
entreat  you,  therefore,  reverend  father,  by  our  common  faith  in  Christ,  and  by 
our  profession,  to  send  him  unto  me,  if  in  your  kindness  you  can,  either  at 
Dresden  or  Wittenberg,  or  rather  persuade  him,  and  affectionately  and  kindly 
move  him  to  come  of  his  own  accord.  I  will  meet  him  with  open  arms,  if  he 
will  but  return.  He  need  not  fear  that  he  has  offended  me.  I  know  full  well 
that  offenses  must  come;  nor  is  it  strange  that  a  man  should  fall  It  is  rather 
strange  that  he  should  rise  again  and  stand.  Peter  fell,  that  he  might  know  he 
was  but  a  man.  At  the  present  day,  also,  the  cedars  of  Lebanon,  whose  sum- 
mits reach  the  skies,  fall.  The  angels  fell  in  heaven,  and  Adam  in  paradise. 
Is  it  then  strange  that  a  reed  should  quiver  in  the  breeze,  and  the  smoking 
lamp  be  put  out?' 

Luther  thus  writes  to  Mutianus,  a  great  classical  and  belles-letters 
scholar  in  Gotha,  whom  he  had  known  when  a  student  at  Erfurt : 

I  must  now  go  where  my  duty  calleth  me,  but  not  without  first  saluting  you, 
though  from  a  sense  of  my  ignorance  and  uncouth  style,  I  shrink  from  it.  But 
my  affection  for  you  overcometh  my  modesty ;  and  that  rustic  Corydon,  Martin, 
barbarous  and  accustomed  only  to  cackle  among  the  geese,  saluteth  you,  the 
scholar,  the  man  of  the  most  polished  erudition.  Yet  I  am  sure,  or  certainly 
presume  that  Mutianus  valueth  the  heart  above  the  tongue  or  pen ;  and  my 
heart  is  sufficiently  erudite,  for  it  is  sufficiently  devoted  to  you.  Farewell,  most 
excellent  father  in  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  be  not  forgetful  of  me. 

Postscript  One  thing  I  wish  you  to  know:  Father  John  Lange,  whom  you 
have  known  as  a  Greek  and  Latin  scholar,  and  what  is  more,  as  a  man  of  a 
pure  heart,  hath  now  lately  been  made  prior  of  the  Erfurt  convent  by  me. 
Unto  man  commend  him  by  a  friendly  word,  and  unto  God  by  your  prayers. 

The  following  extracts  from  a  letter  to  Lange,  written  in  August, 
from  Kemburg,  when  professors  and  students  had  fled  from  the 
epidemic  in  Wittenberg,  shows  the  multiplicity  of  his  engagements  : 

I  am  the  preacher  of  the  cloister ;  I  am  reader  at  the  table ;  I  am  required 
every  day  to  be  parish-preacher ;  I  am  director  of  the  studies  of  the  brethren ; 
I  am  vicar,  that  is,  eleven  times  prior;  I  am  inspector  of  the  fish-ponds  in 
Litzkau ;  I  am  advocate  for  the  Hertzebergers  in  Torgau ;  I  am  lecturer  on 
Paul;  I  am  commentator  on  the  Psalms;  and,  as  I  have  said,  the  greater  part 


MARTIN  LUTHER.  125 

of  my  time  is  occupied  in  writing  letters.  I  seldom  have  time  for  the  canoni- 
cal hours  and  for  the  mass,  to  say  nothing  of  the  temptations  of  the  flesh,  the 
world,  and  the  devil.  You  see  what  a  man  of  leisure  I  am.  Concerning 
brother  John  Metzel,  I  think  rny  opinion  and  reply  have  already  reached  you. 
Nevertheless,  I  will  see  what  I  can  do.  How  do  you  suppose  lean  find  a  place 
for  all  your  Sardauapaluses  and  sybarites  [easy  monks]  ?  If  you  have  trained 
them  up  wrong,  you  must  support  them  after  thus  training  them.  I  have  use- 
less brethren  enough  everywhere,  if  any  can  be  useless  to  a  patient  mind. 
There  are  now  twenty-two  priests  and  twelve  youths,  forty-one  persons  in  all, 
who  live  upon  our  more  than  most  scanty  stores.  But  the  Lord  will  provide. 
You  say  you  began  yesterday  [to  lecture]  upon  the  second  part  of  Lombard's 
Sentences.  To-morrow,  1  shall  begin  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians.  Albeit, 
I  fear  the  plague  will  not  sutler  me  to  go  on.  It  taketh  away  two  or  three 
each  several  day.  A  son  of  our  neighbor,  Faber,  opposite,  who  was  well  yes- 
terday, is  carried  to  his  burial  to-day.  Another  son  lieth  infected.  What  shall 
I  say  ?  It  is  already  here,  and  hath  begun  to  rage  suddenly  and  vehemently — 
especially  with  the  young.  You  ask  me  and  Bartholomew  [Feldkirk]  to  flee 
with  you.  Whither  shall  I  flee?  I  hope  the  world  will  not  fall  to  pieces  if 
brother  Martin  do  fall.  The  brethren  I  shall  disperse  throughout  all  the  coun- 
try, if  the  pestilence  should  prevail.  But  I  am  placed  here,  and  my  duty  of 
obedience  will  not  allow  me  to  flee,  until  the  authority  which  commanded  me 
hither  shall  command  me  away. 

In  a  letter  to  Lange,  dated  March  1,  after  mentioning  that  he 
sends  Didymus,  *  who  is  still  ignorant  of  the  usages  of  the  order/ 
to  Erfurt,  arid  that  he  is  about  to  publish  his  translation  and  expo- 
sition of  the  Penitential  Psalms,  he  proceeds  to  say : 

I  am  reading  our  Erasmus,  and  my  esteem  for  him  groweth  less  every  day. 

With  him,  what  is  of  man  prevaileth  over  what  is  of  God.     Though  I 

am  loth  to  judge  him.  I  must  admonish  you  not  to  read  his  works ;  or  rather, 
not  to  receive  all  he  saith  without  examination.  These  are  dangerous  times, 
and  I  perceive  that  a  man  is  not  to  be  esteemed  truly  wise  because  he  under- 
standeth  Greek  and  Hebrew ;  seeing  that  St.  Jerome,  with  his  five  languages, 
did  not  match  Augustine  with  one — though  to  Erasmus  it  may  seem  otherwise. 

This  opinion  of  him  I  keep  hid,  lest  I  should  strengthen  the  opposition 

of  his  enemies  [t  he  monks  and  priests].  Perhaps  the  Lord,  in  due  time,  will 
give  him  understanding. 

We  omit  his  collision  with  Tetzel,  the  Pope  and  Emperor,  as  be- 
longing to  the  theological  side  of  his  career  and  character,  although 
of  amazing  importance  in  the  history  of  modern  society,  and  pass 
to  his  introduction  to  Melancthon,  in  1518,  who  from  that  date  be- 
came his  intimate  and  influential  friend.  When  the  negotiations 
which  had  been  entered  into  with  Mosellanus,  of  Leipsic,  in  respect 
to  the  Greek  professorship,  were  broken  off,  in  July,  1518,  the  elec- 
tor applied  to  Reuchlin,  then  residing  at  Stuttgard,  to  recommend 
two  professors,  one  for  the  Greek  and  one  for  the  Hebrew  language. 
Reuchlin  recommended  Melancthon  for  the  former,  and  CEcolampa- 
dius  for  the  latter.  Melancthon  was  at  that  time  twenty-one  years 
of  age,  and  was  temporarily  occupying  the  chair  of  rhetoric  at  the 
University  of  Tubingen,  but  a  few  miles  from  Reuchlin's  house. 
Being  the  grandson  of  Reuchlin's  sister,  the  young  Melancthon  had 
been  carefully  educated  under  his  direction.  He  distinguished  him- 
self by  his  rapid  acquisitions  in  the  Latin  school  of  Simler  at 


126  MARTIN  LUTHER. 

Pforzheim.  At  Heidelberg,  where  he  entered  the  university  at  the 
age  of  twelve,  he  acquired  the  reputation  of  being  the  best  Greek 
scholar.  At  Tubingen,  to  which,  at  the  end  of  two  years  after 
having  taken  his  first  degree,  he  resorted,  and  where  he  spent  six 
years  in  laborious  study,  he  made  such  extensive  and  various  acqui- 
sitions in  learning  as  to  stand  prominent  above  all  the  youths  of  the 
university.  Destined,  as  he  was,  to  be  the  *  preceptor  of  Germany,' 
it  was  well  that  his  range  of  study  at  Tubingen  was  very  wide. 
Proceeding  from  the  Latin  and  Greek,  as  from  a  common  center, 
he  extended  his  studies  to  history,  rhetoric,  logic,  mathematics, 
philosophy,  theology,  law,  and  even  to  the  leading  medical  writers, 
and  attended  lectures  on  all  these  subjects.  He  not  only  warmly 
espoused  the  cause  of  Reuchlin,  as  the  representative  of  Greek  and 
Hebrew  literature,  and  its  persecuted  but  victorious  defender  against 
the  ignorant  Dominican  monks  of  Cologne,  but  he  made  himself 
familiar,  even  from  boyhood,  with  the  New  Testament,  in  the  orig- 
inal— a  copy  of  which,  received  as  a  present  from  Reuchlin,  he 
always  carried  about  his  person.  Reuchlin,  in  his  reply  to  the  elec- 
tor, said  he  knew  of  no  German  who  was  Melancthon's  superior, 
except  it  be  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam.  July  24,  1518,  Reuchlin 
wrote  to  his  young  kinsman :  "  I  have  received  a  letter  from  the 
elector,  offering  you  a  place  and  a  salary ;  and  I  will  apply  to  you 
th'e  promise  of  God  made  to  Abraham :  '  Get  thee  out  of  thy 
country,  &c. ;  and  I  will  make  thee  a  great  nation,  and  thou  shalt 
be  blessed.'  So  I  prophesy  of  thee,  my  dear  Philip,  who  art  my 
care  and  my  comfort." 

He  went  by  way  of  Augsburg,  in  order  to  see  the  elector  there 
before  he  should  leave  the  diet,  then  in  session.  On  leaving  Augs- 
burg, Melancthon  proceeded  to  Nuremberg,  where  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Pirkheimer  and  Scheurl,  and  then  pursued  his  way 
to  Leipsic,  where  he  saw  the  young  Greek  professor  Mosellanus, 
and  on  the  25th  of  August,  1518,  reached  Wittenberg.  Luther's 
joy,  on  learning  what  an  acquisition  was  made  to  Wittenberg  in 
this  remarkable  young  man,  was  great ;  and  never  had  he  occasion 
to  abate  his  admiration.  Iri  the  very  next  letter  after  the  one  last 
quoted  from  him,  under  date  of  August  31,  he  writes  to  Spalatin, 
still  in  Augsburg  with  the  elector :  '  As  touching  our  Philip  Melanc- 
thon, be  assured  all  is  done,  or  shall  be,  which  you  desire  in  your 
letter.  He  pronounced  an  [inaugural]  oration  on  the  fourth  day 
after  his  arrival  here  [in  which  he  set  forth  the  new  method  of 
study  in  contrast  with  the  old  scholastic  method],  full  of  learning 
and  force,  meeting  with  such  favor  and  admiration  in  all,  that  you 


MARTIN  LUTHER. 


127 


m«y  now  leave  off  all  anxiety  in  commending  him  unto  us.  We 
soon  lost  the  feeling  produced  by  his  [small]  stature  and  [his  weak 
bodily]  frame ;  and  now  we  do  wonder  and  rejoice  at  that  which 
we  find  in  him,  and  thank  the  illustrious  prince  and  yourself  for 
what  you  have  done.  You  have  need  rather  to  inquire  in  what 
study  he  may  render  himself  most  acceptable  to  our  prince.  With 
his  consent  and  approval,  I  would  choose  that  Philip  be  made 
Greek  professor.  I  only  have  fears  that  his  feeble  health  will  not 
abide  the  severity  of  our  climate.  I  hear,  furthermore,  that  he 
receiveth  too  small  a  stipend,  so  that  the  men  at  Leipsic  are  hoping 
to  get  him  away  from  us.  He  was  beset  by  them  on  his  way  to 
this  place.' 

September  2,  he  writes  to  the  same,  informing  him  that  the  stu- 
dents, now  eagerly  pursuing  the  new  studies  and  hearing,  by  way 
of  preference,  lectures  on  the  Bible  and  the  ancient  languages,  com- 
plain that,  before  receiving  their  degrees,  they  are  required  to  at- 
tend useless  courses  of  lectures  on  scholastic  theology.  Luther  and 
his  friends  desired  that  those  studies  be  made  optional,  and  that 
persons  be  admitted  to  the  degrees  in  theology  on  passing  a  regular 
examination  on  the  new  branches  of  study  introduced  by  him, 
Melancthon  and  others.  He  closes  by  saying,  '  I  commend  unto 
you  heartily  the  most  Attic,  the  most  erudite,  the  most  elegant 
Melancthon.  His  lecture-room  is  full,  and  more  than  full.  He 
inflameth  all  our  theologians,  highest,  lowest  and  midst,  with  a  love 
of  Greek.' 

On  the  9th  of  the  same  month,  he  writes  to  Lange :  '  The  very 
learned  and  most  Grecian  Philip  Melancthon  is  professor  of  Greek 
here,  a  mere  boy  or  stripling,  if  you  regard  his  age,  but  one  of  us 
if  you  consider  the  abundance  of  his  learning  and  his  knowledge 
of  almost  all  books.  He  is  not  only  skilled  in  both  languages, 
[Latin  and  Greek,  then  a  rare  thing],  but  is  learned  in  each.  Nor 
is  he  wholly  ignorant  of  Hebrew.' 

The  following  passages  from  an  account  by  Kepler,  of  St.  Gall, 
of  his  interview  with  Luther  at  the  Black  Bear  at  Jena,  is  charac- 
teristic of  the  man  and  the  times : 

Though  it  may  seem  trifling  and  childish,  I  can  not  omit  mentioning  how 
Martin  met  me  and  my  companion,  when  he  was  riding  from  the  place  of  his 
captivity  toward  Wittenberg.  As  we  were  journeying  toward  Wittenberg,  for 
the  sake  of  studying  the  Holy  Scriptures — and  the  Lord  knows  what  a  furious 
tempest  there  was — we  came  to  Jena,  in  Thuringia,  where  we  could  not,  with 
all  our  inquiry  in  the  town,  find  or  hear  of  any  place  to  lodge  for  the  night, 
but  wereevery where  refused,  for  it  was  carnival,  during  which  little  heed  is 
given  to  pilgrims  or  strangers.  We,  therefore,  left  the  town  again,  to  proceed 
farther  on  our  way,  thinking  we  might  perhaps  find  a  hamlet  where  we  could 
pass  the  night.  At  the  gate  of  the  city  we  met  a  respectable  man,  who 


128  MARTIN    LUTHER. 

accosted  us  in  a  friendly  manner,  and  asked  us  where  we  were  going  so  late. 
....  He  then  asked  us  whether  we  had  inquired  at  the  Black  Bear  hotel.  .  . 

He  pointed  it  out  to  us  a  little  distance  without  the  city The  innkeeper 

met  us  at  the  door  and  received  us,  and  led  us  into  the  room.  Here  we  found 
a  man  at  the  table,  sitting  alone,  with  a  small  book  lying  before  him,  who 
greeted  us  kindly,  and  invited  us  to  take  a  seat  with  him  at  the  table;  for  our 
shoes  were  so  muddy  that  we  were  ashamed  to  enter  the  room,  and  therefore 

slunk  away  upon  a  bench  behind  the  door We  took  him  to  be  no  other 

than  a  knight,  as  he  had  on,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  country,  a  red  cap, 
small  clothes  and  a  doublet,  and  a  sword  at  his  side,  on  which  he  leaned,  with 
one  hand  on  the  pommel  and  the  other  on  the  hilt.  He  asked  us  whence  we 
were,  but  immediately  answered  himself,  'You  are  Swiss;  from  what  part  of 
Switzerland  are  you?'  We  replied,  'St.  Gall.'  He  then  said,  'If,  as  I  suppose, 
you  are  on  your  way  to  Wittenberg,  you  will  find  good  countrymen  of  yours 
there,  namely,  Jerome  Schurf  and  his  brother  Augustine;'  whereupon  we  said, 
'We  have  letters  to  them.'  We  now  asked  him  in  turn,  if  he  could  give  us 
any  information  about  Martin  Luther — whether  he  is  now  at  Wittenberg  or  else- 
where. He  said,  '  I  have  certain  knowledge  that  he  is  not  now  at  Wittenberg, 
but  will  soon  be  there.  But  Philip  Melancthon  is  there,  as  teacher  of  Greek, 
and  others  teach  Hebrew.'  He  recommended  to  us  to  study  both  languages, 
as  necessary  above  all  things  to  understand  the  Scriptures.  We  said,  'Thank 
God,  we  shall  then  see  and  hear  the  man  [Luther]  on  whose  account  we  have 
undertaken  this  journey.'  ....  He  then  asked  us  where  we  had  formerly 
studied;  and,  as  we  replied  at  Basle,  he  inquired  how  things  were  going  on 
there,  and  what  Erasmus  was  doing.  '  Erasmus  is  still  there,  but  what  he  is 
about  no  one  knoweth,  for  he  keepeth  himself  very  quiet  and  secluded.'  We 
were  much  surprised  at  the  knight,  that  he  should  know  the  Schurfs,  Melanc- 
thon and  Erasmus,  and  that  he  should  speak  of  the  necessity  of  studying 
Greek  and  Hebrew.  At  times,  too,  he  made  use  of  Latin  words,  so  that  we 
began  to  think  he  was  something  more  than  a  common  knight. 

'Sir,'  said  he,  'what  do  men  in  Switzerland  think  of  Luther?'  We  replied, 
'Variously,  as  everywhere  else.  Some  can  not  sufficiently  bless  and  praise  God 
that  he  hath,  through  this  man,  made  known  his  truth  and  exposed  error; 
others  condemn  him  as  an  intolerable  heretic.'  '  Especially  the  clergy,'  inter- 
rupted he, — '  I  doubt  not  these  are  the  priests.'  By  this  conversation  we  were 
made  to  feel  ourselves  quite  at  home,  and  my  companion  [Reutiner]  took  the 
book  that  lay  before  him,  and  looked  into  it,  and  found  it  was  a  Hebrew 
psalter.  He  soon  laid  it  down  again,  and  the  knight  took  it.  This  increased 
our  curiosity  to  know  who  he  was.  When  the  day  declined  and  it  grew  dark, 
our  host,  knowing  our  desire  and  longing  after  Luther,  came  to  the  table  and 
said,  'Friends,  had  you  been  here  two  days  ago,  you  could  have  had  your 
desire,  for  he  sat  here  at  this  table,'  pointing  to  the  seat.  We  were  provoked 
with  ourselves  that  we  were  too  late,  and  poured  out  our  displeasure  against 
the  bad  roads  which  had  hindered  us.  After  a  little  while,  the  host  called  me 
to  the  door,  and  said,  '  Since  you  manifest  so  earnest  a  desire  to  see  Luther,  you 
must  know  that  it  is  he  who  is  seated  by  you.  I  took  these  words  as  spoken 
in  jest,  and  said,  '  You,  to  please  me,  give  me  a  false  joy  at  seeing  Luther.'  '  It 
is  indeed  he,'  replied  my  host,  'but  make  as  if  you  did  not  know  it.'  I  went 
back  into  the  room  and  to  the  table,  and  desired  to  tell  my  companion  what  I 
had  heard,  and  turned  to  him,  and  said  in  a  whisper,  '  Our  host  hath  told  me 
that  this  is  Luther.'  He,  like  myself,  was  incredulous.  '  Perhaps  he  said  Hut- 
ten,  and  you  misunderstood  him.'  As  now  the  knight's  dress  comported  better 
with  the  character  of  Hutten  than  with  that  of  a  monk,  I  was  persuaded  that 
he  said  it  was  Hutten.  [Two  merchants  now  came  in,  and  they  all  supped 
together]  Our  host  came,  meanwhile,  to  us,  and  said  in  a  whisper,  'Don't  be 
concerned  about  the  cost,  for  Martin  hath  paid  the  bill.'  We  rejoiced,  not  so 
much  for  the  gift  of  the  supper,  as  for  the  honor  of  being  entertained  by  such  a 
man.  After  supper  the  merchants  went  to  the  stable  to  see  to  their  horses, 
and  Martin  remained  with  us  in  the  room.  We  thanked  him  for  the  honor 
shown  us,  and  gave  him  to  understand  that  we  took  him  for  Ulrich  von  Hutten. 
But  he  said,  'I  am  not  he'  Just  then  came  in  our  host,  and  Martin  said  to 
him,  '  I  have  become  a  nobleman  to-night,  for  these  Swiss  hold  me  to  be  Ulrich 


MARTIN  LUTHER. 


129 


von  Hutten.'  The  host  replied,  'You  are  not  he,  but  Martin  Luther.'  He 
laughed,  and  said  jocosely,  '  They  hold  me  to  be  Hutten,  and  you  say  I  am 
Luther;  I  shall  next  be  Marcolfus,'  [a  notorious  character  in  the  monkish 
legends].  Afterward  he  took  up  a  large  beer  glass,  and  said,  '  Swiss,  now 
drink  me  a  health;'  and  then  arose,  threw  around  him  bis  mantle,  and,  giving 
us  his  hand,  took  leave  of  us,  saying,  '  When  you  come  to  Wittenberg,  greet 
Dr.  Jerome  Schurf  for  me.'  'Very  gladly,'  said  we;  'but  whom  shall  we  call 
you,  that  he  may  understand  us?'  He  replied,  'Say  only  this,  he  who  is  to 
corne,  sendeth  you  greeting,'  and  he  will  understand  it.  ...  On  Saturday,  we 
went  to  the  house  of  Schurf  to  present  our  letters;  and  when  we  were  con- 
ducted into  the  room,  behold  we  found  Martin  there  as  at  Jena,  and  with  him 
Melancthon.  Justus  Jonas,  Nicholas  Amsdorf,  and  Dr.  Augustine  Schurf, 
rehearsing  to  -him  what  had  taken  place  at  Wittenberg  during  his  absence. 
He  greeted  us,  and  smiling  said,  'This  is  Philip  Melancthou,  of  whom  we  spoke.' 
Melancthon  turned  to  us  and  asked  us  many  questions,  to  which  we  replied  as 
well  as  we  could.  So  we  spent  the  day  with  them  with  great  delight  and  grat- 
ification on  our  part. 

In  1525  (June  13),  Luther  was  married  to  Catharine  von  Bora — 
he  at  the  age  of  42,  and  she  of  26.  The  marriage  was  highly 
offensive  to  the  generally  received  opinions  of  the  age — both  hav- 
ing taken  the  vows  of  celibacy,  but  was  a  natural  sequence  of  the 
views  which  they  now  held  of  Christian  and  social  duty.  His  sym- 
pathizing friends  were  invited  to  dinner,  and  the  city  presented 
Luther  several  casks  of  beer,  and  the  university  gave  a  large  silver 
tankard,  plated  with  gold,  weighing  five  pounds  and  a  quarter, 
which  is  now  in  possession  of  the  University  of  Griefswald.  His 
correspondence  shows  that  his  domestic  feelings  were  tender,  and 
his  love  considerate.  He  somewhere  says, '  I  expect  more  from  my 
Katy  and  from  Melancthon  than  I  do  from  Christ  my  Lord,  and 
yet  1  well  know  that  neither  they  nor  any  one  on  earth  hath  suf- 
fered, or  can  suffer,  what  he  hath  suffered  for  me.'  Molsdorf,  a  for- 
mer member  of  Luther's  household,  says,  '  I  remember  that  Dr. 
Luther  used  to  say,  that  he  congratulated  himself  with  all  his  soul 
that  God  had  given  him  a  modest  and  prudent  wife,  who  took  such 
excellent  care  of  his  health.'  '  How  I  longed  after  my  family,'  says 
Luther,  '  when  I  lay  at  the  point  of  death  in  Smalcald !  I  thought 
I  should  never  again  see  my  wife  and  child.  How  painful  would 
such  a  separation  have  been  !' 

When  Luther  was  at  Coburg,  in  1530,  he  heard  of  the  illness  of 
his  father,  and  yet  his  own  life  was  in  such  peril  that  he  could  not 
safely  make  the  journey  to  see  him.  At  this,  both  he  and  Catha^ 
rine  were  much  distressed.  Soon  afterwards,  the  news  of  his  fath- 
er's death  reached  him.  '  I  have  heard,'  he  says  to  Link,  *  of  the, 
death  of  my  father,  who  was  so  dear  and  precious  to  me.'  Catl^ 
rine,  to  comfort  him,  sent  him  a  likeness  of  his  favorite  daughter 
Magdalene,  then  one  year  old.  *  You  have  done  a  good  deed,'  says 
Veit  Dietrich,  Luther's  amanuensis,  '  in  sending  the  likeness  to  the 

9 


130  MARTIN  LUTHER. 

doctor  ;  for  by  it  many  of  his  gloomy  thoughts  are  dissipated.  He 
hath  placed  it  on  the  wall  over  against  the  dining-table.' 

There  is  a  vein  of  drollery  and  playfulness  in  all  his  letters  rela- 
ting to  his  domestic  life.  In  one  of  his  letters  to  his  wife  he  ad- 
dresses her  as '  my  Lord  .Katy  '  (meus  Dominus,  <fec.)  which  furnished 
pleasant  amusement  to  his  university  friends  and  the  students,  some 
of  whom  were  generally  members  of  his  family.  He  once  gave 
out  a  similar  phrase  in  German  to  a  student  in  his  examination  to 
translate  into  Latin,  and  the  answer  contained  such  a  ridiculous 
blunder  that  it  long  continued  a  by-word.  Luther  closes  one  of  his 
letters  to  an  old  friend  by  saying,  *  My  lord  and  Moses  [the  law- 
giver] Katy  most  humbly  greeteth  you.'  He  also  in  a  letter  to  his 
wife,  addressed  her  as  '  My  kind  and  dear  lord  and  master  Katy 
Lutheress  [Lutherinn],  doctress  and  priestess  at  Wittenberg.' 

If  we  wish  to  see  his  creed  in  respect  to  a  wife's  place  in  a  house- 
hold, we  have  it  undoubtedly  in  these  words,  addressed  once  to  his 
Katy,  as  he  was  fond  of  calling  her:  'You  may  persuade  me  to 
any  thing  you  wish  ;  you  have  perfect  control ;'  to  which  was  added, 
by  way  of  explanation,  *  in  household  affairs  I  give  you  the  entire 
control,  my  authority  being  unabated.' 

The  following  letter  was  addressed  to  his  son  Johnny  (4  years  old) : 
Grace  and  peace  in  Christ,  my  darling  little  son.  I  am  glad  to  see  that  you 
pray  and  study  diligently.  Go  on  doing  so,  my  Jonny,  and  when  I  come 
home  I  will  bring  with  me  some  fine  things  for  you.  I  know  of  a  beautiful, 
pleasant  garden,  where  many  children  go,  and  have  little  golden  coats,  and 
gather  from  the  trees  fine  apples  and  pears,  and  cherries  and  plums;  they  sing 
and  play,  and  are  happy ;  they  have  beautiful  little  horses  with  golden  bits  and 
silver  saddles.  I  asked  the  owner  of  the  garden,  whose  children  these  were. 
He  replied,  '  They  are  children  which  love  to  pray  and  learn,  and  are  good.'  I 
then  said,  '  Dear  sir,  I,  too,  have  a  son,  whose  name  is  Jonny  Luther.  May 
he  not  also  come  into  the  garden,  that  he  too  may  eat  these  beautiful  apples 
and  pears,  and  ride  on  these  fine  horses,  and  play  with  the  boys?'  The  man 
said,  'If  he  loves  to  pray  and  learn,  and  is  good,  he  shall  come  into  the  gar- 
den, and  Philly  arid  -Jussy  [Philip  and  Justus]  too,  and  when  the}7"  are  all 
together,  they  shall  have  fifes  and  drums  and  lutes,  and  all  kinds  of  music. 
and  dance  and  shoot  with  their  cross-bows.'  And  he  showed  me  a  fine  grass 
plat  in  the  garden  for  dancing,  and  there  were  hanging  nothing  but  golden 
fifes  and  drums  and  fine  silver  cross-bows.  But  it  was  early,  and  the  children 
had  not  yet  dined;  and  as  I  could  not  wait  for  their  dancing,  I  said  to  the  man, 
'0,  my  dear  sir,  I  will  hasten  away,  and  write  all  about  this  to  my  dear  little 
Jonny,  that  he  may  pray  and  learn  diligently,  and  be  good,  and  then  come  into 
this  garden  He  has  an  aunt  Lene  [Magdalene],  and  she  must  come  too.' 
The  man  said,  '  That  is  right,  go  and  write  to  him  so.'  Therefore,  my  dear  little 
Jonny,  learn  and  pray  well,  and  tell  Philip  [Melancthon's  son],  and  Jussy  [Jus- 
tus Jonas's  sonj,  to  learn  and  pray  too.  and  then  you  may  all  come  together 
into  the  garden.  And  now  I  commend  you  to  God.  Greet  aunt  Lene  and 
give  her  a  kiss  for  me. 

Luther  died  at  Eisleben,  Feb.  18,  1546,  at  the  age  of  62  years, 
3  months  and  8  days,  and  his  body  was  deposited  in  the  church  in 
Wittenberg,  after  funeral  addresses  by  Bugenhagen  and  Melancthon. 


LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OE  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS. 

FROM  THE  GERMAN  OF  KARL  VON  RAUMER. 


IF  Melancthon  obtained  the  name  "  Praeceptor  Germanise,"  inasmuch 
as  he  was  a  most  consummate  scholar,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  intellect- 
ual leader,  especially  of  the  literary  class  of  his  countrymen,  then  Luther 
should  be  called  the  pastor  of  his  people,  who,  with  a  strong  faith  and 
an  active  love,  watched,  labored,  and  prayed  that  all  his  beloved  Ger- 
mans, small  and  great,  might  be  led,  by  means  of  pious  discipline  and 
sound  learning,  to  walk  humbly  before  God. 

In  Luther's  writings,  we  find  much  on  the  subject  of  education, 
both  in  sermons,  expositions  of  scripture,  letters,  and  the  table-talk ; 
and  some  of  his  works  treat  of  this  theme  exclusively.  He  appeals, 
now  to  parents,  now  to  magistrates,  and  now  to  teachers, — urges  them, 
each  and  all,  in  the  most  pressing  manner,  to  interest  themselves  in 
children,  while,  at  the  same  time,  he  lays  before  them  blessings  and 
curses, — blessings  on  right  training,  and  curses  on  neglect.  And  with- 
al, he  presents  the  most  admirable  doctrines,  on  the  nature  of  disci- 
pline, the  knowledge  suitable  for  children,  the  best  manner  of  impart- 
ing it,  etc. 

The  following  extracts  from  Luther's  works,  express  his  views,  both 
upon  the  training  and  the  instruction  of  the  young. 

I.    HOME    GOVERNMENT.       TRAINING    OF    CHILDREN. 

Luther  saw  that  good  family  government  was  the  sole,  foundation 
of  good  civil  government  and  of  continued  national  prosperity.  In 
his  exposition  of  Exodus  20  :  12.,  he  says: 

We  have  now  explained,  at  sufficient  length,  how  father  and  mother  are  to 
be  honored,  and  what  this  commandment  includes  and  teaches,  and  have  shown 
of  what  vast  consequence  it  is  in  the  sight  of  God,  that  this  obedience  toward 
father  and  mother  should  become  universal.  Where  this  is  not  the  case,  you 
will  find  neither  good  manners  nor  a  good  government.  For,  where  obedience 
is  not  maintained  at  the  fire-side,  no  power  on  earth  can  insure  to  the  city,  terri- 
tory, principality,  or  kingdom  the  blessings  of  a  good  government ;  and  it  is  there 
that  all  governments  and  dominions  originate.  If  now  the  root  is  corrupt,  it  is 
in  vain  that  you  look  for  a  sound  tree,  or  for  good  fruit. 

For  what  is  a  city,  but  an  assemblage  of  households?  How  then  is  a  whole 
city  to  be  wisely  governed,  when  there  is  no  subordination  in  its  several-  house- 
holds, yea,  when  neither  child,  maid-servant,  nor  man-servant  submit  to  author- 
ity ?  Again,  a  territory :  what  is  it,  other  than  an  assemblage  of  cities,  market- 
towns  and  villages  ?  Where,  now,  the  households  are  lawless  or  mis-governed, 
how  can  the  whole  territory  be  well-governed  ?  yea,  nothing  else  will  appear, 
from  one  end  of  it  to  the  other,  but  tyranny,  witchcraft,  murders,  robberies  and 
disobedience  to  every  law.  Now,  a  principality  is  a  group  of  territories,  or 
counties;  a  kingdom,  a  group  of  principalities;  and  an  empire,  a  groap  of 


132  LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS. 

kingdoms.  Thus,  the  whole  wide  organization  of  an  empire  is  all  woven  out 
of  single  households.-  Wherever,  then,  fathers  and  mothers  slacken  the  reins  of 
family  government,  and  leave  children  to  follow  their  own  headstrong  courses, 
there  it  is  impossible  for  either  city,  market-town  or  village,  either  territory, 
principality,  kingdom  or  empire,  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  a  wise  and  peaceful  gov- 
ernment. For  the  son,  when  grown  up,  becomes  a  father,  a  judge,  a  mayor,  a 
prince,  a  king,  an  emperor,  a  preacher,  a  schoolmaster,  etc.  And,  if  he  has 
been  brought  up  without  restraint,  then  will  the  subjects  become  like  their 
ruler,  the  members  like  their  head. 

For  this  cause,  God  has  established  it  as  a  matter  of  irrevocable  necessity, 
that  men  should  by  all  means  rule  over  their  own  households.  For  where  fam- 
ily government  is  well-ordered  and  judicious,  all  other  forms  of  government  go 
on  prosperously.  And  the  reason  is,  as  we  have  seen,  that  the  whole  human 
race  proceeds  from  the  family.  For  it  has  pleased  God  so  to  ordain,  from  the 
beginning,  that  from  father  and  mother,  all  mankind  should  forever  derive  their 
being. 

The  duties  of  parents  to  their  children  Luther  dwells  upon,  in 
his  exposition  of  the  fifth  commandment. 

Now  let  us  see  what  parents  owe  to  their  children,  if  they  would  be  pa- 
rents in  the  truest  sense.  St.  Paul  in  Eph.  6 :  1, — when  commanding  children 
to  honor  their  parents,  and  setting  forth  the  excellence  of  this  commandment, 
and  its  reasonableness,  says ,  "  children,  obey  your  parents  in  the  Lord."  Hero 
he  intimates  that  parents  should  not  be  such  after  the  flesh  merely,  as  it  is  with 
the  heathen,  but  in  the  Lord.  And,  that  children  may  be  obedient  to  their  pa- 
rents in  the  Lord,  he  adds  this  caution  to  parents,  directly  afterward  in  the 
fourth  verse:  "And,  ye  fathers,  provoke  not  your  children  to  wrath,"  lest  they 
be  discouraged;  "but  bring  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the 
Lord."  The  first  and  foremost  care  that  he  here  enjoins  upon  parents  with  ref- 
erence to  their  children,  in  what  pertains  to  the  mind  and  heart,  (for  of  the 
nurture  of  the  body  he  does  not  speak  here  at  all,)  is,  that  they  provoke  them 
not  to  wrath  and  discouragement.  This  is  a  rebuke  to  such  as  display  a  violent 
and  impetuous  temper  in  the  management  of  their  children.  For,  under  such  an 
evil  discipline,  their  disposition,  while  yet  tender  and  impressible,  becomes  perma 
nently  clouded  with  fear  and  diffidence ;  and  so  there  grows  up  in  their  breasts 
a  hatred  toward  their  parents,  in  so  far  that  they  run  away  from  them,  and  pur- 
sue a  course  that  otherwise  they  never  would  have  entered  upon.  And,  in  truth, 
what  hope  is  there  of  a  child,  who  exercises  hatred  and  mistrust  toward  his  pa- 
rents, and  is  ever  downcast  in  their  presence  ?  Nevertheless  St.  Paul  in  this 
passage  does  not  intend  to  forbid  parents  altogether  from  being  angry  with  their 
children  and  chastening  them ;  but  rather,  that  they  punish  them  in  love,  when 
punishment  is  necessary ;  not,  as  some  do,  in  a  passionate  spirit,  and  without  be- 
stowing a  thought  upon  their  improvement. 

A  child,  who  has  once  become  timid,  sullen  and  dejected  in  spirit,  loses  all 
his  self-reliance,  and  becomes  utterly  unfitted  for  the  duties  of  life ;  and  fears  rise 
up  in  his  path,  so  often  as  any  thing  comes  up  for  him  to  do,  or  to  undertake. 
But  this  is  not  all ; — for,  where  such  a  spirit  of  fear  obtains  the  mastery  over  a 
man  in  his  childhood,  he  will  hardly  be  able  to  rid  himself  of  it  to  the  end  of 
his  days.  For,  if  children  are  accustomed  to  tremble  at  every  word  spoken  by 
their  father  or  mother,  they  will  start  and  quake  forever  after,  even  at  the  rustl- 
ing of  a  leaf.  Neither  should  those  women,  who  are  employed  to  attend  upon 
children,  ever  be  allowed  to  frighten  them  with  their  tricks  and  mummeries, 
and,  above  all,  never  in  the  night-time.  But  parents  ought  much  rather  to  aim 
at  that  sort  of  education  for  their  children,  that  would  inspire  them  with  a 
'wholesome  fear ;  a  fear  of  those  things  that  they  ought  to  fear,  and  not  of  those 
which  only  make  them  cowardly,  and  so  inflict  a  lasting  injury  upon  them. 
Thus  parents  go  too  far  to  the  left.  Now  let  us  consider  how  they  are  led  too  far 
to  the  right. 

St.  Paul  teaches,  further,  that  children  should  be  brought  up  in  the  nurture 
and  admonition  of  the  Lord ;  that  is,  that  they  should  be  instructed  respecting 
that  which  they  ought  to  know,  and  should  be  chastised  when  they  do  not  hold 
to  the  doctrine.  For  instance,  they  need  both  that  you  teach  them  that  which 
they  do  not  know  of  God,  and  also  that  you  punish  them  when  they  will  not 


LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS.  133 

retain  this  knowledge.  Wherefore,  see  to  it,  that  you  cause  your  children  first 
to  be  instructed  in  spiritual  things, — that  you  point  them  first  to  God,  and,  after 
that,  to  the  world.  But  in  these  days,  this  order,  sad  to  say,  is  inverted.  And 
it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at ;  for  parents  themselves  have  not  learned  b}T  their 
own  experience  what  is  this  admonition  of  the  Lord,  nor  do  they  know  much 
about  it  from  hearsay.  Still  we  had  hoped  that  schoolmasters  would  remedy 
this  evil — that  in  school,  at  least,  children  would  learn  something  good,  and 
there  have  the  fear  of  God  implanted  in  their  hearts.  But  this  hope,  too,  has 
come  to  nought.  All  nations,  the  Jews  especially,  keep  their  children  at  school 
more  faithfully  than  Christians.  And  this  is  one  reason  why  Christianity  is  so 
fallen.  For  all  its  hopes  of  strength  and  potency  are  ever  committed  to  the 
generation  that  is  coming  on  to  the  stage  ;  and,  if  this  is  neglected  in  its  youth, 
it  fares  with  Christianity  as  with  a  garden  that  is  neglected  in  the  spring  time. 

For  this  reason  children  must  be  taught  the  doctrine  of  G-od.  But  this  is  the 
doctrine  of  God,  which  you  must  teach  your  children, — namely,  to  know  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  keep  ever  fresh  in  their  remembrance  how  he  has  suffered 
for  our  sakes,  what  he  has  done,  and  what  commanded.  So  the  children  of 
Israel  were  commanded  of  God  to  show  to  their  children,  and  to  the  generation 
to  come,  the  marvelous  things  which  he  did  in  the  sight  of  their  fathers  in  the 
land  of  Egypt. — Psalm  78  :  4,  12.  And  when  they  have  learned  all  this,  but 
nevertheless  do  not  love  God,  nor  acknowledge  their  obligations  to  him  in  grate- 
ful prayer,  nor  imitate  Christ, — then  you  should  lay  before  them  the  admonition 
of  the  Lord ;  that  is.  present  to  their  view  the  terrible  judgments  of  God,  and 
his  anger  at  the  wicked.  If  a  child,  from  his  youth  up,  learns  these  things, 
namely,  God  s  mercies  and  promises,  which  will  lead  him  to  love  God,  and  his 
judgments  and  warnings,  which  will  lead  him  to  fear  God, — then,  hereafter,  when 
he  shall  be  old,  this  knowledge  will  not  depart  from  him. 

For  God  calls  upon  men  to  honor  him  in  two  ways ;  namely,  to  love  him  as  a 
father,  for  the  benefits  which  he  has  rendered,  is  now  rendering,  and  ever  will 
render  toward  us ;  and  to  fear  him  as  a  judge,  for  the  punishments  which  he  has 
inflicted,  and  which  he  will  inflict  upon  the  wicked.  Hear  what  he  speaks  by 
the  mouth  of  the  prophet  Malachi,  1 :  6.  "  If  then  I  be  a  father,  where  is  mine 
honor  ?  And  if  I  be  a  master,  where  is  my  fear  ?  "  Therefore,  the  children  of 
God  should  learn  to  sing  of  mercy  and  judgment. — Ps.  101 :  1.  And  St.  Paul 
intends  to  convey  this  two-fold  meaning,  when  he  says  that  children  should  be 
brought  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord.  It  belongs  to  nurture, 
to  tell  your  children  how  God  has  created  all  things,  and  how  he  has  given  them 
their  senses,  their  life,  and  their  soul,  and  is  daily  providing:  them  with  the  good 
things  of  his  creation.  Again,  how  he  has  suffered  for  us  all,  worked  miracles, 
preached  to  us,  and  how  he  has  promised  yet  greater  things.  And  with  all  this 
you  should  exhort  them  to  be  grateful  to  God,  to  acknowledge  his  providence, 
and  to  love  him  as  a  father.  It  belongs  to  admonition,  that  you  tell  them  how 
God,  aforetime,  smote  with  great  plagues  the  Egyptians,  the  heathen,  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Sodom,  the  children  of  Israel,  yea,  all  men  in  Adam ;  again,  how  he  is 
now  daily  smiting  many  with  pestilence,  the  sword,  the  gallows,  water,  fire, 
wild  beasts,  and  all  manner  of  diseases,  and  how  he  menaces  the  wicked  with 
future  punishment. 

This  admonition  God  requires  us  to  make  much  more  prominent  to  our  child- 
ren than  that  of  men,  or  human  penalties.  And  this,  not  without  reason ;  for 
thus  they  will  be  taught  always  to  look  out  of  themselves,  and  up  to  God,  and 
to  fear  not  men,  but  God.  For,  should  they  be  accustomed  to  fear  their  parents 
alone,  it  will  finally  come  to  pass  that,  even  in  respect  to  things  which  are 
pleasing  to  God,  that  they  will  fear  the  opinions  of  men,  and  so  will  become 
vacillating  and  cowardly.  On  this  account  children  should  be  educated  not  only 
to  fear  their  parents,  but  to  feel  that  God  will  be  angry  with  them  if  they  do  not 
fear  their  parents.  So  will  they  not  be  faint-hearted,  but  courageous,  and,  should 
they  be  deprived  of  their  parents,  they  will  not  depart  from  God,  either  while 
good  betides  them,  or  when  evil  days  come  upon  them  ;  for  they  have  learned 
with  the  fear  of  God  to  fear  their  parents,  and  not  through  their  fear  of  their 
parents  to  stand  in  awe  of  God. 

But  what  an  acceptable  sacrifice  it  is  to  God,  to  bring  up  children  thus,  we 
perceive  in  Genesis,  18 :  19,  where  it  is  said  that  God  could  not  hide  from  Abra- 
ham what  he  was  about  to  do,  and  that,  for  this  reason ;  "  for  I  know  him,"  God 


134  LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS. 

said,  "  that  he  will  command  his  children,  and  they  shall  keep  the  way  of  the 
Lord."  Do  you  not  see  that  God  herein  indicates  that  the  knowledge  of  the 
doom,  which  was  to  come  upon  Sodom,  would  prove  to  the  pious  Abraham  a 
strong  motive  to  lead  him  to  bring  up  his  children  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord?  So 
Jonadab,  a  father  among  the  Rechabites,  was  gloriously  extolled  and  blessed  in 
his  children ;  and  that,  because  he  had  brought  them  up  hi  a  pious  and  godly 
manner,  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord.  In  such  a  manner  were  Tobias,  Joachim  and 
Susanna  brought  up.  On  the  other  hand,  the  judgment  pronounced  against  Eli, 
because  he  restrained  not  his  sons,  stands  forever  to  warn  us  in  1  Sam.,  3 :  13. 

II.      BAD   TRAINING. 

Luther  points  out  the  consequences  of  the  bad  training  of  children 
in  the  following  paragraphs : 

Are  we  not  fools?  See,  we  have  the  power  to  place  heaven  or  hell  within 
reach  of  our  children,  and  yet  we  give  ourselves  no  concern  about  the  matter  1 
For  what  does  it  profit  you,  if  you  are  ever  so  pious  for  yourself,  and  yet  neglect 
the  education  of  your  children  ?  Some  there  are,  who  serve  God  with  an  extreme 
intensity  of  devotion, — they  fast,  they  wear  coarse  garments,  and  are  assiduous 
in  such  like  exercises  for  themselves;  but  the  true  service  of  God  in  their  fami- 
lies, namely,  the  training  up  their  children  aright, — this  they  pass  blindly  by, 
even  as  the  Jews  of  old  forsook  God's  temple,  and  offered  sacrifice  upon  the 
high  places.  Whence,  it  becomes  you  first  to  ponder  upon  what  God  requires 
of  you,  and  upon  the  office  that  he  has  laid  upon  you ;  as  St.  Paul  spake  in  1 
Cor.,  7 :  20. — "  Let  every  man  abide  in  the  same  calling,  wherein  he  was  called." 
Believe  me,  it  is  much  more  necessary  for  you  to  take  diligent  heed  how  you 
may  train  up  your  children  well,  than  to  purchase  indulgences,  to  make  long 
prayers,  to  go  on  pilgrimages  to  distant  shrines,  or  to  impose  numerous  vows 
upon  yourselves. 

Thus,  fathers  and  mothers,  ye  see,  what  course  it  is  your  duty  to  adopt  toward 
your  children,  so  that  you  may  be  parents  indeed,  and  worthy  of  the  name ; 
wherefore,  be  circumspect,  lest  you  destroy  yourselves,  and  your  children  with 
you.  But  those  destroy  their  children,  who  knowingly  neglect  them,  and  suffer 
them  to  grow  up  without  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord ;  and  though 
they  do  not  themselves  set  them  a  bad  example,  yet  they  indulge  them  overmuch, 
out  of  an  excess  of  natural  affection,  and  so  destroy  them.  "  But "  they  say,  "  these 
are  mere  children;  they  neither  know  nor  understand!"  That  may  be;  but 
look  at  the  dog,  the  horse,  or  the  ass;  they  have  neither  reason  nor  judgment, 
and  yet  we  train  them  to  follow  our  bidding,  to  come  or  go,  to  do  or  to  leave 
undone,  at  our  pleasure.  Neither  does  a  block  of  wood  or  of  stone  know  whether 
it  will  or  will  .not  fit  into  the  building,  but  the  master-workman  brings  it  to 
shape  ;  how  much  more  then  a  man !  Or  will  you  have  it  that  other  people's 
children  may  be  able  to  learn  what  is  right,  but  that  yours  are  not?  They  who 
are  so  exceedingly  scrupulous  and  tender,  will  have  their  children's  sins  to  bear, 
precisely  as  if  these  sins  were  their  own. 

There  are  others  who  destroy  their  children  by  using  foul  language  and  oaths 
in  their  presence,  or  by  a  corrupt  demeanor  and  example.  I  have  even  known 
some,  and,  would  God  there  were  no  more  of  them,  who  have  sold  their 
daughters  or  their  wives  for  hire,  and  made  their  living  thus  out  of  the  wages  of 
unchastity.  And  truly,  murderers,  beyond  all  question,  do  better  for  their 
daughters  than  such  parents.  There  are  some  who  are  exceedingly  well  pleased 
if  their  sons  betray  a  fierce  and  warlike  spirit,  and  are  ever  ready  to  give  blows, 
as  though  it  were  a  great  merit  in  them  to  show  no  fear  of  any  one.  Such 
parents  are  quite  likely  hi  the  end  to  pay  dear  for  their  folly,  and  to  experience 
sorrow  and  anguish,  when  their  sons,  as  often  happens  in  such  cases,  are  sud- 
denly cut  off;  nor,  in  this  event,  can  they  justly  complain.  Again,  children  are 
sufficiently  inclined  to  give  way  to  anger  and  evil  passions,  and  hence  it  behooves 
parents  to  remove  temptation  from  them,  as  far  as  possible,  by  a  well-guarded 
example  in  themselves,  both  in  words  and  in  actions.  For  what  can  the  child  of 
a  man,  whose  language  is  habitually  vile  and  profane,  be  expected  to  learn, 
unless  it  be  the  like  vileness  and  profanity  ? 

Others  again  destroy  their  children  by  inducing  them  to  set  their  affections 
on  the  world,  by  taking  no  thought  for  them  further  than  to  see  that  they 


LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS.  ^35 

cultivate  graceful  manners,  dress  finely,  dance  and  sing,  and  all  this,  to  be  admired, 
and  to  make  conquests ;  for  this  is  the  way  of  the  world.  In  our  day,  there  are 
but  few  who  are  chiefly  solicitous  to  procure  their  children  an  abundant  supply 
of  those  things  that  pertain  to  God,  and  to  the  interests  of  the  soul ;  for,  the  most 
strive  to  insure  them  wealth  and  splendor,  honor  and  pleasure. 

Thus  Luther  censures  a  rough,  passionate  severity  in  parents,  as 
well  as  a  spirit  of  indulgence ;  and  wisely  commends  to  them  to 
inspire  their  children  with  a  dread,  rather  of  God's  displeasure  than  of 
human  penalties,  to  chasten  them  betimes,  etc. 

Of  the  like  import  are  his  reflections  when  commenting  on  1  John. 
2:  14. 

There  is  that  in  the  nature  of  young  children,  which  exults,  when  the  reins  of 
discipline  are  slackened.  Nor  is  the  case  otherwise  with  youth,  and  if  they  are 
held  in,  even  with  so  firm  a  hand  that  they  can  not  break  away,  nevertheless  they 
will  murmur.  The  right  of  fathers  over  their  children  is  derived  from  God;  he 
is,  in  truth,  the  Father  of  all,  "of  whom  the  whole  family  in  heaven  and  earth  is 
named." — Eph.  3 :  15.  Wherefore,  the  authority  of  earthly  fathers  over  their 
children  should  not  be  exercised  in  a  hard  and  unfriendly  manner.  He  who  gov- 
erns in  anger  only  adds  fuel  to  the  fire.  And,  if  fathers  and  masters  on  earth  do 
not  acknowledge  God,  he  so  orders  it  that  both  children  and  servants  shall  dis- 
appoint their  hopes.  Experience,  too,  shows  us  abundantly,  that  far  more  can  be 
accomplished  by  love,  than  by  slavish  fear  and  constraint.  But  it  is  the  duty  of 
children  to  learn  the  fear  of  God  first  of  all ;  then,  to  love  those  who  labor  for 
their  improvement.  The  fear  of  God  should  never  depart  from  them  ;  for,  if  they 
put  it  away,  they  become  totally  unfit  to  serve  God  or  man.  Correction,  too, 
which  includes  both  reproof  and  chastisement,  saves  the  soul  of  the  child  from 
the  endless  punishment  of  hell.  Let  not  the  father  spare  the  rod,  but  let  him 
remember  that  the  work  of  training  up  children  is  an  honor  which  comes  from 
God;  yea,  if  they  turn  out  well,  let  him  give  God  the  glory.  Whoso  does  not 
know  to  do  this,  hates  his  children  and  his  household,  and  walks  in  darkness. 
For  parents,  who  love  their  children  blindly,  and  leave  them  to  then'  own  courses, 
do  no  better  in  the  end  than  if  they  had  hated  them.  And  the  ruin  of  children 
almost  invariably  lies  at  the  door  of  parents,  and  it  commonly  ensues  from  one 
of  these  two  causes ;  namely,  either  from  undue  lenity  and  foolish  fondness,  or 
from  unbending  severity,  and  an  irritable  spirit.  Both  these  extremes  are 
attended  with  great  hazard,  and  both  should  be  shunned  alike. 

Against  indulging  children  Luther  likewise  inveighs,  in  a  sermon  on 
the  married  state. 

There  is  no  greater  obstacle  in  the  way  of  Christianity  than  neglect  in  the 
training  of  the  young.  If  we  would  re-instate  Christianity  in  its  former  glory, 
we  must  improve  and  elevate  the  children,  as  it  was  done  in  the  days  of  old. 
But,  alas!  parents  are  blinded  by  the  delusiveness  of  natural  affection,  so  that 
they  have  come  to  regard  the  bodies  of  their  children  more  than  their  souls.  On 
this  point  hear  the  words  of  the  wise  man;  Prov.  13:  24. — "He  that  spareth 
the  rod,  hateth  his  son;  but  he  that  loveth  him,  chasteneth  him  betimes." 
Again,  22:  15. — "  Foolishness  is  bound  in  the  heart  of  a  child;  but  the  rod  of 
correction  shall  drive  it  far  from  him."  Again,  Prov.  23 :  14. — "  Thou  shalt  beat 
him  with  the  rod,  and  shalt  deliver  his  soul  from  hell." 

"  Wherefore  it  is  the  chief  duty  of  the  father  of  a  family,  to  bestow 
more,  greater,  and  more  constant  care  upon  the  soul  of  his  child  than 
upon  his  body  ;  for,  this  is  his  own  flesh,  but  the  soul  is  a  precious 
immortal  jewel,  which  God  has  intrusted  to  his  keeping,  and  which  he 
must  not  suffer  either  the  world,  the  flesh  or  the  devil  to  steal  or  to 
destroy.  And  a  strict  account  of  his  charge  will  be  required  of  him 
at  death  and  the  judgment.  For  whence,  think  you,  shall  come  the 


136  LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS. 

terrible  wailing  and  anguish  of  those,  who  shall  there  cry  out, 
'Blessed  are  the  wombs  that  never  bare,  and  the  paps  which  never 
gave  suck  ?' — Luke  23  :  29.  Doubtless,  from  the  bitter  thought  that 
they  have  not  brought  their  children  back  to  God,  from  whom  they 
had  only  received  them  in  trust." 

III.       MONKISH    TRAINING    OF    THE    YOUNG. 

Luther  disapproves  of  isolating  children  from  the  world,  after  the 
usage  of  the  monks.  "  Solomon,"  says  he,  "  was  a  right  royal  school- 
master. He  does  not  forbid  children  from  mingling  with  the  world, 
or  from  enjoying  themselves,  as  the  monks  do  their  scholars;  for  they 
will  thus  become  mere  clods  and  blockheads,  as  Anselrn  likewise  per- 
ceived. Said  this  one  ;  '  a  young  man,  thus  hedged  about,  and  cut 
off  from  society,  is  like  a  young  tree,  whose  nature  it  is  to  grow  and 
bear  fruit,  planted  in  a  small  and  narrow  pot.'  For  the  monks  have 
imprisoned  the  youth  whom  they  have  had  in  charge,  as  men  put 
birds  in  dark  cages,  so  that  they  could  neither  see  nor  converse  with 
any  one.  But  it  is  dangerous  for  youth  to  be  thus  alone,  thus  de- 
barred from  social  intercourse.  Wherefore,  we  ought  to  permit  young 
people  to  see,  and  hear,  and  know  what  is  taking  place  around  them 
in  the  world,  yet  so  that  you  hold  them  under  discipline,  and  teach 
them  self-respect.  Your  monkish  strictness  is  never  productive  of 
any  good  fruit.  It  is  an  excellent  thing  for  a  young  man  to  be  fre- 
quently in  the  society  of  others ;  yet  he  must  be  honorably  trained  to 
adhere  to  the  principles  of  integrity,  and  to  virtue,  and  to  shun  the 
contamination  of  vice.  This  monkish  tyranny  is  moreover  an  absolute 
injury  to  the  young ;  for  they  stand  in  quite  as  much  need  of  pleas- 
ure and  recreation  as  of  eating  and  drinking ;  their  health,  too,  will 
be  firmer  and  the  more  vigorous  by  the  means." 

IV.       OFFENSE    GIVEN    TO    CHILDREN. 

In  Luther's  exposition  of  the  sixth  commandment,  he  pointedly 
condemns  the  offense  which  is  given  to  the  young  by  the  use  of  foul 
language.  "  It  is  a  great  sin  to  use  such  infamous  language  in  the 
presence  of  innocent  boys  and  girls.  Those  who  do  it  are  guilty  of 
all  the  sins  which  their  inconsiderate  words  beget.  For  the  tender 
and  inexperienced  minds  of  children  are  very  quick  to  receive  an  im- 
pression from  such  words;  and,  what  is  far  worse,  this  filthy  language 
clings  to  their  memory,  and  long  abides  with  them,  even  as  a  stain  on 
a  fine  white  cloth  is  much  harder  to  efface  than  if  it  came  on  one  that 
is  rough  and  course.  This  the  pagans,  too,  learned  from  experience : 
Horace,  for  example,  who  says  that  a  new  vase  long  retains  the  odor 
of  that  substance  that  happened  first  to  have  been  put  into  it! 
'  Quo  semel  est  imbuta  recens  servabit  odorem 
Testa  din."1 


LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS.  137 

And  Juvenal,  '  you  should  pay  the  utmost  regard  to  your  boy  ;  and, 
if  you  meditate  any  thing  base,  think  not  that  his  age  is  too  tender  to 
remain  unsullied.' 

''Maxima  debeter  puero  reverentia,  si  quid 
Turpe  paras,  hvjus  tu  ne  contemseris  annosS 

"  We  will  now  inquire  more  particularly  what  these  people  do,  who 
thus  offend  children?  Since  it  is  a  good  thing  to  pay  regard  to  their 
tender  years,  and  to  keep  them  in  the  observance  of  propriety  and 
decorum,  (for  it  is  an  acceptable  sacrifice  to  God,  to  seek  the  welfare 
of  souls,)  we  should,  therefore,  with  all  diligence,  watch  over  young 
boys  and  girls,  and  prevent  them  either  from  seeing  or  hearing  any 
thing  infamous ;  for  their  evil  tendencies  are  strong  enough  by 
nature.  If  you  seek  to  quench  fire,  not  with  water,  but  by  adding 
fuel  to  it,  what  good  do  you  think  you  will  do  ?  But,  alas!  how  many 
wicked  people  there  are,  who  make  themselves  the  tools  of  the  devil, 
and  destroy  innocent  souls  with  their  poisonous  and  corrupt  language. 
The  devil  is  truly  called  a  destroyer  of  souls,  but  he  does  not  do  his 
work,  unless  with  the  help  of  the  infamous  tongues  of  such  as  are  on 
his  side,  and  take  pattern  by  his  example. 

"Can  a  child  root  out  of  his  soul  the  vile  word,  that  has  once  passed 
in  at  his  ear  ?  The  seed  is  sown,  and  it  germinates  in  his  heart,  even 
against  his  will.  And  it  branches  out  into  strange  and  peculiar  fan- 
cies, which  he  dares  not  utter,  and  can  not  rid  himself  of.  But,  woe 
to  thee!  whoever  thou  art,  who  hast  conveyed  into  an  artless  mind, 
that  had  otherwise  been  free  from  the  guile,  such  troubles,  perils  and 
poison !  Thou  hast  not,  indeed,  marred  the  body ;  but,  as  much  as  in 
thee  lay,  thou  hast  disfigured  that  much  nobler  part,  the  soul.  Thou 
hast  poured,  through  the  ear  of  a  fellow-being,  a  deadly  bane  into  his 
life-blood  ;  yea,  thou  hast  slain  his  soul.  Such  people  are  of  the  race 
of  Herod,  who  slew  the  innocents  in  Bethlehem.  You  would  not  suffer 
your  own  children  to  be  murdered  before  your  eyes ; — why  then  will 
you  destroy  souls  that  are  not  yours,  but  God's.  St.  Louis,  king 
of  France,  said  that  his  mother  would  rather  have  seen  her  children 
die  by  violence  than  commit  a  deadly  sin.  And  what  a  terrible  con- 
demnation does  our  Lord  pronounce  upon  such  corruption  of  child- 
ren. '  But  whoever  shall  offend  one  of  these  little  ones,  which  be- 
lieve in  me,  it  were  better  for  him  that  a  mill-stone  were  hanged 
about  his  neck,  and  that  he  were  drowned  in  the  depth  of  the  sea.' 
Matt.,  18:6.  See  what  care  Christ  bestows  on  innocent  little  child- 
ren, in  that  he  affixes  a  new  and  peculiar  penalty  upon  the  sin  of 
those  who  offend  and  injure  them ;  a  penalty  that  is  denounced  upon 
no  other  sin.  By  this  he  would  doubtless  indicate,  that  such  persons 


133  LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS. 

shall  undergo  an  aggravated  punishment  in  the  world  of  woe.  And 
hear  him  further,  in  the  7th  verse,  '  Woe  unto  the  world,  because  of 
offenses !  for  it  must  needs  be  that  offenses  come ;  but  woe  to  that 
man  by  whom  the  offense  cometh  !'  And,  in  the  10th,  *  Take  heed) 
that  ye  despise  not  one  of  these  little  ones ;  for  I  say  unto  you,  that 
in  heaven  their  angels  do  always  behold  the  face  of  my  Father  which 
is  in  heaven.' 

"  If  any  one  should  be  disposed  to  judge  these  persons  mildly,  and 
say  their  words  may  raise  a  blush,  but  they  themselves  are  clean,  as 
Ovid  falsely  alledges  of  himself, 

My  manners  differ  widely  from  my  verse ; 

The  muse  may  dally, — I  am  none  the  worse. 

let  him  hear  what  Christ  says,  and  keep  silence.  '  Out  of  the 
abundance  of  the  heart  the  mouth  speaketh.'  '  A  tree  is  known  by 
its  fruits.' 

"  And  hence  it  is,  too,  that  the  Christian  faith  is  at  so  low  an  ebb, 
because  the  children  have  been  led  out  of  the  way;  and,  if  the  Chris- 
tian church  is  again  to  rise  from  the  dust,  we  must  begin  with  a  care- 
ful instruction  of  the  young." 

V.       DEGENERATE    CHILDREN. 

When,  despite  the  conscientious  efforts  of  parents  and  teachers, 
children  turn  out  ill,  Luther  casts  a  consoling  view  upon  the  case. 
"  What  is  greater  and  more  glorious  than  this  your  labor,  ye  faithful 
taskmasters  ?  You  are,  in  all  truthfulness,  to  instruct,  to  teach,  to 
chasten  and  admonish  the  youth  committed  to  your  care,  in  the  hope 
that  some  will  keep  in  the  way  of  wisdom,  though  some  too  may 
turn  aside.  For  whoever  will  do  any  good,  must  bear  in  mind,  that 
this  effort  may  prove  all  in  vain,  and  his  benevolence  be  thrown  away ; 
for  there  are  always  many  who  scorn  and  reject  good  counsel,  and 
but  few  who  follow  it.  We  should  be  satisfied,  if  our  good  deeds  are 
not  wholly  fruitless ;  and  if,  among  ten  lepers,  one  returns  and  gives 
thanks,  it  is  well. — Luke,  17  :  17.  So,  if  among  ten  scholars,  there 
is  but  one  who  bends  to  discipline  and  learns  with  zeal,  it  is  well ; 
for  our  kindness  is  not  wholly  lost ;  and  Christ  himself  bids  us,  after 
the  example  of  his  Heavenly  Father,  do  good  to  the  thankful  and  the 
unthankful  alike. 

"  Therefore,  stand  in  your  lot,  and  labor  with  all  diligence ;  and,  if 
God  does  not  crown  you  with  success,  yet  ascribe  to  him  glory  and 
dominion  in  the  highest,  and  faint  not,  neither  be  impatient.  Think 
what  an  admirable  example  Solomon  has  set  us ;  for  Solomon  him- 
self, or  any  other  king,  may  train  up  his  son  from  infancy  in  the  best, 
•nost  pains- taking,  and  most  godly  manner,  thinking  and  hoping, 


LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS.  139 

he  shall  succeed,  and  may  fail,  notwithstanding  all.  Have  you  a 
pious  son  ; — then  say,  '  thanks  be  to  God,  who  has  made  him  and 
given  him  to  me;' — but,  .if  your  son  has  grown  up  to  evil  courses, 
you  can  but  say, — '  such  is  this  poor  human  life ;  I  have  toiled  to 
train  up  my  son  aright ;  but  it  was  not  the  Lord's  will  he  should 
prosper;  yet  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord.' 

"  Nor  must  parents  ever  cease  to  seek  their  children's  good,  however 
degenerate  and  ungrateful  they  may  be." 

VI.       ALLOWED    DISOBEDIENCE. 

But  should  parents,  in  the  training  of  their  children,  trangress  God's 
commandments,  then,  Luther  thinks,  they  can  not  justly  claim  their 
obedience. 

If  parents  act  with  such  thoughtless  folly,  as  to  bring  up  their  children  to 
worldly  pleasure  and  dissipation,  then  the  children  may  cease  to  obey  them.  For 
we  see  by  the  first  three  commandments  that  God  will  be  honored  before  earthly 
parents.  By  bringing  them  up  to  the  world,  I  mean,  pointing  them  to  nothing 
higher  than  pleasure,  honor  and  wordly  good. 

vn.     SCHOOLS. 

The  establishment  of  institutions  of  learning  by  magistrates,  as  a 
means  of  providing  a  constant  succession  of  well-educated  and  able 
men  for  the  church,  the  school  and  the  government,  and  a  defense  of 
study,  especially  the  study  of  the  languages,  and  the  founding  of 
libraries,  are  treated  of  in  "Dr.  Martin  Luther's  Address  to  the 
Councilmen  of  all  the  towns  of  Germany,  calling  upon  them  to 
establish  and  sustain  Christian  schools.  A.  D.,  1524." 

To  the  Mayors  and  Councilmen  of  all  the  towns  of  Germany  : — 
Grace  and  peace  from  God  the  Father  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Beloved 
rulers,  wise  and  sagacious  men,  ye  all  do  know  that  I  have  been  under  ban  and 
outlawry  for  well  nigh  three  years ;  and  I  surely  would  keep  silence  now,  if  I  feared 
the  commandments  of  men  more  than  I  fear  God  5  for  which  cause  also,  many  in 
this  our  German  land,  both  high  and  low,  are  even  now  denouncing  my  words 
and  deeds,  and  shedding  much  blood  over  them.  But,  for  all  this,  I  can  not  refrain 
from  speaking ;  for  God  has  opened  my  mouth,  and  commanded  me  to  speak, 
yea,  to  cry  aloud,  and  to  spare  not,  while  at  the  same  time  he  has  ever  been  giv- 
ing strength  and  increase  to  my  cause,  and  that  too  without  any  device  or  act  of 
mine ;  for  the  more  ''  they  rage  and  set  themselves,  the  more  he  laughs  and  has 
them  in  derision." — 2nd  Psalm.  And  by  this  one  thing  alone,  whosoever  is  not- 
hardened  in  unbelief  may  see  that  this  cause  is  of  God.  For  this  is  ever  the 
way  with  God's  word  and  work  here  on  the  earth ;  they  manifest  the  greatest 
power  precisely  when  men  are  the  most  eager  to  overthrow  and  destroy  them. 
Therefore,  I  will  speak,  and,  as  Isaiah  saith,  "I  will  not  hold  my  peace,  till  the 
righteousness  of  Christ  go  forth  as  brightness,  and  his  salvation  as  a  lamp  that 
burneth."  And  I  beseech  you  all,  my  beloved  rulers  and  friends,  receive  this  my 
writing  and  exhortation  with  joy,  and  lay  it  to  heart.  For  whatever  I  am  in  my- 
self, yet  in  this  matter  I  can  say  of  a  truth,  with  a  pure  conscience  in  the  sight 
of  God,  that  I  have  not  sought  mine  own  good,  (which  I  could  the  more  easily 
have  secured  by  silence ;)  but,  out  of  i\  true  heart,  I  speak  to  you  and  to  the  whole 
of  Germany,  even  as  God  has  ordained  me  to  do,  whether  ye  hear,  or  whether  ye 
forbear.  And  I  would  have  you  freely,  cheerfully  and  in  a  spirit  of  love,  give  me 
your  attention;  since,  doubtless,  if  ye  obey  me  herein,  ye  obey  not  me,  but 
Christ,  and  whoever  does  not  follow  my  precepts,  despises  Christ,  and  not  me. 


140  LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS. 

Wherefore  I  beseech  you  all,  beloved  rulers  and  friends,  for  the  sake  of  God  and 
of  poor  neglected  youth,  do  not  count  this  a  small  matter,  as  some  do,  who,  in 
their  blindness,  overlook  the  wiles  of  the  adversary.  For  it  is  a  great  and  solemn 
duty  that  is  laid  upon  us,  a  duty  of  immense  moment  to  Christ  and  to  the  world, 
to  give  aid  and  counsel  to  the  young.  And  in  so  doing  we  likewise  promote  our 
own  best  interests.  And  remember,  that  the  silent,  hidden  and  malicious  assaults 
of  the  devil  can  be  withstood  only  by  manly  Christian  effort.  Beloved  rulers, 
if  we  find  it  necessary  to  expend  such  large  sums,  as  we  do  yearly,  upon  artillery, 
roads,  bridges,  dykes,  and  a  thousand  other  things  of  the  sort,  in  order  that  a 
city  may  be  assured  of  continued  order,  peace,  and  tranquillity,  ought  we  not  to 
expend  on  the  poor  suffering  youth  therein,  at  least  enough  to  provide  them  with 
a  schoolmaster  or  two'/  God  the  Almighty,  has,  in  very  deed,  visited  us  Ger- 
mans with  the  small  rain  of  his  grace,  and  vouchsafed  to  us  a  right  golden  har- 
vest. For  we  have  now  among  us  many  excellent  and  learned  young  men,  richly 
furnished  with  knowledge,  both  of  the  languages  and  of  the  arts,  who  could  do 
great  good,  if  "we  would  only  set  them  to  the  task  of  teaching  our  little  folks.  Do 
we  not  see  before  our  very  eyes,  that  a  boy  may  now  be  so  thoroughly  drilled  in 
three  years,  that,  at  fifteen  or  eighteen,  he  shall  know  more  than  hitherto  all  the 
high  schools  and  cloisters  put  together  have  ever  been  able  to  impart  ?  Yea,  what 
other  thing  have  the  high  schools  and  cloisters  ever  achieved,  but  to  make  asses 
and  blockheads  ?  Twenty,  forty  years  would  they  teach  you,  and  after  all  you 
would  know  nothing  of  Latin,  or  of  German  either  ;  and  then,  too,  there  is  their 
shameful  profligacy,  by  which  how  many  ingenuous  youths  have  been  led  astray  ! 
But,  now  that  God  has  so  richly  favored  us,  in  giving  us  such  a  number  of  per- 
sons competent  to  teach  these  young  folks,  and  to  mould  their  powers  in  the  best 
manner,  truly  it  behooves  us  not  to  throw  his  grace  to  the  wind,  and  not  to  suffer 
him  to  knock  at  our  door  in  vain.  He  is"  even  now  waiting  for  admittance;  good 
betide  us  if  we  open  to  him,  happy  the  ma"n  who  responds  to  his  greeting.  If  we 
slight  him  until  he  shall  have  passed  by,  wTio  may  prevail  with  him  to  return  ? 
Let  us  bethink  ourselves  of  our  former  sorrow,  and  of  the  darkness  wherein  once 
we  groped.  I  do  not  suppose  that  Germany  has  ever  heard  so  much  of  God's 
word  as  now  ;  certainly  we  may  search  our  history  in  vain  for  the  like  state  of 
things.  If  we  let,all  this  slip  away,  withput  gratitude  and  praise,  it  is  to  be  feared 
that  worse  calamities  and  a  deeper  darkness  will  come  upon  us.  My  dear  Ger- 
man brothers,  buy,  while  the  market  is  at  your  door  ;  gather  in,  while  the  sun 
shines,  and  the  weather  is  fair ;  apply  the  word  and  the  grace  of  God  to  your 
hearts,  while  they  are  here.  For  this  you  should  always  bear  in  mind,  that 
God's  word  and  grace  are  a  passing  shower,  that  goes, — never  to  return.  And 
do  not,  my  German  brothers,  indulge  in  the  delusive  dream  that  it  will  abide  with 
you  forever.  For  an  ungrateful  and  a  scornful  spirit  will  drive  it  away.  Where- 
fore, lay  hold  of  it,  and  keep  it,  ye,  who  may  ;  idle  hands  reap  never  a  harvest. 
God's  command,  so  often  communicated  through  Moses,  to  the  effect  that  parents 
should  teach  their  children,  is  thus  taken  up  and  enforced  in  the  78th  Psalm,  3rd 
verse,  et  seq.,  "  which  our  fathers  have  told  us,  we  will  not  hide  them  from  their 
children,  showing  to  the  generations  to  come  the  praise  of  the  Lord."  And  the 
5th  commandment  God  deemed  of  such  vast  importance,  that  the  punishment  of 
death  was  decreed  upon  stubborn  and  disobedient  children.  And  why  is  it,  that 
we,  the  elder,  are  spared  to  the  world,  except  to  train  up  and  instruct  the  young  ? 
It  is  impossible  that  the  gay  little  folks  should  guide  and  teach  themselves  ;  and 
accordingly  God  has  committed  to  us,  who  are  old  and  experienced,  the  knowl- 
edge which  is  needful  for  them,  and  he  will  require  of  us  a  strict  account  of  what 
we  have  done  with  it.  Listen  to  Moses,  in  Deuteronomy,  32  :  7. — "  Ask  tin- 
father,  and  he  will  show  thee  ;  thine  elders,  and  they  will  tell  thee."  But  with 
us,  to  our  sin  and  our  shame  be  it  spoken,  it  has  come  to  this,  that  we  must  drive 
and  be  driven,  before  we  can  bring  up  our  children  aright,  and  seek  their  good  ; 
and  yet,  nature  itself  would  seem  to  prompt  us  what  to  do,  and  manifold  exam- 
ples among  pagan  nations,  to  incite  us  to  do  it.  There  is  not  a  brute  animal  that 
does  not  direct  and  instruct  its  young  to  act  as  befits  its  nature ;  unless  we  except 
the  ostrich,  of  which  ( -od  saith,  in  Job,  39  :  14,  16 ;  "  which  leaveth  her  eggs  in 
the  earth,"  "  she  is  hardened  against  her  young  ones,  as  though  they  were  not 
hers."  And  what  would  it  profit  us,  if  we  were  faithful  in  the  discharge  of  every 
other  duty,  and  should  become  well-nigh  perfect,  if.  withal,  we  failed  to  do 


LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS.  141 

precisely  the  thing  fbr  which  our  lives  are  lengthened  out,  namely,  to  cherish  and 
watch  over  the  young  ?  J  truly  think  that,  of  outward  sins,  there  is  none,  for 
which  the  world  is  so  culpable,  and  for  which  it  merits  such  severe  condemnation, 
as  this  which  we  are  guilty  of  with  regard  to  our  children,  in  not  giving  them  a 
right  training.  Woe  to  the  world,  ever  and  forever  !  Children  are  daily  born, 
and  are  suffered  to  grow  up  among  us,  and  there  is,  alas !  no  one  to  take  the  poor 
young  people  to  himself,  and  show  them  the  way  in  which  they  should  go ;  but 
we  all  leave  them  to  go  whither  they  will.  But,  you  say,  "all  this  is  addressed 
to  parents  ;  what  have  councilmen  and  magistrates  to  do  with  it  ?"  This  is  very 
true,  I  grant  you  ;  but  how  if  parents  should  not  do  it, — what  then  ?  Who,  I 
ask,  will  ?  Shall  it  be  left  undone,  and  the  children  be  neglected  ?  Will  magis- 
trates and  councilmen  then  plead  that  they  have  nothing  to  do  in  the  matter  ? 
There  are  many  reasons  why  parents  do  not  deal  as  they  should  by  their 
children. 

And,  first,  there  are  some  who  are  not  so  pious  and  well-meaning  as  to  do  this, 
even  when  they  have  the  ability  ;  but,  like  the  ostrich,  which  leaveth  her  eggs  in 
the  dust,  and  is  hardened  against  her  young  ones,  so  they  bring  children  into 
being,  and  there  is  an  end  of  their  care.  But  these  children  are  to  live  among 
us,  and  to  be  of  us  in  one  common  city.  And  how  can  you  reconcile  it  with  reason, 
and  especially  with  Christian  love,  to  permit  them  to  grow  up  uncared  for  and 
untaught,  to  poison  and  to  blast  the  morals  of  other' children,  so  that  at  last  these 
too  will  become  utterly  corrupt ;  as  it  happened  to  Sodom,  Gomorrah,  Gaba  acd 
many  other  cities?  And  again,  the  majority^of  parents  are,  alas!  entirely  unfit 
to  educate  their  children,  knowing  neither  what  to  teach  them,  nor  how  to  teach 
it.  For  they  have  learned  nothing  themselves,  save  how  to  provide  for  the  body  ; 
and  they  must  look  to  a  special  class,  set  apart  for  the  purpose,  to  take  their 
children  and  bring  them  up  in  the  right  way.  In  the  third  place,  there  are  quite 
a  number  of  parents  who,  though  both  willing  and  cajjable,  yet,  by  reason  of  their 
business  or  the  situation  of  their  families,  have  neither  the  time  nor  the  place, 
convenient ;  so  that  necessity  compels  them  to  get  teachers  for  their  children. 
And  each  would  be  glad  to  have  one  entirely  to  himself.  This,  however,  is 
out  of  the  question,  for  it  would  be  too  great  a  burdBn  for  men  of  ordinary  means! 
to  bear  ;  and  thus,  many  a  fine  boy  would  be  neglected,  because  of  poverty,  j 
Add,  that  so  many  parents  die,  and  leave  orphans  behind  them  ;  and  what  care 
guardians  commonly  give  to  them,  if  observation  did  not  teach  us,  yet  we  could 
judge  from  what  God  calls  himself,  in  Psalm  68  :  6,  "a  father  of  the  father- 
less,"— which  is  as  much  as  to  say  that  they  are  forsaken  by  all  others.  There 
are  some,  again,  who  have  no  children  themselves,  and  who,  on  this  account,  take 
no  interest  at  all  in  the  welfare  of  the  young. 

In  view  of  all  this,  it  becomes  councilmen  and  magistrates  to  watch  over  youth  { 
with  unremitting  care  and  diligence.  For  since  their  city,  in  all  its  interests,  life, 
honor,  and  possessions,  is  committed  to  their  faithful  keeping,  they  do  not  deal 
justly  by  their  trust,  before  God  and  the  world,  unless  they  strive  to  their  utmost, 
pight  and  day,  to  promote  the  city's  increase  and  prosperity.  Now,  a  city's  in- 
crease consists  not  alone  in  heaping  up  great  treasures,  in  building  solid  walls  or 
stately  houses,  or  in  multiplying  artillery  and  munitions  of  war ;  nay,  where 
there  is  great  store  of  this,  and  yet  fools  with  it,  it  is  all  the  worse,  and  all  the 
greater  loss  for  the  city.  But  this  is  the  best  and  the  richest  increase,  prosperity 
and  strength  of  a  city,  that  it  shall  contain  a  great  number  of  polished,  learned, 
intelligent,  honorable,  and  well-bred  citizens  ;  who,  when  they  have  become  alt 
this,  may  then  get  wealth  and  put  it  to  a  good  use.  Since,  then,  a  city  must  have 
citizens,  and  on  all  accounts  its  saddest  lack  and  destitution  were  a  lack  of  citizens, 
we  are  not  to  wait  until  they  are  grown  up.  We  can  neither  hew  them  out  of 
stones,  nor  carve  them  out  of  wood  ;  for  God  does  not  work  miracles,  so  long  as 
the  ordinary  gifts  of  his  bounty  are  able  to  subserve  the  use  of  man.  Hence, 
we  must  use  the  appointed  means,  and,  with  cost  and  care,  rear  up  and  mould  our 
citizens.  Whose  fault  is  it,  that  now  in  every  city  there  is  such  a  dearth  of  intel- 
ligent and  capable  men,  but  that  of  the  magistrates,  who  have  left  the  young  to 
grow  up  like  the  trees  of  the  forest,  and  have  not  given  a  thought  to  their  instruc- 
tion and  training?  You  see  how  wild  the  trees  grow;  they  are  only  good  for 
fences  or  for  fire-wood,  and  are  by  no  means  fit  for  the  use  of  the  builder.  Yet, 
we  must  have  governments  here  upon  the  earth.  And  how  wild  and  senseless 


142  LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS. 

is  the  hope,  if  clods  and  addle-brains  rule  us,  that  somehow  they  will  get  wis- 
dom, and  all  will  go  well  with  us.  Rather  let  us  elect  so  many  swine  or 
wolves  for  rulers,  and  place  them  over  such  as  know  not  what  it  is  to 
be  ruled  by  men.  And  besides,  it  is  brutish  recklessness,  to  act  merely  for  the 
present  time,  and  to  say,  "  as  for  us,  we  will  rule  now ;  but,  we  care  not  how 
it  shall  be  with  those  who  come  after  us."  Such  men  as  these,  who  use  their 
power  only  for  their  own  individual  honor  and  profit,  ought  not  to  rule  over 
men,  but  over  dogs  or  swine.  For  even  when  we  exert  our  utmost  diligence  to 
train  shrewd,  learned,  and  competent  men  for  rulers,  we  do  not  find  it  a 
very  easy  matter  to  reach  our  aim.  What  then  can  we  expect,  when  we  do 
absolutely  nothing? 

"  This  may  be  so,"  you  reply ;  "  but,  though  we  ought  to  have  schools,  and 
must  have  them,  still  what  will  it  profit  us  to  have  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew, 
and  your  other  liberal  arts  taught  in  them  ?  Will  not  German  suffice  to  teach 
us  all  of  the  Bible  and  the  Word  of  God  that  is  essential  to  salvation?"  Alas, 
I  fear  me,  that  we  Germans  must  ever  be  and  continue  to  be yjnere  brutes  and 
wild  beasts,  as  our  neighbors  with  such  good  reason  style  us.  I  wonder  that 
you  do  not  say,  "  what  have  we  to  do  with  silks,  wine,  spices,  and  other  pro- 
ductions of  foreign  lands ;  inasmuch  as  we  have  wine,  corn,  wool,  flax,  wood, 
and  stone  here  in  Germany,  not  only  to  supply  our  wants,  but  enough  and  in 
variety  enough  to  minister  either  to  comfort, dignity  or  luxury?''  And  yet,  these 
languages  and  these  arts,  which  do  us  no  harm,  but  are  agreeable  and  useful 
alike,  sources  both  of  honor  and  profit,  throwing  light  upon  the  Scriptures,  and 
imparting  sound  wisdom  to  rulers,  these  we  despise ;  while  the  productions  of 
other  lands,  which  do  us  no  good  whatever,  we  fret  and  worry  ourselves  after 
to  that  degree  that  even  success  ofttimes  proves  no  better  to  us  than  failure.  Of 
a  truth,  we  are  rightly  called  German  fools  and  beasts!  Surely,  were  there  no 
other  good  to  be  got  from  the  languages,  the  bare  thought  that  they  are  a  noble 
and  a  glorious  gift  from  God,  wherewith  he  has  visited  and  enriched  us,  almost 
beyond  all  other  nations,  this  thought,  I  say,  ought  to  be  a  powerful  motive, 
yea,  an  allurement  to  cultivate  them.  The  cases  are  rare,  indeed,  where  the  devil 
has  suffered  the  languages  to  be  in  repute. in  the  universities  and  the  cloisters; 
nay,  these  have  almost  always  raised  a  hue  and  cry  against  them  in  the  past 
ages,  as  likewise  they  do  now.  For  the  prince  of  darkness  is  shrewd  enough 
to  know  that,  where  the  languages  flourish,  there  his  power  will  soon  be  so 
rent  and  torn  that  he  can  not  readily  repair  it.  But  now,  since  he  can  not  keep 
them  from  expanding  into  a  vigorous  growth,  and  from  bearing  fruit,  he  is  at 
work,  devising  how  he  may  render  them  dwarfed  and  sickly,  if  so  be  that  they 
may  decay  and  die  of  themselves.  If  an  unwelcome  guest  comes  to  his  house, 
he  sets  before  him  so  meagre  an  entertainment,  that  he  is  forced  to  shorten  his 
visit.  Few  of  us,  my  good  friends,  perceive  this  craft  and  snare  of  the  devil. 
Wherefore,  my  beloved  countrymen,  let  us  open  our  eyes,  and,  thanking  God  for 
this  precious  jewel,  let  us  keep  fast  hold  of  it,  lest  it  be  filched  away  from  us,  and 
the  devil  see  his  malicious  purposes  accomplished ;  for,  though  the  gospel  came 
in  former  times  as  now,  day  by  day,  it  comes  to  us,  by  the  Holy  Spirit  alone,  yet 
we  can  not  deny  that  at  the  first  it  was  received  through  the  languages,  that  its 
blessings  are  now  spread  abroad  by  their  means,  and  by  their  means  that  it  is 
to  be  kept  in  the  world.  For  when  God,  by  the  apostles,  sent  the  gospel  to  men, 
he  sent  the  gift  of  tongues  with  it ;  and,  before  that  time,  he  had  used  the  Roman 
power  as  an  instrument  to  diffuse  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages  far  and  wide 
over  the  whole  world,  in  order  that  the  gospel  might  spread  rapidly  through  all  the 
nations.  And,  in  the  same  manner,  he  has  worked  at  the  present  day.  No 
man  understood  the  reason  why  God  caused  the  languages  again  to  pu-t  on  bloom 
and  vigor,  until  now,  at  last,  we  see  that  it  was  for  the  sake  of  the  gospel,  which  he 
purposed  to  bring  to  light  and  thereby  make  manifest,  and  overthrow  the  king- 
dom of  Anti-Christ.  For  that  cause  it  was  that  he  gave  Greece  into  the  hands 
of  the  Turks,  in  order  that  the  Greeks,  hunted  out  of  their  own  land  and  scat- 
tered over  the  face  of  the  earth,  might  carry  with  them  out  amongst  the  nations 
the  knowledge  of  the  Greek  language,  and  thereby  cause  a  beginning  to  be  made 
of  learning  the  other  languages  also.  Now,  since  the  gospel  is  so  dear  to  us,  let 
us  hold  fast  to  the  languages.  Nor  should  it  be  in  vain  to  us  that  God  has  caused 
his  Scriptures  to  be  written  in  two  languages  only, — the  Old  Testament  in  the 


LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS.  14.f 

Hebrew,  and  the  New  Testament  in  the  Greek.  These  languages  God  has  not 
despised,  but  has  chosen  them  for  his  word,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others ;  and 
we  too  ought  therefore  to  honor  them  above  all  others.  And  St.  Paul  glories 
in  this,  as  a  special  honor  and  advantage  of  the  Hebrew,  namely,  that  God's 
jtvord  was  written  therein.  "  What  advantage  then  hath  the  Jew  ?  Much  every 
way ;  chiefly  because  unto  them  were  committed  the  oracles  of  God." — Romans, 
3  :  1,2.  King  David,  too,  bestows  a  like  praise  upon  it,  in  Psalm,  147  :  19. — 
"He  sheweth  his  word  unto  Jacob,  his  statutes  and  judgments  unto  Israel.  He 
hath  not  dealt  so  with  any  nation,"  "  nor  to  any  nation  revealed  his  judgments  ;" 
as  though  he  would  say,  "  God  hath,  in  this,  consecrated  and  set  apart  the  He- 
brew tongue."  And  St.  Paul,  in  Romans,  1  :  2,  calls  the  Scriptures  holy ; 
doubtless,  because  the  Holy  Word  of  God  is  contained  therein.  In  like  manner, 
also,  may  the  Greek  be  called  a  sacred  language,  in  that  it  was  chosen  before  all 
other  languages  as  that  one  in  which  the  New  Testament  should  be  written,  and 
out  of  wh.ch  it  should  flow,  as  out  of  a  fountain,  into  other  languages  by  the 
means  of  translations,  thus  consecrating  these  too.  And  let  us  bethink  our- 
selves, that  haply  we  may  not  be  able  to  retain  the  gospel  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  languages  in  which  it  was  written.  For  they  are  the  scabbard,  in  which 
this  sword  of  the  spirit  is  sheathed  ;  they  are  the  casket,  in  which  this  jewel  is 
enshrined  ;  the  vessel,  in  which  this  drink  is  kept ;  the  room,  where  this  meat  is 
stored.  And,  as  we  are  taught  in  the  gospel  itself,  they  are  the  baskets,  in  which 
were  gathered  this  bread,  these  fishes,  and  thtse  fragments.  Yea,  should  we 
overlook  all  this,  and  (which  God  forbid !  )  let  go  our  hold  on  the  languages, 
then  we  would  not  only  lose  the  gospel,  but  would  finally  fall  away  to  that  degree, 
that  we  should  be  able  neither  to  speak  nor  to  write  either  German  or  Latin. 
And  in  this,  let  us  take  a  lesson  and  a  warning  by  the  sad  example  of  the  universi- 
ties and  cloisters,  where  they  have  not  only  let  the  gospel  slip  away  from  their 
grasp,  but  have  also  either  lost  or  corrupted  both  Latin  and  German,  so  that  the 
creatures  have  become  but  little  better  than  brute  beasts,  knowing  neither  how 
to  read  nor  write,  and,  more  than  this,  have  well-nigh  lost  even  their  native 
intellect  too.  For  this  reason,  the  apostles  themselves  felt  constrained  to  enclose 
and  bind  up,  as  it  were,  the  New  Testament  in  the  Greek  language ;  without 
doubt,  to  preserve  it  for  us  safe  and  intact,  as  in  a  holy  ark.  For  they  saw  all 
that,  which  was  to  come  to  pass,  and  which  even  now  has  been  fulfilled  ;  name- 
ly, if  it  were  committed  to  tradition  alone,  that,  amid,  many  a  wild,  disorderly,  and 
tumultuous  clash  and  commingling  of  opinions,  Christianity  would  become  ob- 
scured ;  which  event  it  would  be  impossible  to  guard  against,  and  equally  impos- 
sible to  preserve  the  plain  and  simple  truth,  unless  the  New  Testament  were  made 
sure  and  immutable  by  writing  and  by  language.  Hence,  we  may  conclude  that, 
where  the  languages  do  not  abide,  there,  in  the  end,  the  gospel  must  perish. 
That  this  is  true,  is  manifest,  moreover,  from  history ;  for  soon  after  the  apos- 
tles' time,  when  the  gift  of  tongues  ceased,  the  knowledge  of  the  gospel,  faith  in 
Christ,  and  the  whole  system  of  Christianity,  fell  away  more  and  more  5  and 
later,  since  the  time  that  the  languages  went  into  disrepute,  there  has  very  little 
transpired  in  Christendom  that  has  been  worthy  of  note  ;  but  a  vast  number  of 
frightful  enormities  have,  on  the  other  hand,  been  engendered,  in  consequence  of 
ignorance  of  the  languages.  And  now,  that  the  languages  have  again  dawned 
upon  us,  they  have  brought  such  light  with  them,  and  they  have  accomplished 
such  mighty  results,  that  all  the  world  is  lost  in  amazement,  and  is  forced  to 
confess  that  we  have  the  gospel  in  as" great  purity  almost  as  did  the  apostles  j 
nay,  that  it  has  come  again  in  its  pristine  purity,  and  is,  beyond  all  comparison, 
purer  than  it  was  in  the  time  of  St.  Jerome  or  St.  Augustine.  And,  in  fine, 
the  Holy  Spirit  understands  this  matter:  he  does  not  employ  any  light  or  need- 
less means  for  his  work  ;  and  he  has  deemed  the  languages  of  such  importance, 
that  he  has  often  brought  them  with  him  from  heaven.  Which  fact  alone 
ought  to  be  a  sufficient  inducement  to  us  to  cultivate  them  with  diligence  and  to 
pay  them  due  honor  ;  and  not,  by  any  means,  to  despise  them,  now  that  he  is 
again  breathing  into  them  the  breath  of  life  throughout  the  world.  "  But,"  you 
will  say,  "  many  of  the  Fathers  have  died  without  the  languages,  and  the, 
nevertheless  have  been  saved."  Very  true.  But  what  do  you  say  to  this,  that 
they  so  often  missed  wide  of  the  true  sens"e  of  the  Scriptures  ?  How  often  is 
St.  Augustine  at  fault  in  his  commentaries  on  the  Psalter,  and  elsewhere  ;  and 


144         LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS. 

Hilary,  too ;  yea?  and  all  who,  without  the  aid  of  the  languages,  have  undertaken 
to  expound  the  Scriptures  ?  And,  though  they  perhaps  may  have  spoken  the 
right  thing,  yet  have  they  not  betrayed  an  uncertainty,  whether  the  passage  in  hand 
would  bear  the  construction  that  they  have  put  upon  it?  But,  if  we  thus,  with 
our  own  doubtful  arguments  and  our  stumbling  references,  approach  to  the  de- 
fense of  the  faith,  will  not  Christians  be  contemned  and  derided  by  such  of  their 
antagonists  as  are  well-versed  in  the  languages  ?  And  will  not  these  become 
more  stubborn  in  their  unbelief,  inasmuch  as  they  will  have  good  reason  to  con- 
clude our  faith  a  delusion  ?  To  what  is  it  owing,  that  religion  is  now  so  generally 
scandalized  ?  To  the  fact  alone,  that  we  are  ignorant  of  the  languages ;  and 
there  is  no  help  for  it,  but  to  learn  them.  Was  not  St.  Jerome  constrained  to 
translate  the  Psalms  anew  from  the  Hebrew,  solely  because  when  there  came  up 
any  controversy  with  the  Jews,  they  silenced  their  opponents  with  the  sneering 
remark,  that  the  passage  cited  did  not  read  thus  and  so  in  the  Hebrew.  Now, 
all  the  expositions  of  the  ancient  fathers,  who  treated  the  Scriptures  without  the 
aid  of  the  languages,  (though  perhaps  they  advocated  no  unsound  doctrines,)  are 
nevertheless  quite  often  based  upon  doubtful,  inaccurate  or  inappropriate  render- 
ings. And  they  groped  about,  like  a  blind  man  at  a  wall,  quite  often  failing  alto- 
gether of  the  right  text,  and  stupidly  overlooking  it  in  their  enthusiasm,  so  that 
even  St.  Augustine  himself  was  obliged  to  confess,  in  his  treatise  on  the  Christian 
doctrines,  that  a  Christian  teacher,  who  would  interpret  the  Scriptures,  must 
understand  not  only  Latin  and  Greek,  but  Hebrew  likewise ;  "  for  otherwise,  it  is 
impossible  but  that  he  will  stumble  on  all  hands."  And  truly,  there  is  need  of 
labor  enough,  even  when  we  do  know  the  languages.  For  this  reason,  it  is  one 
thing  with  the  unlettered  preacher  of  the  faith,  and  quite  another  with  the  inter- 
preter of  the  Scriptures,  or  the  prophet,  as  St.  Paul  calls  the  latter.  The  unlet- 
tered preacher  has  at  his  command  such  a  number  of  clear  and  intelligible  texts 
and  paragraphs  in  the  vernacular,  that  he  can  understand  Christ  and  his  doctrine, 
lead  a  holy  life  himself,  and  preach  all  this  to  others  ;  but,  to  set  forth  the  sense 
of  the  Scriptures,  to  put  one's  self  in  the  van,  and  to  do  battle  against  heretics  and 
errorists,  this  can  never  come  about,  except  with  the  help  of  the  languages. 
And,  accordingly,  we  must  ever,  in  the  Christian  church,  have  such  prophets,  who 
shall  study  and  expound  the  Scriptures,  and,  besides,  shall  be  stalwart  champions 
of  the  faith  ;  for  all  which,  a  holy  life  and  sound  precepts  are  not  enough.  Hence, 
the  languages  are  of  the  first  necessity  to  a  pure  Christianity,  as  they  are  the 
source  of  the  power  that  resides  in  prophets  or  commentators;  although,  we 
ought  not  to  require  every  Christian  or  preacher  to  be  such  a  prophet,  as  also  St. 
Paul  admits,  in  1st  Cor.,  12  :  8,  9,  and  Eph.,  4:11. 

*  We  thus  see  how  it  is  that,  since  the  apostles'  time,  the  Scriptures  have  re- 
mained so  obscure ;  for,  nowhere  have  any  sure  and  reliable  commentaries  been 
written  upon  them.  Even  the  holy  fathers,  as  we  said  before,  have  often  fallen 
into  error,  and,  because  they  were  ignorant  of  the  languages,  they  very  seldom 
agree,  but  one  says  one  thing,  and  another  another.  St.  Bernard  was  a  man  of 
great  genius;  so  much  so,  that  I  would  place  him  above  all  the  eminent  doctrin- 
ists, both  ancient  and  modern.  But  yet,  how  often  does  he  play  upon  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Scriptures,  (albeit  in  a  spiritual  sense,)  thus  turning  it  aside  from 
its  true  meaning.  Hence,  the  sophists  averred  that  the  Scriptures  were  obscure, 
and  that  the  word  of  our  God  was  couched  in  perplexing  and  contradictory 
terms.  But  they  did  not  see  that  all  that  was  wanted,  was  a  knowledge  of  the 
languages  in  which  it  was  recorded.  For  nothing  is  more  plain-spoken  than 
God's  word,  when  we  have  become  thorough  masters  of  its  language.  A  Turk 
might  well  seem  obscure  to  me,  because  I  do  not  understand  his  speech,  when 
a  Turkish  child  of  seven  shall  easily  discern  his  meaning.  Hence,  it  is  a  rash 
undertaking,  to  attempt  to  learn  the  Scriptures  through  the  expositions  of  the 
Fathers,  and  through  reading  their  numerous  treatises  and  glosses.  For  this 
purpose  you  ought  to  go  direct  to  the  language  yourself.  For  the  beloved 
Fathers,  because  they  were  without  the  languages,  have  at  times  descanted  at 
great  length  upon  a  single  verse,  and  yet  cast  such  a  feeble  glimmer  of  light 
upon  it,  that  their  interpretation  was,  at  last,  but  half  right,  and  half  wrong. 
And  yet  you  will  persist  in  painfully  running  after  them,  when,  with  the  languages, 
you  might  be  yourself  in  a  position  rather  to  lead  than  to  follow.  For,  as  the 
light  of  the  sun  dispels  the  shadows  of  the  night,  so  do  the  languages  render 


LCTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS.  145 

useless  all  the  glosses  of  the  Fathers.  Since  now,  it  becomes  Christians  to  re- 
gard the  Scriptures  as  the  one  only  book,  which  is  all  their  own,  and  since  it  is  a 
sin  and  a  shame  for  us  not  to  be  familiar  with  our  own  book,  and  with  the  lan- 
guage and  the  word  of  our  God  ; — so  it  is  a  still  greater  sin  and  shame,  for  us 
not  to  learn  the  languages,  especially  now  that  God  is  bringing  to  us  and  freely 
offering  us  learned  men,  and  suitable  books,  and  every  thing  which  we  need  for 
this  purpose,  and  is,  so  to  speak,  urging  us  to  the  task,  so  desirous  is  he  to  have 
his  book  open  to  us.  O,  how  joyful  would  those  beloved  Fathers  have  been, 
if  they  could  have  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  and  have  learned 
the  languages  so  easily  as  we  now  may  do  it !  How  great  was  their  labor,  how 
constant  their  diligence  in  picking  up  but  a  few  of  the  crumbs,  while  we  may 
secure  half,  yea,  even  the  whole  of  the  loaf,  with  scarce  any  trouble  at  all.  And 
how  does  their  diligence  put  our  inactivity  to  the  blush  ?  Yea,  how  severely 
will  God  punish  this  our  apathy  and  neglect!  Again,  in  order  to  follow  Paul's 
precept,  in  1  Cor.,  14  :  29,  to  the  effect  that  we  must  judge  of  every  doctrine  of 
Christianity,  we  must,  of  necessity,  first  learn  the  languages.  For  it  may  chance 
that  the  teacher  or  preacher  shall  go  through  with  the  whole  of  the  Bible,  ex- 
plaining it  as  seemeth  to  him  good,  whether  that  be  right  or  wrong,  and  none 
of  his  hearers  can  dispute  him,  if  none  of  them  is  competent  to  judge  of  his 
truth  or  error.  But,  to  judge,  we  must  know  the  languages,  else  we  shall  have 
nothing  to  guide  us.  Hence,  though  the  faith  of  the  gospel  may  be  set  forth  in  a 
certain  measure  by  the  unlettered  preacher  ;  yet  such  preaching  is  weak  at  the 
best,  and  we  soon  become  wearied  and  discouraged,  and  we  faint  for  lack  of  nu- 
triment. But,  where  the  languages  are  well  understood,  there  all  is  freshness 
and  strength,  the  Scriptures  are  thoroughly  winnowed,  and  faith  is  renewed  day 
by  day.  Nor  should  we  suffer  ourselves  to  be  led  astray,  because  some  magnify 
the  spirit,  while  they  despise  the  letter.  So,  too,  some,  like  the  Waldensian  breth- 
ren, deem  the  languages  of  no  account  whatever.  But,  my  good  friends,  the 
spirit  is  here, — the  spirit  is  there.  I  too  have  been  in  the  spirit;  and,  I  too  have 
seen  spirits,  (if  I  may  glory  of  myself.)  And  my  spirit  has  proved  some  things, 
while  your  spirit  has  been  quietly  sitting  in  a  corner,  and  doing  little  more  than 
making  a  vain-glorious  boast  of  its  existence.  I  know,  as  well  as  another,  that  it 
is  the  spirit  alone  which  does  almost  every  thing.  Had  I  passed  my  days  in  obscu- 
rity, and  had  I  received  no  aid  from  the  languages  toward  a  sure  and  exact  un- 
derstanding of  the  Scriptures,  I  might  yet  have  led  a  holy  life,  and  in  my  retire- 
ment have  preached  sound  doctrine ;  but  then  I  should  have  left  the  pope  and 
the  sophists,  together  with  the  whole  body  of  Anti-Christ,  just  where  I  found  them. 
The  devil  does  not  regard  my  spirit  of  near  so  much  account  as  my  thoughts, 
and  my  writings  upon  the  Scriptures.  For  my  spirit  takes  nothing  from  him, 
save  myself  alone  •  but  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  the  sayings  therein  contained, 
make  the  world  too  narrow  for  him,  and  strip  him  of  his  power.  Therefore,  I 
can  not  -accord  my  praise  at  all  to  my  Waldensian  brothers,  for  the  low  esteem  in 
which  they  hold  the  languages.  For,  though  their  precepts  square  with  the 
truth,  yet  they  can  not  but  fail  often  of  the  right  text,  and  they  must  necessarily 
ever  be  unprepared  and  unequipped  for  the  defense  of  the  faith,  and  the  uproot- 
ing of  false  doctrines.  And  for  th's  reason  are  they  so  obscure ;  and  their  speech 
is  so  warped  from  the  standard  of  the  Scriptures,  that  I  greatly  fear  they  are  not 
or  else  will  not  abide  in  a  pure  faith.  For  it  is  very  dangerous  to  speak  of  the 
things  of  God  otherwise,  or  in  other  words,  than  God  himself  employs.  In  a 
word,  it  may  be  that  they  have  the  witness  of  a  holy  life  and  sound  doctrine 
among  themselves  ;  but,  while  they  remain  without  the  languages,  they  will  fail 
precisely  where  others  have  failed,  namely,  in  not  searching  the  Scriptures  with 
thoroughness  and  care,  in  order  thereby  to  render  themselves  useful  to  others. 
But,  since  they  now  have  the  opportunity  to  do  this,  and  yet  will  not  do  it,  let 
them  consider  how  they  will  answer  for  themselves  before  God. 

Thus  far  I  have  spoken  of  the  usefulness  and  the  necessity  of  the  languages  in 
their  bearing  on  spiritual  concerns  and  on  the  welfare  of  the  soul.  Now  let 
us  look  to  the  body  and  ask,  were  there  no  soul,  no  heaven,  nor  hell,  and  were 
temporal  affairs  to  be  administered  solely  with  a  view  to  this  worJd,  whether  these 
would  not  stand  in  need  of  good  schools  and  learned  teachers  «nuch  more  even 
than  do  our  spiritual  interests  ?  Nor  hitherto  have  the  sophists  interested  them- 
selves in  this  matter  at  all,  but  have  adapted  their  schools  to  the  spiritual  order 


146  LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS. 

alone;  so  that  it  was  counted  a  reproach  to  a  learned  man,  if  he  was  married; 
and  such  an  one  was  told,  "  you  are  of  the  world,  for  you  have  severed  yourself 
from  our  order  entirely  ;"  as  if  the  spiritual  order  alone  were  pleasing  in  the  sight 
of  God,  while  the  temporal,  (as  they  style  it,)  was  given  over  to  the  devil  and 
Anti-Christ.  It  is  needless  for  me  here  to  argue,  that  all  temporal  government 
is  of  Divine  origin  and  authority ;  for  on  this  point  I  have  spoken  elsewhere,  and 
that  so  fully,  that  no  one,  I  hope,  will  venture  to  deny  it ;  but,  the  question  now 
is,  how  to  provide  able  and  competent  men  to  govern  us.  And  in  this  the  heathen 
might  justly  put  us  to  shame  and  confusion  of  face  ;  for  they,  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  especially,  gave  diligent  heed  to  the  teaching  and  training  of  boys  and 
girls,  to  fit  them  for  all  the  various  stations  of  temporal  trust  and  authority,  and  yet 
they  were  entirely  ignorant  whether  this  was  pleasing  in  the  sight  of  God  or 
not ;  so  that  I  blush  for  our  Christians,  when  T  think  of  it,  and  for  our  Germans, 
above  all,  who  are  clowns ;  yea,  brute  beasts,  one  might  call  them.  For  they 
say,  "  of  what  use  are  schools,  unless  you  intend  to  enter  the  service  of  the 
church  ?"  But  surely  we  know,  or  ought  to  know,  how  necessary,  how  proper, 
and  how  pleasing  in  the  sight  of  God  it  is,  for  a  prince,  a  lord,  a  magistrate,  or 
any  one  in  authority,  to  excel  in  learning  and  in  wisdom,  so  that  he  may  discharge 
the  duties  of  his  office  in  a  Christian  manner.  If  now,  as  for  argument's  sake  1 
have  supposed,  there  were  no  soul,  and  if  we  had  no  need  at  all  of  schools  or 
of  the  languages  fur  the  sake  of  the  Scriptures,  or  of  God,  yet  it  would  be  a  suffi- 
cient reason  for  establishing  in  every  place  the  very  best  of  schools,  both  for  boys 
and  girls,  that  the  world,  merely  to  maintain  its  outward  prosperity,  has  need  of 
shrewd  and  accomplished  men  and  women.  Men  to  pilot  state  and  people 
safely,  and  to  good  issues ;  women  to  train  up  well  and  to  confirm  in  good  courses 
both  children  and  servants.  Now,  such  men  must  first  be  boys,  and  such 
women,  girls.  Hence,  it  is  our  duty  to  give  a  right  training  and  suitable  instruc- 
tion to  these  boys  and  girls.  "  Yes,"  you  will  say,  u  but  every  one  can  do  this 
for  himself,  and  can  teach  his  sons  and  daughters,  and  bring  them  up  under  a 
good  discipline."  I  answer,  verily  we  see  but  too  well,  what  sort  of  teaching 
and  discipline  this  is.  For  where  it  is  carried  to  the  farthest  extent,  and  turns 
out  well  besides,  it  does  not  go  any  further  than  this,  to  impart  an  easy  air,  and 
respectful  carriage;  otherwise,  the  children  appear  to  no  more  advantage  than  so 
many  machines,  who  do  not  know  how  to  converse  well  upon  a  variety  of  topics, 
and  who  are  the  very  farthest  from  being  able  to  give  aid  and  counsel  to  others. 
But,  if  they  were  taught  and  trained  in  schools  or  elsewhere,  where  the  masters 
and  mistresses  were  learned  and  discreet,  and  could  instruct  them  in  the  lan- 
guages, arts,  and  histories,  they  would  thus  become  familiar  with  the  great  deeds 
and  the  famous  sayings  of  all  times ;  would  see  how  it  fared  with  such  a  city, 
kingdom,  province,  man,  or  woman,  and  would  bring  before  their  eyes,  as  it  were 
in  a  mirror,  the  whole  world  from  the  beginning,  with  all  its  character  and 
life,  its  plans  and  achievements,  its  successes  and  failures  :  by  all  this  they  would 
shape  their  sentiments,  and  to  all  this  conform  the  course  of  their  life  in  the  fear 
of  God.  From  the  same  histories,  too,  they  would  gain  wit  and  wisdom,  and 
learn  what  to  pursue  and  what  to  avoid  in  life,  and  so,  by  and  by,  be  able  to 
counsel  or  to  govern  others.  But,  the  instruction  which  is  imparted  at  home, 
without  such  schools,  will  make  us  wise  only  through  our  own  experience.  And 
before  we  get  wisdom  thus,  we  shall  be  an  hundred  times  dead,  and  shall  have 
passed  our  lives  in  folly ;  for,  to  perfect  our  experience,  we  need  a  long  series  of 
years.  Since,  then,  young  people  are  always  full  of  frolic  and  life,  and  always 
seeking  something  to  do,  and  finding  their  pleasure  in  action  ;  and  since  you  can 
not  curb  their  spirits,  nor  would  it  be  a  good  thing  even  if  you  could  ;  why  should 
we  not  establish  such  schools,  and  unfold  before  them  such  arts  ?  For  now,  by 
God's  grace,  matters  have  taken  such  a  turn,  that  children  are  enabled  to  learn 
by  means  of  pleasure,  arid,  in  sport,  as  it  were,  every  thing,  whether  it  be  lan- 
guages, arts,  or  histories.  And  our  schools  are  no  longer  hells  and  purgatories,  as 
they  once  were,  where  a  boy  was  forever  tormented  with  their  cases  and  their 
tenses,  and  where  he  learned  nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  by  reason  of  ceaseless 
flogging,  trembling,  woe  and  anguish.  If,now,  we  take  so  much  time  and  trouble 
to  teach  children '  to  play  at  cards,  to  sing  and  to  dance,  why  shall  we  not  also 
spend  time  enough  to  teach  reading  and  the  other  arts,  while  they  have  youth 
and  leisure,  and  while  they  show  both  an  aptness  and  a  fondness  for  such  things  ? 


LDTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS.  147 

As  for  myself,  if  I  had  children  and  were  able,  I  would  teach  them  not  only  the 
languages  and  history,  but  singing  likewise ;  and  with  music  I  would  combine  a 
full  course  of  mathematics.  For  what  would  it  all  require  but  a  mere  child's 
play,  as  the  Greeks  brought  up  their  children  of  old  ?  And  what  a  wonderful 
people  they  were,  and  how  well-fitted  for  all  manner  of  occupations.  And 
alas !  how  often  do  I  lament  my  own  ease,  in  that  I  read  so  few  of  the  poets  and 
historians  when  I  was  young,  and  that  there  was  no  one  to  direct  me  to  them. 
But,  in  their  place,  I  was  compelled  to  flounder  in  all  manner  of  vain  philoso- 
phies and  scholastic  trash,  true  Serbonian  bogs  of  the  devil,  and  with  much  cost 
and  care,  and  vast  detriment  besides,  so  that  1  have  had  enough  to  do  ever  since, 
in  undoing  the  harm  they  did  me. 

But,  you  say,  u  we  can  not  bring  all  our  children  up  to  be  students  ;  we  can 
not  spare  them  ;  we  need  them  at  home  to  work  for  us."  I  answer,  "•  I  do  not 
ask  for  the  establishment  of  such  schools,  as  we  have  had  hitherto,  where  our 
young  men  have  spent  twenty  or  thirty  years  over  Donatus  or  Alexander,  and 
yet  have  not  learned  any  thing  at  all.  We  have  now  another  world,  and  things 
are  done  after  a  different  pattern.  And  I  ask  no  more  than  this,  namely,  that 
boys  shall  attend  upon  such  schools  as  I  have  in  view,  an  hour  or  two  a  day.  and 
none  the  less  5  spend  the  rest  of  their  time  at  home,  or  in  learning  some  trade,  or 
doing  whatever  else  you  will  ;  thus  both  these  matters  will  be  cared  for  together, 
while  they  are  young  and  opportunities  are  favorable.  For  else,  they  would 
haply  spend  tenfold  this  time  in  gunning  and  ball-playing.  So,  too,  your  little 
girls  may  easily  find  time  enough  to  go  to  school  an  hour  a  day,  and  yet  do  all  their 
household  duties ;  for  they  now  devote  more  than  that  to  over-much  play, 
dancing,  and  sleep. 

It  is  very  plain  that  all  we  need,  is  a  cordial  and  earnest  determination  to  train 
up  our  youth  aright,  and  by  this  means  furnish  the  world  with  wise  and  efficient 
men.  For  the  devil  is  better  pleased  with  coarse  blockheads  and  with  folks  who 
are  useful  to  nobody ;  because  where  such  characters  abound,  then  things  do 
not  go  on  prosperously  here  on  the  earth. 

Now,  as  for  the  most  promising  children,  those  who  we  may  hope  will  become 
fitted  for  the  position  of  teachers,  either  male  or  female,  or  of  preachers,  or  whom 
we  shall  look,  to  to  fill  other  offices  in  the  world  and  in  the  church;  these  we 
should  leave  more  and  longer  at  schools,  or  perhaps  keep  them  there  altogether : 
as  we  read  concerning  the  blessed  martyrs,  who  educated  St.  Agnes,  Agatha, 
Lucia,  and  the  like.  For  this  purpose,  too,  were  cloisters  and  monasteries  first 
founded  ;  but  now,  they  have  been  turned  aside  to  subserve  other  and  most  un- 
holy uses.  And  perhaps  it  must  needs  have  been  so ;  for  the  shorn  flock  are 
well-nigh  fleeced  altogether :  they  have  become  for  the  most  part  wholly  unfit 
either  to  teach  or  to  guide,  for  they.know  nothing  except  how  to  pamper  their 
bodies;  and  this  is  no  wonder,  for  no  one  thing  besides  have  they  ever  learned. 
But,  verily,  we  must  have  men  of  another  sort ;  men  who  shall  dispense  to  us 
God's  word  and  his  ordinances,  and  who  shall  watch  for  the  souls  of  the  peo- 
ple. Such  men,  however,  it  will  be  in  vain  for  us  to  look  for,  if  we  suffer  our 
present  schools  to  decay,  without  establishing  other  and  Christian  schools  in 
their  place.  And  though  the  schools,  as  hitherto  kept,  may  be  still  in  existence, 
yet  they  can  only  furnish  us  with  blind  guides,  perverse  and  corrupt  in  all  their 
ways. 

Hence,  there  is  great  need,  not  for  the  sake  of  the  young  alone,  but  also  for  the 
welfare  and  the  stability  of  all  our  institutions,  temporal  and  spiritual  alike,  that 
we  should  begin  at  once,  and  in  good  earnest,  to  attend  to  this  matter.  For,  if 
we  delay  too  long,  we  may  haply  find  no  place  for  effort,  however  much  we  shall 
desire  it,  and  our  most  poignant  regrets  will  then  be  unavailing  forever.  Con~ 
sider,  for  example,  the  great  diligence  that  King  Solomon  exercised  in  this  mat- 
ter, and  the  interest  that  he  shewed  in  the  young,  in  that,  amid  all  his  royal  occu- 
pations, he  found  time  to  compose  a  book  for  their  special  instruction,  viz :  the 
Book  of  Proverbs.  Consider  Christ  himself:  how  he  called  little  children  to 
him ;  with  what  care  he  commended  them  to  us,  telling  us  withal  that  angels 
wait  upon  them. — Matt.  18:  2.  And  in  this,  he  shews  us  how  great  a  service 
it  is  to  bring  them  up  well,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that  he  is  ever  exceedingly 
angry  when  we  offend  or  pervert  them. 

Wherefore,  dearly  beloved  rulers,  bend  yourselves  to  the  work  which  God 
so  strictly  enjoins  upon  you,  which  your  office  involves,  which  our  youth  stand 


148  LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS. 

so  much  in  need  of,  and  which  neither  the  world  nor  the  spirit  can  afford  to  do 
without.  We  have  lain,  alas !  too  long  in  the  darkness  of  corruption  and  death; 
too  long  have  we  been  German  beasts.  Let  us  now  act  as  becomes  reasonable 
beings,  so  that  God  may  mark  our  gratitude  for  the  good  th.ngs  he  has  given 
us,  and  that  other  lands  may  see  that  we,  too,  are  men  ;  nay,  more,  that  we  are 
men  who  can  either  learn  somewhat  from  them,  or  impart  somewhat  to  them  : 
so,  through  us,  the  world  shall  be  made  better.  I  have  done  my  part ;  and  with 
longing  have  I  desired  to  bring  aid  and  counsel  to  this  German  land.  That 
some,  who  ought  to  know  better,  detest  me  for  it,  and  throw  my  faithful  counsel 
to  the  wind, — all  this  I  must  let  pass.  I  well  know  that  others  m.ght  have  done 
better  than  I ;  but,  since  these  have  remained  silent,  I  have  spoken  out,  as  well  as 
it  lay  in  me  to  do.  Poorly  though  it  has  been  said,  it  were  better  thus,  than  had 
I  held  my  peace.  And  I  am  in  hopes  that  God  will  awaken  some  of  you,  so  that 
my  true  admonitions  shall  not  be  spilt  upon  the  ground  ;  and  that,  taking  no 
thought  of  him  who  speaks,  you  may  be  moved,  by  the  things  spoken  of,  to  bestir 
yourselves. 

Finally,  it  is  well  for  all  those  who  eagerly  desire  to  see  such  schools  and  studies 
established  and  sustained  over  Germany,  to  bear  in  mind  the  importance  of  sparing 
neither  trouble  nor  expense,  to  the  end  that  good  libraries  may  be  founded,  espe- 
cially in  the  large  cities  ;  since  in  them  both  means  and  opportunities  are  greater 
than  elsewhere.  For  if  the  gospel,  together  with  all  the  arts  and  sciences,  are  to 
by  perpetuated,  they  must  be  enclosed  and  bound  up  in  books  and  writings.  And 
the  prophets  and  apostles  themselves,  as  I  said  before,  did  this  very  thing.  And 
this  was  not  only  that  those  who  minister  to  us  both  in  temporal  and  in  spiritual 
things  might  have  wherewithal  to  read  ancT  to  study  ;  but  also  that  good  books 
themselves  should  be  preserved  and  not  ba  lost,  so  that  we  might  have  that 
knowledge  of  the  languages,  which  now,  by  God's  grace,  we  possess.  We  see, 
too,  the  importance  that  St.  Paul  attaches  to  this  matter,  where  he  commands 
Timothy,  (1st.  Ep.  4:  13,)  "to  give  attendance  to  reading;"  and  also  where  he 
bids  him,  (2nd  Ep.  4 :  13,)  bring  with  him  when  he  came  the  parchments  that  he  left 
at  Troas.  Yea,  all  nations  eminent  in  history  have  paid  attention  to  this  matt.-r  ;  the 
Israelites  more  than  all.  Moses,  who  made  their  first  record,  commanded  the  book  of 
the  law  to  be  preserved  in  the  ark  of  God,  and  committed  it  to  the  keeping  of  the  Le- 
vites.  And,  whoever  desired  it,  could  th  -re  have  a  copy  made  for  himself;  Moses, 
also,  laid  his  prophetic  injunction  on  the  k.ng  that  was  to  corne,  to  obtain  such  copy 
from  the  Levites.  Thus  we  see  clearly  that  God  ordained  the  Levitical  priest- 
hood, that  they  might,  in  connection  with  the<r  other  duties,  keep  and  guard  the 
books  of  the  law.  Afterward,  the  collection  was  enriched  and  rendered  more 
complete  by  Joshua,  Samuel,  David,  Solomon,  Isaiah,  and  other  kings  and  proph- 
ets. Hence,  arose  the  Holy  Scriptures  of , the  Old  Testament,  which  would 
never  have  been  brought  together  or  preserved,  had  not  God  so  solemnly  and 
repeatedly  commanded  it  to  be  done.  With  this  example  in  view,  the  monaste- 
ries and  cloisters  in  former  times  founded  libraries,  albeit  they  contained  but  few 
good  books.  And  what  a  pity  it  was,  that  more  pains  had  not  been  taken  to  collect 
good  books,  and  form  good  libraries,  at  the  proper  time,  when  good  books  and 
able  men  were  in  abundance ;  but,  alas,  we  know  too  well  that,  in  the  gradual 
lapse  of  time,  all  the  arts  and  the  languages  went  to  decay,  and,  instead  of  books 
having  the  ring  of  the  true  metal,  the  devil  brought  in  upon  us  a  flood  of  un- 
couth, useless,  and  pernicious  monkish  legends ;  the  "  Florista,"  "  Grsecista." 
"  Labyrinthus,"  "  Dormi  Secure,"  and  the  like ;  by  the  means  of  which  the 
Latin  tongue  has  become  corrupt,  and  there  are  nowhere  any  good  schools, 
doctrines,  or  systems  of  study  remaining.  But  now,  in  these  latter  times,  as  it  has 
been  told  us,  and  as  we  ourselves  may  see,  there  have  arisen  men  who  have  re- 
stored, though  as  yet  in  a  very  imperfect  manner,  th^  languages  and  arts ;  having 
picked  them  out  of  a  few  pieces  and  fragments  of  old  books,  that  had  long  been 
given  over  to  the  dust  and  worms  ;  nor  have  they  yet  ceased  from  their  labors,  but 
are  renewing  them  daily.  So  we  search  for  gold  or  jewels  amid  the  ashes  of 
some  ruined  city.  In  this  matter  it  would  be  right,  and  God  would  justly  punish 
our  ingratitude,  in  not  acknowledging  his  bounty,  and  taking  means  in  time,  and 
while  we  can,  to  keep  good  books  and  learned  men  among  us,  (but  letting  them 
pass  by,  as  though  they  did  not  concern  us  ;)  it  would  be  right,  I  say,  if  he  should 
suffer  all  this  to  leave  us,  and  instead  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  good  books, 
should  bring  us  Aristotle  back  again,  together  with  other  pernicious  books,  which 


LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS.         149 

serve  only  to  lead  us  ever  further  away  from  the  Bible,  that  so  we  might  be  deliv- 
ered over  again  to  the  monks,  those  minions  of  the  devil,  and  to  the  vain  mum- 
meries of  the  scholastics.  \A  as  it  not  a  burning  shame  that  formerly  a  boy  must 
needs  study  twenty  years  or  longer,  only  to  learn  a  jargon  of  bad  Latin,  and 
then  to  turn  priest  and  say  mass  ?  And  he,  who  finally  arrived  at  this  pinnacle 
of  his  hopes,  was  accounted  happy  ;  and  happy  was  the  mother  who  had  borne 
such  a  son.  But,  for  all  this,  he  remained  a  poor  illiterate  man  all  his  days,  and 
was  neither  good  to  cluck  nor  to  lay  eggs.  Such  are  the  teachers  and  guides 
that  we  have  had  to  put  up  with,  who  knew  nothing  themselves,  and  accordingly 
were  unable  to  teach  any  thing  that  was  either  good  or  true.  Yea  !  they  did  not 
even  know  how  to  learn,  any  more  than  they  did  how  to  teach.  And,  why  was 
this  so  ?  It  was  because  there  were  no  other  books  accessible,  save  the  barbar- 
ous productions  of  the  monks  and  sophists.  Of  course,  in  such  a  state  of  things, 
we  could  not  look  for  any  thing  else  than  scholars  and  teachers  as  barbarous  as 
the  books  which  taught  them.  A  jackdaw  hatches  never  a  dove  ;  neither  will  a 
fool  make  a  wise  man.  Such  is  the  reward  of  our  ingratitude,  in  not  using  dili- 
gence in  the  establishment  of  libraries,  and  in  leaving  good  books  to  perish,  while 
we  have  cherished  and  preserved  useless  ones.  But,  my  advice  is,  that  you  do 
not  carry  home  all  sorts  of  books,  without  distinction,  thinking  of  numbers  only. 
I  would  have  a  choice  exercised  in  this  matter,  so  that  we  should  not  heap  to- 
gether the  commentaries  of  all  the  jurists,  the  writings  of  all  the  theologians,  the 
researches  of  all  the  philosophers,  nor  the  sermons  of  all  the  monks.  Nay,  I 
would  banish  all  such  muck  and  mire,  and  provide  me  a  library  that  should  con- 
tain sterling  books, — books  commended  to  me  by  learned  men.  In  the 
first  place,  the  Holy  Scriptures  should  be  there,  both  in  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew, 
and  German;  also  in  all  other  languages  in  which  they  might  be  contained. 
Next,  I  would  have  those  books  wh  ch  are  useful  in  learning  the  languages ;  as, 
for  instance,  the  poets  and  orators,  and  that  without  inquiring  whether  they  are 
Pagan  or  Christian,  Greek  or  Latin.  For,  from  all  such  are  we  to  learn  gram- 
mar and  style.  Next,  there  should  be  books  pertaining  to  the  liberal  arts  ;  and 
likewise  treatises  on  all  the  other  arts,  and  on  the  sciences.  And  lastly,  books  on 
jurisprudence  and  medicine;  though  here,  too,  a  wary  choice  is  to  be  exercised. 
But,  foremost  of  all,  shouldJbe  chionicles  and  histories,  in  whatever  languages  we 
could  procure  them  ;  for  these  are  of  singular  usefulness,  to  instruct  us  in  the 
course  of  the  world,  and  in  the  art  of  government;  and,  in  these,  too,  we  may 
see  the  manifestation  of  God's  wonderful  works.  Oh !  how  many  a  worthy  say- 
ing, how  many  a  noble  deed,  said  and  done  here  in  Germany,  might  we  now 
have  had,  if  they  had  not,  alas  !  passed  clean  out  of  the  memory  of  man  !  And 
this,  for  the  reason  that  there  was  no  one  to  record  them  ;  or,  if  they  were  re- 
corded, that  no  one  has  preserved  the  record.  This,  too,  is  the  reason  that  they 
know  nothing  of  us  in  other  lands ;  and  all  the  world  must  fain  call  us  German 
beasts,  who  only  know  how  to  get  substance,  and  then  consume  it  in  gluttony  and 
riotous  living.  But  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans,  and,  for  the  matter  of  that,  the 
Hebrews,  too,  have  described  the  events  that  took  place  in  their  midst  so  minutely 
and  faithfully,  that,  if  but  a  woman  or  a  child  said  or  did  any  thing  worthy  of 
note,  forthwith  it  was  chronicled,  so  that  all  the  world  should  read  it  and  know 
of  it ;  and  yet,  we  Germans  remain  bound  up  in  ourselves,  having  neither  a 
thought  nor  a  wish  that  looks  beyond  our  own  interests. 

But  since,  now  in  these  days,  God  has  so  graciously  come  to  our  aid  with  all 
fullness  both  of  art,  learned  men  and  books,  it  is  time  that  we  should  reap  and 
gather  in  of  the  choicest  that  we  can  find,  and  lay  up  great  store  of  treasure, 
that  we  may  have  wherewith  to  maintain  ourselves  in  the  future  out  of  these 
golden  years,  by  reason  of  having  improved  the  opportunity  of  this  rich  harvest. 
For  there  is  danger  that  it  may  finally  come  to  this,  (and  already  things  are  tend- 
ing that  way,)  that,  through  the  agency  of  the  devil,  good  books,  which  have  been 
restored  to  us  by  the  art  of  printing,  shall  be  submerged  under  a  flood  of  disso- 
lute and  ps.Tnicious  works,  in  which  there  is  neither  sense  nor  reason ;  a  flood 
that  shall  pour  in  again,  as  aforetime,  and  fill  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  land. 
For  the  devil  is  surely  plotting  to  bring  back  the  former  state  of  things,  so  that 
men  shall  again  painfully  stagger  under  a  load  of  "  catholicons,"  "  floristas," 
"modernistas,"  and  all  the  vile  and  abominable  trash  of  the  monks  and  sophists ; 
so  we  shall  again  be  ever  learning,  and  never  coming  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
truth. 


150  LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS. 

Wherefore,  I  beseech  you,  my  beloved  rulers  and  friends,  let  this  my  faithfulness 
and  diligence  bear  fruit  in  you.  And,  though  there  be  some  who  deem  me  of 
too  little  consequence  to  give  heed  to  my  counsel,  and  despise  me  as  one  under  the 
ban  of  tyrants,  yet,  I  hope  that  oue  day  they  will  see  that  I  did  not  seek  my 
own,  but  only  the  welfare  and  the  happiness  of  the  entire  German  nation.  And 
though  I  were  a  fool,  and  yet  should  light  upon  some  good  path,  it  would  be  no 
disgrace  to  a  wise  man  to  follow  me.  And  though  I  were  a  Turk  and  a  heathen, 
yet,  should  Christians  perceive  that  what  I  had  said  was  not  to  my  own  profit 
but  to  that  of  others,  even  thus,  they  could  not  justly  despise  my  efforts  to  serve 
them.  There  are  times,  too,  when  a  fool  may  give  better  advice  than  a  whole 
army  of  counselors.  Moses  suffered  himself  to  be  taught  by  Jethro.— Exodus, 
18:  17. 

Now,  I  commend  you  all  to  the  grace  of  God,  and  I  pray  him  to  soften  your 
hearts,  so  that  you  may  right  earnestly  espouse  the  cause  of  poor,  needy,  for- 
saken youth,  and  through  Divine  help  assisting  you,  and  for  the  sake  of  a  good 
and  a  Christian  government  here  in  our  Germany,  that  you  may  aid  and  counsel 
them,  hi  body  and  in  soul,  with  all  fullness  and  superfluity,  to  the  praise  and 
glory  of  God  the  Father,  through  our  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ.  Amen." 

VIII.      DUTY   OF  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE   OF  CHILDREN. 

In  his  sermon,  "  On  keeping  children  at  school,"  Luther  says : 

God  has  given  you  children  and  the  means  of  their  support,  not  that  you  should 
idolize  them,  or  lead  them  into  the  vanities  of  the  world.  But  he  has  laid  his 
most  solemn  inj  unctions  upon  you,  to  train  them  up  for  his  service. 

He  speaks  in  terms  of  praise  of  the  learned  classes,  especially  the 
clerical,  and  presses  conviction  upon  consciences  of  parents,  when,  out 
of  avarice,  they  withhold  from  study  a  boy  who  is  strongly  bent  upon 
learning. 

Cheerfully  let  thy  son  study,  and  should  he  the  while  even  be  compelled  to  earn 
his  bread,  yet  remember  that  you  are  offering  to  our  Lord  God  a  fine  little  block 
of  marble  out  of  which  he  can  hew  for  you  a  master-piece.  And  do  not  regard 
the  fact  that  in  these  days  the  lust  for  gain  is  everywhere  throwing  learning  into 
contempt;  nor  say,  in  your  haste,  "If  my  son  can  write  and  read  German  and 
keep  accounts,  it  is  enough ;  I  will  make  a  merchant  of  him  ;"  for  they  will  soon 
be  brought  to  such  a  pass,  that  they  would  gladly  dig  ten  ells  deep  in  the  ground 
with  their  fingers,  if,  by  so  doing,  they  could  find  a  learned  man  ;  for  a  merchant, 
methinks,  would  not  be  a  merchant  long,  should  law  and  theology  perish.  Of 
this  I  am  full  sure,  we  theologians  and  jurists  must  remain  with  you,  or  the 
whole  world  will  go  to  ruin  together,  and  that  without  remedy.  If  theologians 
turn  aside,  then  the  word  of  God  will  come  to  naught,  and  we  shall  all  become 
heathen,  yea,  very  devils;  if  jurists  turn  aside,  then  law  will  fly  away,  bearing 
peace  with  it ;  and,  amid  robbery,  murder,  outrage,  and  all  manner  of  violence,  we 
shall  sink  below  the  beasts  of  the  forest.  But,  how  much  the  merchant  will  make 
and  heap  together,  when  peace  shall  have  fled  from  the  earth,  his  ledger  will  tell 
him  better  than  I;  and  how  much  good  his  possessions  will  do  him,  when 
preaching  shall  be  no  more,  this  let  his  conscience  declare. 

Luther  did  not  mean,  however,  to  insist  that  all  boys  should  go 
through  a  complete  course  of  study,  as  we  may  perceive  from  the 
"  Letter  to  the  German  nobles."  He  expresses  himself  in  the  most 
decided  terms,  on  the  duty  of  magistrates  to  compel  the  attendance 
of  children  at  school. 

I  hold  it  to  be  incumbent  on  those  in  authority  to  command  their  subjects  to 
Keep  their  children  at  school ;  for  it  is,  beyond  doubt,  their  duty  to  insure  the 
permanence  of  the  above-named  offices  and  positions,  so  that  preachers,  jurists, 
curates,  scribes,  physicians,  schoolmasters,  and  the  like,  may  not  fail  from  among 


LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS.  15J 

us ;  for  we  can  not  do  without  them.  If  they  have  the  right  to  command  their 
subjects,  the  able-bodied  among  them,  in  time  of  war,  to  handle  musket  and- pike, 
to  mount  the  walls,  or  to  do  whatever  else  the  exigency  may  "require ;  with  how 
much  the  more  reason  ought  they  to  compel  the  people  to  keep  their  children  at 
school,  inasmuch  as  here  upon  earth  the  most  terrible  of  contests,  wherein  there 
is  never  a  truce,  is  ever  going  on,  and  that  with  the  devil  himself,  who  is  lying  in 
wait,  by  stealth  and  unawares,  if  so  be  that  he  may  drain  city  and  kingdom,  and 
empty  quite  out  of  them  all  the  brave  and  good,  even  until  he  has  removed  the 
kernel  utterly,  and  naught  shall  be  left  but  a  mere  shell,  full  of  idle  mischief- 
makers,  to  be  mere  puppets  in  his  hands  to  do  his  pleasure.  Then  will  your 
city  or  your  country  sufivra  true  famine,  and,  without  the  smoke  of  conflict,  will 
be  silently  destroyed  from  within,  and  that  without  warning.  Even  the  Turk 
manages  in  another  way ;  for  he  takes  every  third  child  throughout  his  empire, 
and  trains  him  to  some  calling  perforce.  How  much  more,  then,  ought  our  rul- 
ers to  put  at  least  some  children  to  school ;  not  that  I  would  have  a  boy  taken 
away  from  his  parents,  only  that  he  should  be  educated,  for  his  own  good  and 
the  general  welfare,  to  some  calling  that  shall  yield  him  abundant  fruits  of  his 
industry.  Wherefore,  let  magistrates  lay  these  things  to  heart,  and  let  them 
keep  a  vigilant  look-out ;  and,  wherever  they  see  a  promising  lad,  have  him  placed 
at  school. 

Those  fathers,  who  feared  that  learning  would  be  pernicious  to 
their  children,  Luther  pacified  by  using  their  own  arguments. 

But,  you  say,  "  how  if  it  turn  out  ill,  and  my  son  become  a  heretic  or  a  vil- 
lain ?  For  the  proverb  says,  the  scholar's  skill  turns  oft  to  ill  ?"  Well,  and  what 
of  it?  Venture,  nevertheless.  Your  diligence  and  toil  will  not  be  thrown  away. 
God  will  reward  you  according  to  your  faithfulness,  whether  your  work  pros- 
per or  fail.  Besides,  you  must  act  on  uncertainties  in  respect  to  any  pursuit 
whatever,  that  you  may  train  him  for.  How  was  it  with  good  Abraham,  when 
his  son  Ishmael  disappointed  his  hopes?  How  with  Isaac  and  Esau ?  Or  with 
Adam  and  Cain  ?  Was  Abraham  on  that  account  to  neglect  training  Isaac  up 
for  the  service  of  God  ?  Or  Isaac,  Jacob  ?  Or  Adam,  Abel  ? 

IX.       THE    DIGNITY    AND    DIFFICULTY    OF   THE    WORK    OP   TEACHING. 

In  the  same  sermon,  Luther  takes  especial  pains  to  magnify  the 
office  of  the  school-teacher. 

Where  were  your  supply  of  preachers,  j  urists,  and  physicians,  if  the  arts  of 
grammar  and  rhetoric  had  no  existence  ?  These  are  the  fountain,  out  of  which 
they  all  flow.  I  tell  you,  in  a  word,  that  a  diligent,  devoted  school-teacher,  precep- 
tor, or  any  person,  no  matter  what  is  his  title,  who  faithfully  trains  and  teaches 
boys,  can  never  receive  an  adequate  reward,  and  no  money  is  sufficient  to  pay 
the  debt  you  owe  him  ;  so,  too,  said  the  pagan,  Aristotle.  Yet  we  treat  them 
with  contempt,  as  if  they  were  of  no  account  whatever ;  and,  all  the  time,  we 
profess  to  be  Christians.  For  my  part,  if  I  were,  or  were  compelled, to  leave  off 
preaching  and  to  enter  some  other  vocation,  I  know  not  an  office  that  would 
please  me  better  than  that  of  schoolmaster,  or  teacher  of  boys.  For  I  am  con- 
vinced that,  next  to  preaching,  this  is  the  most  useful,  and  greatly  the  best  labor 
in  all  the  world,  and,  in  fact,  I  am  sometimes  in  doubt  which  of  the  positions  is  the 
more  honorable.  For  you  can  not  teach  an  old  dog  new  tricks,  and  it  is  hard  to 
reform  old  sinners,  but  this  is  what  by  preaching  we  undertake  to  do,  and  our 
labor  is  often  spent  in  vain  5  but  it  is  easy  to  bend  and  to  train  young  trees,  though 
haply  in  the  process  some  may  be  broken.  My  friend,  nowhere  on  earth  can 
you  find  a  higher  virtue  than  is  displayed  by  the  stranger,  who  takes  your  child- 
ren and  gives  them  a  faithful  training, — a  labor  which  parents  very  seldom  per- 
form, even  for  their  own  offspring. 

To  the  like  effect,  does  Luther  speak  of  school-teachers  in  the  Table 
Talk. 

I  would  have  no  one  enter  the  ministry,  who  has  not  first  been  a  schoolmaster. 
Our  young  men,  now-a-days,  do  not  think  so ;  they  shrink  from  the  toil  of  teaching, 


152  LUTHER'S  VIEWS  OF  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS. 

and  rush  at  once  for  the  sacred  office.  But,  after  one  has  taught  school  for 
ten  years  or  thereabouts,  he  may,  with  a  good  conscience,  break  off;  for  the  labor 
is  great,  and  the  reputation  small.  Still,  as  much  depends  in  a  city  on  a  school- 
master as  on  the  preacher.  And,  if  I  were  not  a  preacher,  I  know  not  the  posi- 
tion on  earth  which  I  had  rather  fill.  You  must  not  be  swayed  in  this  matter  by 
the  opinions  or  the  rewards  of  the  world,  but  consider  how  God  regards  the 
work,  and  how  he  will  exalt  it  at  the  last  day. 

Though  Luther  thought  so  very  highly  of  the  office  of  the  teacher, 
yet  he  remarks,  in  his  commentary  on  Galatians,  that  this  office  is  for 
the  most  part  in  ill-repute  with  children,  and  that  severe  teachers, 
particularly  when  their  severity  is  habitual,  are  any  thing  but  loved 
by  their  pupils. 

It  is  impossible  that  a  disciple,  or  a  scholar,  can  love  the  teacher  who  is  harsh 
and  severe  ;  for,  how  can  he  prevail  on  himself  to  love  one  who  immures  him,  as 
it  were,  in  a  dungeon  ;  that  is,  who  constrains  him  to  do  that  which  he  will  not, 
and  holds  him  back  from  doing  that  which  he  will ;  and  who,  when  he  does  any- 
thing that  has  been  forbidden  him,  straightway  flogs  him,  and,  not  content  with 
this,  compels  him  to  kiss  the  rod  too.  A  most  gracious  and  excellent  obedience 
and  affection  this  in  the  scholar,  that  comes  from  an  enforced  compliance  with 
the  harsh  orders  of  a  hateful  taskmaster!  My  friend,  do  you  suppose  that  he 
obeys  with  joy  and  gladness?  But,  what  does  he  do  when  the  teacher's  back  is 
turned  ?  Does  he  not  snatch  up  the  rod,  break  it  into  a  thousand  pieces,  or  else 
throw  it  into  the  fire  ?  And,  if  he  had  the  power,  he  would  not  suffer  his  teacher 
to  whip  him  again;  nay,  he  would  turn  the  tables  on  him,  and  not  simply  take 
the  rod  to  him,  but  cudgel  him  soundly  with  a  club.  Nevertheless,  the  child 
needs  the  discipline  of  the  rod ;  but  it  must  be  tempered  with  admonition,  and 
directed  to  his  improvement ;  for,  without  this,  he  will  never  come  to  any  good, 
but  will  be  ruined,  soul  and  body.  A  miserable  teacher,  indeed,  would  that  man 
be,  who  should  only  know  how  to  beat  and  torment  his  scholars,  without  ever 
being  able  to  teach  them  any  thing.  Such  schoolmasters  there  have  been,  whose 
schools  were  nothing  but  so  many  dungeons  and  hells,  and  themselves  tyrants 
and  gaolers ;  where  the  poor  children  were  beaten  beyond  endurance  and  with- 
out cessation,  and  applied  themselves  to  their  task  laboriously  and  with  over-pushed 
diligence,  but  yet  with  very  small  profit.  A  well-informed  and  faithful  teacher, 
on  the  other  hand,  mingles  gentle  admonition  with  punishment,  and  incites  his 
pupils  to  diligence  in  their  studies,  and  to  a  laudable  emulation  among  themselves  ; 
and  so  they  become  rooted  and  grounded  in  all  kinds  of  desirable  knowledge,  as 
well  as  in  the  proprieties  and  the  virtues  of  life,  and  they  now  do  that  spontane- 
ously and  with  delight,  which  formerly,  and  under  the  old  discipline,  they  ap- 
proached with  reluctance  and  dread. 

X.       PLAN    FOR    SCHOOL    ORGANIZATION. 

Luther  writes,  in  1524,  to  Spalatin  : 

I  send  you  my  sketch  of  the  school  as  it  should  be,  that  you  may  lay  it  before 
the  Elector ;  and  though  T  do  not  expect  that  much  heed  will  be  given  to  it,  yet  1 
must  venture,  and  leave  the  issue  with  God. 

Four  years  later,  (1528,)  Melancthon's  "  Manual  of  Visitation,"  made 
its  appearance,  in  which  he  communicated  a  full  and  complete  plan 
for  the  organization  of  schools,  which  had  received  the  sanction  of  the 
elector,  and  which  was,  undoubtedly,  based  upon  the  sketch  that 
Luther  had  sent  to  Spalatin.* 

*  Luther's  plan,  above  referred  to.  I  have  .never  seen,  nor  is  it,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  on 
record.  That  Melancthon's,  however,  essentially  agrees  with  it  we  have  abundant  cause  to 
conclude.  Especially  does  this  appear  from  a  letter  that  Melancthon  wrote  to  Camerarius 
on  the  subject  of  the  Manual.  He  says  in  this,  "you  will  see  that  I  have  written  nothing 
more  than  what  Luther  has  propounded  passim.'' 


LUTHER  S  VIEWS  ON  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS.  153 

XI.        UNIVERSITIES. 

In  the  letter  to  the  Christian  nobles  of  the  German  nation  on  the 
elevation  of  the  Christian  order,  Luther  takes  occasion  to  express  him- 
self on  German  universities  as  follows. 

Our  universities  need  a  good  thorough  purging ;  I  must  say  it,  let  whoever 
will  be  offended.  For,  what  are  they,  save  a  few  recently  instituted,  but  'k  places 
of  exercise  for  the  chief  young  men,"  as  the  2nd  Book  of  Maccabees,  4:12, 
hath  it ;  where  a  free  life  is  led,  after  "  the  glory  of  the  Grecians ;"  where  the  Holy 
Scriptures  and  faith  in  Christ  are  lightly  accounted  of ;  and  where  that  blind 
pajgan,  Aristotle,  reigns  solitary  and  alone,  even  to  the  dethroning  of  Christ  ? 
Now  this  is  my  counsel  that  Aristotle's  books  ou  physics,  metaphysics,  the  soul, 
and  ethics,  which  have  been  ever  esteemed  his  best,  should  be  thrown  away,  with 
all  the  host  of  those  which  pretend  to  treat  of  natural  science,  while  in  reality 
nothing  can  be  learned  from  them,  of  things  natural  or  things  spiritual 
either  :  add,  that  what  he  does  advance  not  a  soul  has  hitherto  understood,  and 
yet  so  many  noble  intellects  have  been  weighed  down  and  paralyzed  under  the 
cost,  toil,  time  and  study  that  they  have  been  forced  to  devote  to  him. 

But  I  would,  nevertheless,  be  willing  to  retain  his  logic,  rhetoric  and  poetics — 
abridged,  I  would  prefer  them, — for  they  are  useful  to  direct  the  young  to  a  good 
style  of  speaking,  either  for  the  bar  or  the  pulpit ;  but  the  commentaries  and 
glosses  are  useless.  Cicero's  rhetoric,  likewise,  may  be  read,  but  only  the  pure 
and  simple  text,  unencumbered  with  your  unwieldy  and  interminable  commenta- 
ries. But  now,  they  teach  neither  how  to  plead  nor  how  to  preach,  but  all  the 
result  they  shew  is  mere  wrangling  and  stupidity.  And  we  ought,  moreover,  to 
adopt  the  languages,  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew,  the  mathematics  and  history, 
all  which  I  commend  to  the  more  intelligent.  But,  the  claims  of  these  studies 
will  need  no  urging,  as  soon  as  there  is  a  right  earnest  desire  for  a  reformation. 
And  truly,  this  is  a  matter  of  the  utmost  consequence.  For,  here  our  Christian 
youth,  and  our  nobles,  in  whom  rest  the  hopes  of  Christianity,  are  to  be  taught, 
and  to  be  fitted  for  action.  And,  accordingly,  it  is  my  firm  belief  that  a  reforma- 
tion and  a  renovation  of  our  universities  would  be  a  work  of  greater  magnitude 
than  pope  or  emperor  ever  undertook,  since  there  is  not  a  more  crafty,  or  a  more 
devilish  device  on  the  face  of  the  earth  than  a  university  overgrown  with  the 
thorns  and  the  briars  of  godless  ignorance. 

XII.       THE    STUDY    OF    THR    BIBLE. 

We  have  given,  in  the  preceding  pages,  Luther's  opinion  of  many 
of  the  university  studies.  It  is  not  desirable,  he  says,  to  read  a  multi- 
tude of  books ;  among  such  as  are  read,  however,  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures demand  our  chief  care. 

Books  should  be  fewer,  and  we  must  choose  out  the  best.  For  many  books  do 
not  impart  knowledge,  nor  much  reading  either;  but,  that  which  is  good,  if  it  be 
read  often,  no  matter  how  small  its  compass,  that  it  is  which  throws  light  upon 
the  Word,  and  inspires  piety  besides.  Yea,  even  the  works  of  the  holy  Fathers 
are  to  be  read  only  as  a  means  by  which  we  may  the  better  come  at  the  sense  of 
the  Word  ;  but  now  we  read  them  for  themselves  and  abide  in  them,  without 
ever  coming  to  the  Scriptures  ;  in  this,  we  are  like  men  who  look  at  the  guide- 
posts,  but  who  never  follow  the  road.  The  dear  Fathers  would  have  their  writ- 
ings lead  us  into  the  Scriptures ;  let  us,  then,  carry  out  their  intention.  For  the 
Scriptures,  and  they  alone,  are  our  vineyard,  in  which  we  are  to  exercise 
ourselves,  and  to  labor. 

Above  all  things,  let  the  Scriptures  be  the  chief  and  the  most  frequently  used 
reading-book,  both  in  primary  and  in  high  schools  ;  and  the  very  young  should  be 
kept  in  the  gospels.  Is  it  not  proper  and  right  that  every  human  being,  by  the 
time  he  has  reached  his  tenth  year,  should  be  familiar  with  the  holy  gospels,  in 
which  the  very  core  and  marrow  of  his  life  is  bound  ?  Even  the  "pinner  and  the 
seamstress  impart  the  mysteries  of  their  craft,  to  their  daughters,  while  these  are 
yet  in  girlhood.  And,  again,  when  the  high  schools  shall  have  become  grounded 


154  LUTHER'S  VIEWS  ON  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS. 

in  the  Scriptures,  we  then  are  not  all  of  us  to  send  our  sons  there,  as  is  the 
practice  now,  when  numbers  alone  are  regarded,  and  each  will  have  his  boy  a 
doctor ;  but  we  ought  to  admit  only  those  who  are  best  fitted,  and  who  have  pre- 
viously been  well  trained  in  the  preparatory  schools;  to  which  matter,  princes  or 
magistrates  ought  to  pay  special  attention,  not  allowing  any  to  be  sent  to  the  high 
schools  but  the  most  capable.  But,  where  the  Holy  Scriptures  do  not  bear  sway, 
there  I  would  counsel  none  to  send  his  child.  For  every  institution  will  degener- 
ate, where  God's  word  is  not  in  daily  exercise  5  in  proof  of  this,  we  need  but 
look  at  those  who  have  been  moulded  by,  or  who  are  now  in  the  high  schools. 
The  high  schools  ought  to  send  forth  men  thoroughly  versed  in  the  Scriptures,  to 
become  bishops  and  pastors,  and  to  stand  in  the  van,  against  heretics,  the  devil, 
and,  if  need  be,  the  whole  world.  But,  what  do  we  find  them  ?  I  greatly  fear  they 
are  no  better  than  broad  gates  to  hell,  wherever  they  do  not  busily  exercise  and 
practice  our  youth  in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

XIII.       STUDY   OF   THE    LANGUAGES. 

In  what  high  esteem  Luther  held  the  languages,  we  have  already 
had  occasion  to  remark.  To  Hebrew,  in  particular,  he  frequently 
recurs  in  terms  of  praise. 

The  Hebrew  tongue  surpasses  all  others ;  it  is  the  richest  in  words  of 
any,  and  it  is  pure;  it  borrows  nothing,  but  has  its  own  independent 
hue.  The  Greek,  the  Latin,  and  the  Germans  all  borrow  ;  they  have,  moreoveB, 
many  compound  words,  whereas  the  Hebrew  has  none.  From  a  simple  word  tBe 
Germans  make  twenty  compounds,  which  all  proceed  from  it,  and  are  pieced 
together  out  of  it ;  as,  from  laufen,  to  run,  come  entlaufen,  to  run  away  from  ; 
verlaufen,  to  run  wrong ;  umlaufen,  to  run  about ;  belaufen,  to  run  to  see ;  zu- 
laufen,  to  run  toward  ;  ablaufen,  to  run  from  a  place  ;  weglaufen,  to  run  from 
one's  duty  ;  einlaufen,  to  run  in ;  etc.  On  the  contrary,  the  Hebrew  has  no  com- 
pound, no  patchwork  word,  but  each  idea  is  expressed  by  a  word  wholly  its  own. 
So,  again,  the  word  heart,  for  instance,  has  with  us  quite  a  generic  use.  For  it 
means  a  part  of  the  body,  as  if  we  should  say,  he  has  no  heart ;  that  is,  he  is 
spiritless  and  cowardly  ;  or  again,  my  heart  tells  me  that  his  heart  burns  within 
him ;  that  is,  that  he  is  angry.  In  each  of  these  cases,  the  Hebrew  employs  a 
special  and  peculiar  word. 

In  reference  to  the  manner  of  learning  the  languages,  Luther  lays 
great  stress  upon  continual  practice,  though  he  does  not  undervalue 
grammar,  by  any  means. 

We  learn  German  or  other  languages  much  better  by  word  of  mouth,  at  home, 
in  the  street,  or  at  the  church,  than  out  of  books.  Letters  are  dead  words  ;  the 
utterances  of  the  mouth  are  living  words,  which  in  writing  can  never  stand  forth 
so  distinct  and  so  excellent,  as  the  soul  and  spirit  of  man  bodies  them  forth  through 
the  mouth. 

Tell  me,  where  was  there  ever  a  language,  which  men  could  learn  to  speak  with 
correctness  and  propriety  by  the  rules  of  grammar  ?  Is  it  not  true  that  even 
those  languages,  like  the  Latin  and  the  Greek  j  which  possess  the  most  unerring 
rules,  are  much  better  learned  by  use  and  wont,  than  from  these  rules  ?  Is  it 
not  then  extremely  absurd,  for  one  who  would  learn  the  sacred  tongue,  in  which 
divine  and  spiritual  things  are  discoursed  of,  to  neglect  a  straightforward  and  per- 
tinent search  into  the  subject-matter,  and  attempt,  instead,  to  pick  the  language 
out  of  grammar  alone  ? 

He  gives  his  view  of  the  relation  of  the  things  signified  to  the 
words  which  express  them,  as  follows,  holding  that  an  understanding 
of  words  is  only  possible  where  there  is  an  understanding  of  things 
first. 

The  art  of  grammar  teaches  and  shows,  what  words  imply  and  signify ;  but  we 
must  first  learn  and  know  what  the  things  are,  and  what  the  matters  mean. 


LUTHER'S  VIEWS  ON  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS.  155 

Hence,  must  he,  who  would  teach  and  preach,  first  know  his  subject  and  its  bear- 
ings, before  he  can  speak  of  it ;  for  grammar  only  teaches  the  names  and  forms  of 
the  words  which  we  use  to  set  forth  our  subject. 

Our  knowledge  is  two-fold  5  relating  to  words  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the 
other  to  things.  And  accordingly,  he  who  does  not  possess  a  knowledge  of  the 
thing  or  the  subject  of  which  he  is  to  speak,  will  not  find  a  knowledge  of  words 
of  any  service  to  him.  There  is  an  old  proverb,  which  runs  thus :  If  you  do  not 
know  what  you  are  talking  of,  you  may  talk  forever,  and  no  man  will  be  the  wiser. 
Many  such  people  there  are  in  our  day.  For  we  have  many  very  learned  and 
very  eloquent  men,  who  appear  exceedingly  foolish  and  ridiculous,  because  they 
undertake  to  speak  of  that  which  they  have  never  understood. 

But,  whoever  has  the  matter  inwrought  into  his  being,  so  that  he  comprehends 
it  fully,  is  an  able  teacher,  and  reaches  the  heart,  whether  he  be  eloquent,  and 
have  a  ready  flow  of  words,  or  not.  So  Cato,  when  he  spoke  in  the  council,  had 
more  influence  than  Cicero,  albeit,  his  language  was  rough  and  devoid  of  all 
polish  and  elegance  ;  and,  though  his  speech  was  not  skillfully  framed  to  produce 
conviction,  yet  no  one  ever  gave  a  thought  to  his  manner. 

Accordingly,  the  understanding  of  words,  or  grammar,  is  easy,  when  we  well 
understand  the  subject;  as  Horace  also  says :  that  words  come  of  their  own  ac- 
cord, when  the  subject  has  been  duly  admitted  to  the  mind,  retained  there,  and 
fully  considered  ;  but,  where  the  subject  is  obscurely  apprehended,  there  the 
utmost  knowledge  of  words  will  do  no  good.  I  have  dwelt  upon  this  point  so 
fully  for  this  reason,  namely :  that  you  may  know,  if  you  shall  ever  read  the 
Rabbins,  what  sort  of  masters  you  will  have  ;  they  may  well  understand  the  lan- 
guage, but  the  subjects  that  are  conveyed  in  it  they  know  nothing  about,  nor  can 
they  ever  teach  them  in  a  true  and  proper  manner. 

But,  through  the  goodness  and  the  grace  of  God,  we  have  the  knowledge  and 
the  understanding  of  the  matters,  of  which  the  Holy  Scriptures  treat,  while  they 
are  left  in  blindness.  Hence,  though  they  know  the  grammar,  yet  they  have 
no  correct  understanding  of  the  Scriptures  5  but,  as  Isaiah,  (29,  11,)  saith :  "  And 
the  vision  is  become  as  the  words  of  a  book  that  is  sealed.  Who  then  shall 
follow  them  ?" 

Now  let  no  one  think  or  conclude  from  all  this  that  I  would  reject  the  gram- 
mar, for  this  is  altogether  necessary  ;  but  this  much  I  do  say :  he  who,  with  the 
grammar,  does  not  study  the  contents  of  the  Scriptures  also,  will  never  make  a 
good  teacher.  For,  as  a  certain  one  has  said,  "  the  words  of  the  teacher  or 
preacher  should  follow  the  subject,  and  grow,  not  in  his  mouth,  but  out  of  his  heart." 

XIV.       NATURAL  SCIENCE. 

In  commenting  on  Erasmus'  want  of  appreciation  of  natural  science, 
Luther  remarks : 

We  are  now  in  the  morning-dawn  of  a  better  life  5  for  we  are  beginning  again 
to  recover  that  knowledge  of  the  creation  which  we  lost  through  Adajn's  /all. 
By  God's  grace,,  we  are  beginning  to  recognize,  even  'in  the  structure  of  the 
humblest  floweret,  his  wondrous  glory,  his  goodness,  an'd  his  omnipotence.  In  the 
creation  we  can  appreciate  in  some  measure  the  power  of  Him,  who  spake  and  it 
was  done,  who  commanded  and  it" stood  fast.  Consider  the  pgaeh-stone :  although 
it  is  very  hard,  yet,  in,  its  due  season,  it  is  burst  asunder.by  the  force  of  the  very 
tender  germ  which  is  jnclosed  wfthin  the  shell.  But  all  this  Erasmus  passes  by, 
not  regarding  it  for  a  moment ;  and  views  this  new  knowledge  of  the  creature 
only  as  cows  look  upon  a  new  gate. 

XV.       HISTORY. 

The  importance  that  Luther  attached  to  history,  we  have  before 
adverted  to ;  he  has  more,  to  the  same  purport,  in  his  preface  to 
Galeatti  Capella's  history  of  the  Duke  of  Milan. 

Says  the  highly-renowned  Roman,  Varro,  (so  this  preface  runs,)  the  best 
instruction  is  that  which  combines  illustration  and  example  with  precept.  For 
through  these  we  apprehend  the  speech  or  the  doctrine  more  clearly,  and  also 


156  LUTHER'S  VIEWS  ON  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS. 

retain  it  the  more  readily  in  our  memories ;  but,  where  the  discourse  is  without 
illustration,  no  matter  how  just  and  excellent  it  may  be  in  itself,  yet  it  does  not 
move  the  heart  with  such  power,  neither  is  it  so  clear,  nor  so  easily  remembered. 
Hence,  we  may  see  what  a  priceless  value  resides  in  histories.  For  all  that  phi 
losophers,  sages,  and  the  collective  wisdom  of  humanity  can  devise  or  teach,  rela- 
tive to  the  conduct  of  life,  this,  history,  with  her  incidents  and  examples,  enforces, 
causing  it  all  to  pass  before  our  eyes,  so  to  speak,  as  if  we  ourselves  were  on  the 
spot,  beholding  those  things  in  action,  whose  nature  we  had  heard  before  in  doc- 
trine or  in  precept.  There  we  learn  what  things  those  who  were  pious  and  wise 
pursued,  what  they  shunned,  and  how  they  lived,  and  how  it  fared  with  them,  or 
how  they  were  rewarded  ;  and  again,  how  they  lived  who  were  wicked  and  obsti- 
nate in  their  ignorance,  and  what  punishments  overtook  them. 

And  did  we  but  think  of  it,  all  laws  arts,  good  counsels,  warnings,  threatenings, 
terrors, — all  solace,  strength,  instruction,  foresight,  wisdom,  prudence,  together 
with  every  virtue, — flow  from  records  ana  histories  as  from  a  living  fountain.  For 
histories  are  an  exhibition,  memorial,  and  monument  of  the  works  and  the  judg- 
ments of  God  ;  how  he  upholds  and  rules  the  world,  and  men  more  than  all, 
causing  their  plans  to  prosper  or  to  fail,  lifting  them  on  high,  or  humbling  ther>i  in 
the  dust,  according  as  their  deeds  are  good  or  evil.  And  though  there  be 
many  who  neither  know  nor  regard  God,  yet  even  such  can  not  fail  to  start  liack 
before  the  portraitures  of  history,  and  to  fear  lest  the  same  evils  come  upon  them, 
too,  that  overtook  this  or  that  person,  whose  course  is  graven,  as  a  warning,  forever 
upon  the  page  of  history;  whereby  they  will  be  far  more  deeply  moved,  than  if 
you  should  strive  to  restrain  and  curb  them  with  the  bare  letter  of  the  law,  or 
with  mere  dry  doctrine.  So  we  read,  not  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  alone,  but  in 
pagan  books  too,  how  the  men  of  old  instanced  and  held  up  to  view  the  example 
of  their  forefathers,  in  word  and  in  deed,  when  they  wished  to  arouse  the  enthu- 
siasm of  the  people,  or  when  on  any  occasion  they  would  teach  and  admonish,  or 
warn  and  deter. 

Hence,  too,  historians  are  the  most  useful  of  men,  and  the  best  of  teachers* 
Nor  can  we  ever  accord  too  much  praise,  honor,  or  gratitude  to  them  ;  and  it 
should  be  the  work  of  the  great  onts  of  the  earth,  as  emperors,  kings,  and  the 
like,  to  cause  a  faithful  record  to  be  made  of  the  history  of  their  own  times,  and 
to  have  such  records  sacredly  preserved  and  set  in  order  in  libraries.  And,  to 
this  end,  they  should  spare  no  expense,  which  maybe  needful,  to  educate  and 
maintain  those  persons  whose  talents  mark  them  out  for  this  task. 

But  he  who  would  write  history,  must  be  a  superior  man, — lion-hearted  and 
fearless  in  writing  truth.  For  most  manage  to  pass  by  in  silence,  or  at  least  to 
gloss  over  the  vices  or  the  mischances  of  their  times,  to  please  great  lords  or  their 
own  friends;  or  they  give  too  high  a  place  to  minor,  or  it  may  be,  insignificant 
actions  ;  or  else,  from  an  overweening  love  of  country,  and  a  hatred  toward 
foreign  nations,  they  bedizen  or  befoul  histories,  according  to  their  own  likes  or 
dislikes.  Hence  it  is,  that  a  suspicious  air  invests  histories,  and  God's  providence 
is  shamefully  obscured  ;  so  the  Greeks  did  in  their  perverseness,  so  the  Pope's 
flatterers  have  done  heretofore,  and  are  now  doing,  till  it  has  come  to  this,  at  last, 
that  we  do  not  know  what  to  admit  or  what  to  reject.  Thus  the  noble,  precious, 
and  highest  use  of  history  is  overlooked,  and  we  have  only  a  vain  babble  and 
gossip.  And  this  is  because  the  worthy  task  of  writing  annals  and  records  is 
open  to  every  one  without  discrimination ;  and  they  write  or  slur  over,  praise  or 
condemn,  at  their  will. 

How  important,  then,  is  it,  that  this  office  should  be  filled  by  men  of  eminence, 
or  at  least  by  those  who  are  worthy.  For,  inasmuch  as  histories  are  records  of 
God's  work,  that  is,  of  his  grace  and  his  displeasure,  which  men  should  believe 
with  as  much  reason  as  if  the  same  stood  written  in  the  Bible,  surely  they  ought 
to  be  penned  with  all  diligence,  truth  and  fidelity.  This,  however,  will,  I  fear, 
never  come  to  pass,  unless  the  enactment  which  was  in  force  with  the  Jews  shall 
again  b''ar  sway.  Meanwhile,  we  must  rest  content  with  our  histories  as  they  are, 
and  reflect  and  judge  for  ourselves,  as  we  peruse  them,  whether  the  writer  has 
been  warped  through  favor  or  prejudice,  whether  he  praises  or  blames  either  too 
little  or  too  much,  according  as  the  persons  or  the  events  that  come  under  his 
notice,  please  or  displease  him ;  just  as  in  such  a  loose  government  a*  ours,  we 
must  endure  to  have  carriers  dilute  their  foreign  wine  with  water,  so  that  we  can 
not  buy  the  pure  growth,  but  must  content  ourselves  with  getting  some  part  pure, 
be  this  more  or  be  it  less. 


LUTHER'S  VIEWS  ON  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS.  157 

XVI.       LOGIC — RHETORIC. 

Luther  has  much  to  say,  in  the  "  Table  Talk,"  both  on  logic  and 
on  rhetoric. 

Logic  is  a  lofty  art ;  it  speaks  direct,  whether  of  wrong  or  right,  as  if  I  should 
say,  "  give  me  some  drink."  But  rhetoric  adds  ornament,  as  thus :  "  give  me 
of  the  pleasant  juice  in  the  cellar,  the  cnrling,  sparkling  juice,  that  makes  the 
heart  merry." 

Logic  tells  us  how  to  teach  every  thing  ;  still,  for  all  this,  though  we  have 
learned  it  so  that  we  thoroughly  understand  it,  it  does  not,  of  itself,  give  us  the 
ability  to  teach  any  thing  5  fur  it  is  only  an  instrument  and  a  tool,  by  means  of 
which  we  may  impart,  in  a  correct  and  methodical  manner,  that  which  we  already 
understand  and  know.  For  instance,  I  can  not  speak  of  mining  or  of  the  duties 
of  the  overseer  of  a  mine,  because  I  neither  know  how  to  open  a  mine,  nor  how 
to  sink  a  shaft,  nor  can  I  tell  where  the  pra!ler.es  should  run ;  but,  had  I  searched 
into  this  matti  r,  and  become  familiar  with  it,  I  should  then  be  better  able  to  speak 
on  the  subject  than  the  surveyor  himself.  Logic  does  not  furnish  the  subject  of 
which  we  are  to  speak,  or  the  branch  that  we  are  to  teach  ;  it  only  directs  us  how 
to  teach  such  branch,  or  to  speak  of  such  subject,  in  a  just  and  appropriate  manner, 
with  method,  directness,  and  brevity. 

Logic  is  a  useful  and  a  n  cessary  art,  which  we  ought  with  as  much  reason  to 
study  and  to  learn  as  we  do  arithmetic  or  geometry.  And,  though  there  are  some 
heads  so  sharp  by  nature,  that  they  can  draw  conclusions  and  form  judgments,  on 
almost  any  subject,  from  the  impressions  they  receive  from  it,  yet  this  is  an  uncer- 
tain and  a  dangerous  g,ft,  unless  art  come  to  its  aid.  For  logic  gives  us  a  clear, 
correct,  and  methodical  arrangement,  showing  us  the  grounds  of  our  conclusions, 
and  how  we  may  know,  to  a  certainty,  from  the  nature  of  the  subject  itself,  what 
is  right  or  wrong,  and  what  we  should  judge  and  decide. 

Logic  teaches,  rhetoric  moves  and  persuades  ;  the  latter  controls  the  will,  the 
former  the  understanding.  St.  Paul  includes  them  both,  in  Romans,  12:  7,  8: 
"  He  that  teacheth,  let  him  wait  on  teaching  ;  or  he  that  exhorteth,  on  exhortation." 

The  most  excellent  fruit  and  use  of  logic  is  to  define  and  describe  a  thing  with 
completeness  and  brevity,  and,  in  accordance  with  its  nature,  neither  more  nor  less 
than  it  is.  Hence,  we  should  accustom  ourselves  to  use  good,  pointed,  and  intel- 
ligible words,  words  that  are  in  common  use,  and  thereby  fitted  to  call  up  and  set 
forth  the  matter,  so  that  men  may  understand  just  what  it  includes.  And,  if  any 
man  has  this  power,  let  him  give  God  the  glory,  for  it  is  a  special  gift  and  grace, 
since  crafty  writers  often  disguise  their  sentiments  designedly,  with  astonishing, 
far-fetched,  or  obsolete  words  5  inventing  a  new  style  and  mode  of  speaking,  so 
double-sided,  double-tongued,  and  intertangled.  that,  when  convenient,  they  can 
bend  their  language  into  whatever  meaning  they  choose,  as  the  heretics  do. 

Eloquence  does  not  consist  in  a  tinseled  flourish  of  gaudy  and  unfamiliar  words, 
but  in  that  chaste  and  polished  expression,  which,  like  a  beautiful  painting,  shows 
the  subject-matter  in  a  clear,  suitable  and  every  way  admirable  light.  They  who 
coin  and  foist  in  strange  words,  must  also  bring  in  strange  and  novel  things,  as  did 
Scotus,  with  his  "  hiccity,"  '"  nominality,"  etc.,  or  the  Anabaptists,  with  their 
"  immersion,"  "  purification,"  "  quietism,"  etc.  Hence,  you  should  beware,  above 
all  things,  of  those  who  make  frequent  use  of  new,  unfamiliar  and  useless  words ; 
for  such  a  mode  of  speaking  is  at  war  with  all  true  eloquence. 

XVII.       MATHEMATICS. 

Luther  was  desirous,  as  we  have  seen,  to  have  the  mathematics 
introduced  into  the  universities.  In  astronomy,  he  took  ground 
against  Copernicus.  Nevertheless  he  could  not  abide  astrology,  though 
Melancthon  maintained  its  truth.  Among  other  arguments  against 
it,  that  of  Augustin  was  his  chief  stronghold,  namely,  that  Esau  and 
Jacob  were  both  born  at  the  same  time,  consequently  under  the  same 
constellation,  and  were,  m  vertheless,  wholly  unlike  each  other  in  all 
respects. 


158  LUTHER'S  VIEWS  ON  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS. 

XVIH.       PHYSICAL    EXERCISE. 

Exercise  and  music  both,  Luther  commends  highly ;  and  he 
opposed,  as  we  have  seen,  the  moping  and  joyless  tenets  of  the  monkish 
teachers. 

It  was  admirably  provided  and  ordered  by  the  ancients  that  the  people  should 
have  honorable  and  useful  modes  of  exercise  to  resort  to,  so  that  they  might  not 
fall  into  gluttony,  lewdness,  surfeiting,  rioting,  and  gambling.  Accordingly,  1 
pronounce  in  favor  of  these  two  exercises  and  pastimes,  namely,  music,  and  the 
knightly  sports  of  fencing,  wrestling,  etc.;  of  which,  the  one  drives  care  and  gloom 
from  the  heart,  and  the  other  gives  a  full  development  to  the  limbs,  and  maintains 
the  body  in  health.  And  another  argument  for  them  is  this,  that  they  keep  men 
from  tippling,  lewdness,  cards,  and  dice,  which,  alas !  are  now  so  common  every 
where,  at  court  and  in  the  town,  where  we  hear  nothing  but  "  fair  play  !"  u  more 
wine  !"  and  the  like  phrases.  And  then,  in  their  flush,  they  stake  you.  perhaps^ 
an  hundred  gulden  or  more,  at  a  cast.  So  it  goes,  when  those  other  honorable 
exercises  and  knightly  sports  are  scorned  and  neglected. 

XIX.      MUSIC. 

Music  was  Luther's  joy  and  delight. 

Music  is  one  of  the  fairest  and  best  gifts  of  God  ;  and  Satan  hates  it,  nor  can 
he  bear  it,  since  by  its  means  we  exorcise  many  temptations  and  wicked  thoughts. 
Music  is  one  of  the  best  of  the  arts.  The  notes  breathe  life  into  the  words.  It 
chases  away  the  spirit  of  melancholy,  as  we  may  see  by  the  case  of  King  Saul. 
Some  of  our  nobility  think  that  they  have  done  some  great  thing,  when  they  give 
three  thousand  gulden  yearly  toward  music,  and  yet  they  will  throw  away,  with- 
out scruple  perhaps,  thirty  thousand  on  follies.  Kings,  princes  and  lords  must 
maintain  music,  (for  it  is  the  duty  of  great  potentates  and  monarchs  to  uphold 
excellent,  liberal  arts,  as  well  as  laws,)  inasmuch  as  the  common  people  and  private 
individuals  desire  it,  and  would  have  it  if  their  means  were  sufficient.  Music  is 
the  best  solace  to  a  wearied  man  ;  through  it,  the  heart  is  again  quieted,  quickened, 
and  refreshed  ;  as  that  one  says,  in  Virgil : 

"  Tu  calamos  infiare  leves,  ego  dicere  versus" 

Do  you  play  the  air,  and  I  will  sing  the  verse. 

Music  is  a  half-discipline,  and  it  is  a  teacher ;  it  makes  men  gentler  and  milder, 
more  mannerly  and  more  rational.  And  even  poor  violinists  or  organists  do  us 
this  service,  they  show  us  what  a  noble  and  excellent  art  music  is,  as  we  can 
distinguish  white  the  better  if  we  place  black  beside  it. 

On  the  17th  of  December.  1538,  while  Dr.  M.  Luther  was  entertaining  some 
musicians  at  his  house,  who  sang  many  sweet  tunes  and  lofty  cantatas,  he  ex- 
claimed, in  his  rapture :  "  If  in  this  life  our  Lord  God  has  scattered  around  and 
heaped  upon  us  such  noble  gifts,  what  will  it  be  in  that  immortal  life,  where  all  is 
perfection  and  fullness  of  delight  ?  But  here  we  have  only  the  beginning,  the 
maleria  prima.  I  have  always  loved  music.  He  who  knows  this  art  is  in  the 
right  frame,  and  fitted  for  every  good  pursuit.  "We  can  not  do  without  music  in 
our  schools.  A  schoolmaster  must  know  how  to  sing,  or  I  would  not  allow  him 
to  teach.  Nor  ought  we  to  ordain  young  theologians  to  the  sacred  office,  unless 
they  have  first  been  well-tried  and  practiced  in  the  art  in  the  school."  As  they 
sang  a  cantata  of  Senffel's,  Luther  was  filled  with  emotion  and  wonder,  praising  it 
highly.  He  then  said  :  "  Such  a  cantata  it  is  not  in  my  power  to  compose,  even 
though  I  should  try  to  my  utmost ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  could  Senffel  expound  a 
psalm  as  well  as  I.  For  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit  are  of  divers  kinds ;  BO  in  one 
body  there  are  different  members.  But  no  one  is  contented  with  his  own  gift,  no 
one  rests  satisfied  with  what  God  has  bestowed  upon  him,  for  all  wish  to  be,  not 
members  merely,  but  the  whole  body. 

Music  is  a  fair,  glorious  gift  of  God  ;  and  it  lies  very  near  to  theology.  I  would 
not  part  with  my  small  faculty  of  music  for  vast  possessions.  We  should  practice 
the  young  continually  in  this  art,  for  it  will  make  able  and  polished  men  of  them. 

Singing  is  the  best  art  and  exercise.     It  has  nothing  in   common  with   the 


LUTHER'S  VIEWS  ON  EDUCATION  AND  SCHOOLS.         159 

world  ;  it  is  far-removed  from  the  jar  and  wrangling  of  the  court  and  the  lawsuit. 
Singers,  too,  are  never  overwhelmed  with  care,  but  are  joyful ;  and,  with  their 
singing,  they  drive  care  out  and  away." 

And  he  said  further  :  u  How  comes  it  to  pass  that,  in  carnal  things,  we  have 
so  many  a  fine  poem,  and  so  many  a  sweet  song,  while,  in  spiritual  things,  all  is  so 
cold  and  listless  ?"  He  then  recited  some  German  odes,  The  Tournament,  by 
Bollen,  etc.  "I hold  this  to  be  the  reason,  as  St.  Paul  has  expressed  it,  in 
Romans,  7 :  23  ;  'I  see  another  law  warring  in  my  members,'  a  law  that  will  not 
be  overcome,  and  that  does  not  yield  up  its  power  so  readily  as  does  the  law  in 
the  soul.  If  any  one  despises  music,  as  all  the  fanatics  do,  I  can  not  confide  in 
him.  For  music  is  a  gift  and  bestowment  of  God  ;  it  does  not  proceed  from  man. 
And  it  drives  away  the  devil,  and  makes  men  happy:  in  it,  we  forget  all  anger, 
lasciviousness,  pride,  and  every  vice.  Next  to  theology  I  rank  music,  and  hold  it 
in  almost  equal  honor.  For  look  how  David  and  all  holy  men  have  uttered  their 
heavenly  meditations  in  verse,  rhyme  and  song.  Quia  pads  tempore  regnat 
musica." 

I  am  convinced  that  my  readers  would  feel  aggrieved,  were  I  to 
offer  them  an  apology  for  dwelling  so  long  upon  Luther.  In  fact, 
were  any  apology  in  place,  it  would  be  for  my  having  omitted  so 
much  ;  and  this  I  have  done  because  I  feared  lest  I  might  communi- 
cate some  passages  that  we  were  all  perfectly  well  acquainted  with. 
Among  such  I  would  place  the  admirable  preface  to  the  little  book, — 
the  book  which  he  composed  at  the  same  time  with  the  writings 
above  cited, — the  shorter  catechism. 

Who  will  not  be  delighted  to  recognize  this  great  man  as  a 
reformer  of  German  education  also  ?  His  admonitions  have  reached 
the  hearts  of  myriads  of  our  countrymen,  awakened  many  sleeping 
consciences,  and  strengthened  many  feeble  hands  ;  his  utterances  have 
been  to  both  princes  and  people  as  the  voice  of  God. 

And  he  has  deserved  such  confidence  in  the  fullest  measure,  because 
he  also  received  into  his  own  heart,  so  abundantly,  that  faith  which 
worketh  by  love.  What  could  not  such  a  divinely-governed,  and  un- 
tiring love  accomplish,  seconded  as  it  was  by  such  great  gifts  ;  so  clear 
an  eye,  so  sound  an  understanding,  such  aptness  for  the  languages, 
such  creative  skill  in  speech,  such  a  soaring  imagination,  and  such 
profound  speculation  ?  Who  among  all  of  Luther's  contemporaries 
can  compare  with  him  in  genuine,  comprehensive  culture  ?  Only  let 
us  not  guage  culture  with  the  measuring-rod  of  the  Latinized  school 
pedant,  neither  with  that  of  the  Mephistophelian  scoffer ;  for  we  have 
to  do  with  large  spiritual  gifts,  which  were  brought  into  the  service  of 
a  consecrated,  determined,  irresistible  will, — a  will  made  free  by  the 
Son,  a  will  that  governed  itself,  inasmuch  as  it  purposed  to  serve 
God,  and  God's  will  alone. 

*  On  this  head,  also  compare  Luther's  letter  to  Louis  Senffel,  musician  to  the  Duke  of  Bar*, 
ria.    DeWette,  4,  1ST 


EDUCATIONAL  BIOGRAPHY. 
JOHN   BUGEXHAGEN. 

JOHN  BUGENHAGEN,  the  fellow  laborer  with  Luther  and  Melancthon  in  the 
ecclesiastical  and  school  reorganizations  of  the  16th  century,  was  born  at 
Wollin,  Pomerania,  in  1485,  and  died  in  1558.  He  studied  philosophy, 
theology,  arid  the  classics  at  Greifswalde,  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen  took 
charge  of  a  classical  school  (founded  in  1170,  and  now  called  Bugenhagen 
Gymnasium),  at  Treptow,  on  the  Riga.  In  1517  he  read  lectures  in  theology  at 
the  Abbey  of  Belbrick,  and  in  1520  in  response  to  Luther's  pamphlet  on  the 
Babylonian  Captivity  of  the  Church,  he  resorted  to  Wittenberg,  where  he  was 
appointed  to  the  chair  of  theology  in  1523.  From  this  time  Bugenhagen  is 
identified  with  the  new  organization  of  church  affairs  in  all  the  principal  cities 
of  Northern  Germany — Brunswick,  Hamburg,  Lubeck,  Bremen,  and  in  the 
dominions  of  the  Duke  of  Pomerauia,  and  the  King  of  Denmark.  In  the 
Brunswick  church  order  of  1528,  'the  superintendent,  besides  preaching,  was 
instructed  to  give  lectures  in  Latin  for  the  learned,  and  supervise  the  discipline, 
doctrine  and  funds  of  the  church,  and  see  to  the  establishment  of  two  Latin 
schools  (ea^h  with  two  classes,  the  first  with  four,  and  the  last  with  three 
teachers),  two  German  schools  for  boys,  and  four  for  girls  at  four  places,  so 
that  the  girls  might  not  have  far  to  go  from  home  to  their  school.  In  all  the 
schools,  catechetical  instruction  and  singing  must  be  given  to  all  the  pupils,  and 
obscure  private  schools  must  be  discontinued.' 

In  the  Hamburgh  church  order  of  1520  a  Latin  school  was  instituted  in  the 
Convent  of  St.  John  (and  designated  the  Johanneum) ;  one  German  school  for 
boys ;  and  a  girls'  school  in  each  parish.  The  Johanneum  was  provided  with 
a  rector  and  seven  teachers;  Virgil,  Ovid,  and  Cicero's  Officia  and  Letters, 
dialectics,  rhetoric,  mathematics,  and  in  the  5th  (highest)  class  the  rudiments 
of  Greek  and  Hebrew,  are  specified  in  the  course  of  study.  Wednesday  was 
assigned  for  review  in  all  the  classes,  and  Saturday  was  devoted  to  the 
catechism.  Singing  was  to  be  carried  to  the  highest  proficiency  for  the  service 
of  the  church.  Public  lectures  by  the  church  superintendent  and  his  adjutor 
(4  times  a  week) ;  by  the  rector  of  the  Johanueum ;  by  two  jurists,  a  physician, 
a  surgeon  were  also  established,  together  with  the  foundation  of  a  public 
library — making  a  quasi  city  university.  The  same  system  in  its  main  features 
was  established  in  Lubeck  in  1532,  the  classical  school  of  which  still  exists. 

In  Pomerania  the  church  and  school  order  was  issued  in  1535.  and  for  the 
town  of  Stralsund  two  schools,  '  one  for  Latin  and  German  for  boys,  and  the 
other  for  girls.'  The  boys'  school  was  to  follow  the  book  of  visitation  of 
'  Magister  Philippus  Melancthon.' 

In  the  church  order  drawn  up  by  him  for  Denmark  and  Norway,  in  1587, 
extended  by  the  Diet  at  Rendsburg  in  1542,  the  system  of  schools  provided  for 
Hamburg  was  recognized,  the  university  of  Copenhagen  being  constituted  the 
head  of  the  system.  In  his  letters  he  complains  that  'the  greedy  grasp  of  the 
mighty  ones '  devoted  to  their  own  use  the  goods  of  the  monasteries  which 
should  go  to  churches,  schools  and  the  poor.' 

His  church  orders  for  Brunswick- Wolfenbiittal  in  1528  and  1542  extend 
the  establishment  of  schools  for  girls  as  well  as  boys  to  the  country  parishes, 
where  the  organist  was  to  be  schoolmaster,  and  to  give  special  attention  to 
singing  and  the  memorizing  of  bible  texts.' 


LIFE  AND  EDUCATIONAL  SERVICES  OF  PHILIP  MELANCTHON. 

FROM    THE    GERMAN    OF   KARL   VON    RAUMER. 


i.     MELANCTHON'S  CHILDHOOD. 

HISTORIANS  called  Melancthon  the  fellow-soldier  ( 
of  Luther.  "  God  joined  together  these  two  instruments  of  his 
purpose,"  said  Winshemius,  in  his  Eulogy  upon  Melancthon,  "  these 
two  great  men,  whose  dispositions  were  so  admirably  blended,  that 
if  to  Erasmus  and  others  Luther  appeared  to  be  too  harsh  a  physician 
for  the  disease  that  had  infected  the  church,  Philip,  on  the  contrary, 
though  pursuing  the  same  course  without  deflection,  seemed  too 
tender  and  mild."  In  this  we  may  perceive  the  secret  counsels  of 
Him,  who  calls  men  by  name,  while  as  yet  they  have  not  come  into 
being. 

Both  these  men  were  fully  sensible  that  they  were,  so  to  speak, 
the  complements  one  of  the  other,  and  that  in  the  labors  of  their  life 
they  could  not  be  separated.  Hence  the  uncontrollable  delight  of 
Luther  at  Melancthon's  first  entrance  into  Wittenberg ;  hence  too  his 
agonizing  and  answered  prayer  for  the  recovery  of  his  fellow-laborer, 
when,  in  1540,  the  latter  lay  dangerously  sick  at  Weimar.*  How 
forlorn  too  was  Melancthon's  condition  while  Luther  was  on  the 
Wartburg ;  how  consolatory  and  cheering  must  Luther's  letters  to 
him  from  Coburg  have  been  during  the  Augsburg  Diet;  and  how 
unhappy  was  he  in  the  closing  years  of  his  life  after  the  death  of 
Luther ! 

PHILIP  MELANCTHON  was  born  the  16th  of  February,  1497,  fourteen 
years  after  Luther ;  he  likewise  survived  him  fourteen  years,  and  they 
both  died  at  the  age  of  sixty-three.  They  yet  show  in  Bretten,  a  small 
town  in  the  Duchy  of  Baden,  the  humble  mansion  where  he  first  saw 
the  light.  His  father  was  a  skillful  armorer,  and  a  devout  and 
upright  man.  His  maternal  grandfather,  John  Reuther,  took  charge 
of  the  boy,  and  put  him  under  the  instruction  of  John  Hungarus, 
Of  the  latter  Melancthon  wrote :  "  I  had  a  teacher,  who  was  an  excel- 
lent grammarian,  and  who  kept  me  constantly  at  the  gramniar.f 

*  Melancthon  thus  writes  of  his  convalescence:  ••  Ego  fuissem  extinctus,  nisi  adventu 
Lutheri  ex  media  morte  revocatus  essem." 

1  "Itte  adegit  me  ad  Grammaticam,  et  ita  adegit,  ut  constructiones  facerem :  cogebar  red- 
dere  regular  constructionis  per  versus  Mantuani." 


162  PHILIP  MELANCTHON. 

Whenever  I  made  a  slip,  he  whipped  me,  but  with  mildness  and 
forbearance.  Thus  he  made  me  a  grammarian  too.  He  was  a  good- 
hearted  man ;  he  loved  me  as  a  son,  I  him  as  a  father." 

His  grandfather  died  in  the  year  1507,  and,  eleven  days  afterward, 
his  father.  The  latter,  on  his  death-bed,  exhorted  his  son  to  the  fear 
of  God :  "  I  have  witnessed  many  commotions,  but  there  are  far 
greater  to  come.  I  pray  God  that  he  would  guide  you  safely  through 
them.  Fear  God  and  do  right." 

Melancthon  was  now  taken,  with  his  brother,  into  the  family  of 
his  grandmother,  who  was  Reuchlin's  sister,  and  lived  in  Pforzheim. 
George  Simler,  of  Wimpfen,  whom  we  have  met  with  as  a  pupil  of 
Dringenberg's,  instructed  him  there  in  Greek.  Reuchlin,  who  was  a 
frequent  visitant  at  his  sister's,  in  Pforzheim,  was  delighted  with  the 
progress  of  the  boy,  and  gave  him  books, — among  the  rest  a  Greek 
grammar  and  a  Greek  dictionary.  He  brought  him  also,  for  sport's 
sake,  a  little  red  doctor's-cap.  And  after  the  fashion,  then  so  preva- 
lent, he  translated  his  original  name,  "Schwarzerd"  (black  earth,)  into 
the  Greek,  Melancthon. 

II.       MELANCTHON    AT    HEIDELBERG. 

After  remaining  toward  two  years  at  Pforzheim,  he  was  sent  in 
1509,  at  the  age  of  twelve,*  to  the  university  of  Heidelberg.  This 
institution,  at  the  close  of  the  15th  century  and  the  commencement 
of  the  16th,  was  the  rallying  ground  of  the  most  eminent  men  of 
Germany,  those  especially  who  were  laboring  in  the  cause  of  a 
reformation  in  the  church  as  well  as  in  the  schools.  The  Elector- 
Palatine  Philip,  who  entered  upon  his  government  in  1476,  shewed 
the  utmost  concern  for  the  prosperity  of  this  university.  He  confided 
the  execution  of  his  generous  plans  principally  to  John  Kamrnerer,  of 
Worms,  the  Baron  of  Dalberg,  who  invited  learned  men  to  Heidel- 
berg, and  accorded  them  his  favor  and  protection.  Dalberg  was  born 
in  1445,  at  Oppenhaim.  He  studied  at  Erfurt,  and  then  went  to 
Italy,  where  in  1476  he  lived  in  Ferrara  with  his  friend  Plenninger, 
and  with  Agricola.  In  1482  he  was  appointed  by  the  Elector  Philip 
his  chancellor,  and  shortly  afterward  obtained  the  rank  of  Prince 
Bishop  of  Worms.  Dalberg,  as  we  have  before  seen,  induced 
Rudolf  Agricola  to  come  to  Heidelberg ;  he  it  was  too  who,  when 
John  Reuchlin  suffered  persecution  in  his  own  country,  threw  around 
him  his  most  cordial  protection ;  and  he  moreover  secured  the 

•  In  view  of  Melancthon's  extreme  youth,  this  event  would  surprise  us,  did  we  not  consider 
that  at  that  time  much  was  taught  in  the  universities,  which  at  tne  present  day  is  assigned  to 
the  upper  classes  in  the  gymnasia  ;  so  that  then  the  school-curriculum  was  completed  at  the 
university. 


PHILIP  MEI.ANCTHON  163 

installation  of  Reuchlin's  brother,  Dionysius,  as  professor  of  the  Greek 
language  at  the  university.  About  the  same  time  Wimpheling,  that 
ardent  scholar  of  Dringenberg's,  taught  at  Heidelberg.  Conrad 
Celtes  too,  the  first  German  poet  who  was  honored  with  a  crown,* 
came  thither  while  on  his  travels  through  Germany  and  Italy ;  and 
at  his  suggestion  Dalberg  founded  the  Rhenish  literary  association.f 
But,  when  Melancthon  came  to  Heidelberg,  most  of  these  above- 
named  excellent  men  had,  it  is  true,  either  removed  or  died. 
Agricola  died  in  1485,  Dalberg  in  1503,  Celtes  in  1508,  while 
professor  of  the  art  of  poetry  at  Vienna:  in  1498  John  Reuchlin  had 
returned  to  Wurtemberg,  and  Wimpheling  too  had  left  Heidelberg 
nearly  at  the  same  time. 

Melancthon  was  received  into  the  family  of  the  aged  theological 
professor,  Pallas  Spangel,  who  had  taught  here  for  thirty -three  years ; 
and  he  recounted  to  the  young  lad  many  incidents  of  the  past,  in 
which  Agricola  and  others  were  actors. 

"At  the  university,"  says  Melancthon,  "  nothing  was  placed  before 
us  but  their  babbling  dialectics  and  meagre  physics.  As  I,  however, 
had  learned  the  art  of  versifying,  I  applied  myself  to  the  poets,  and 
likewise  to  history  and  mythology.  I  read,  too,  all  the  moderns  of 
Politian's  school  whom  I  could  lay  hands  on;  and  this  was  not 
without  its  influence  upon  my  style." 

In  his  14th  year,  (1511,)  the  university  gave  Melancthon  the 
Baccalaureate  degree.  He  then  took  charge  of  the  studies  of  two 
sous  ol  Count  Lowenstein,  and  sketched,  for  their  use  probably,  the 
first  outlines  of  a  grammar  of  the  Greek  language. 

By  reason  of  his  extreme  youth,  the  degree  of  Master  was  not  con- 
ferred upon  him;  this  fact,  taken  in  connection  with  an  attack  of 
fever,  determined  him  in  1512  to  leave  Heidelberg  and  go  to 
Tubingen. 

III.       MELANCTHON    AT   TUBINGEN. 

At  that  time  the  Tubingen  university  had  been  in  existence  for 
thirty-five  years  only,  since  it  was  founded  in  1477  by  the  excellent 
Eberhard  the  Elder,  the  first  Duke  of  Wurtemberg.  The  early 
history  of  this  university  reminds  one  of  the  Middle  Ages;  for  nomi- 
nalism and  realism  here  renewed  their  old  battles,  and  it  often  hap- 
pened that  of  two  students  occupying  the  same  room  one  was  a 
nominalist  and  the  other  a  realist.  Gabriel  Biel,  who  was  the  last 

•  He  was  crowned  for  his  Latin  poems  upon  the  Emperor  Frederick  III.  The  coronation 
took  place  in  1491,  at  Nuremberg. 

t  Societas  literaria  Rhenuna.  Dalberg  was  its  president,  and  it  numbered  among  its  mem- 
bers Pirkheimer,  Sebastian  Brandt,  and  many  other  distinguished  men. 


164  PHILIP  MELANCTHON. 

of  the  distinguished  scholastics,  and  a  nominalist,  was  a  professor 
here. 

But  it  was  not  long  before  the  elements  of  the  new  era  began  to 
bestir  themselves.  Paul  Scriptoris,  a  Franciscan,  though  he  read 
lectures  upon  Scotus,  nevertheless  deviated  here  and  there  from  the 
teachings  of  the  church,  and  Suminenhart  sought  to  base  theology 
upon  the  Bible.  Both  of  these  men  had  learned  Hebrew ;  Hilde- 
brand  too,  full  of  pious  zeal,  taught  Hebrew  and  Greek  for  the  sake 
exclusively  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 

While  these  men,  led  by  their  earnest  religious  tendencies,  were 
thus  advancing  in  the  right  direction,  there  came  to  Tubingen  in  1496 
a  man  who  was  enthusiastically  devoted  to  the  classics.  This  man 
was  Henry  Bebel,  professor  of  poetry  and  eloquence.  Polite  litera- 
ture, (politiores  literae,)  as  it  was  called,  was  first  represented  at  the 
university  in  him;  for  before  his  coining  there  had  not  been  even  a 
place  assigned  to  it.  He  opened  a  path  for  classical  studies  in  a  bold 
and  fearless  manner,  doing  battle  with  the  monks,  who  regarded 
these  studies  as  anti-Christian.  Brassicanus,  of  Constance,  co-operated 
with  him  also.  Among  the  professors  of  law  were  George  Simler, 
already  mentioned  as  Melancthon's  teacher,  and  Naucler,  who  was 
the  author  of  a  history  of  the  world.  John  Stoffler,  a  noteworthy 
man,  became  professor  of  mathematics  and  astronomy  in  1516. 

When  the  youthful  Melancthon  came  to  Tubingen,  he  was  involved 
in  the  struggle  between  the  old  and  the  new  eras.  Bebel,  Brassica- 
nus,  and  others,  whose  courses  he  attended,  were  decided  Reuchlin- 
ists;  and  to  these  he  united  himself,  since  he  was  akin  to  Keuchlin 
in  two  senses, — as  well  by  mental  affinities  as  by  the  ties  of  nature. 

He  now  strove  with  the  energy  and  ardor  of  youth  to  compass  all 
branches  of  knowledge,  both  by  learning  and  teaching.  When,  in 
1514,  in  his  17th  year,  he  was  made  a  Master,  he  lectured  on  Virgil 
and  Terence.  Two  years  later,  in  1516,  he  published  an  edition  of 
Terence,  in  which  the  verses  were  disposed  according  to  the  metr<-.* 
In  the  dedication  of  the  same,  (to  Geraeander,)  he  commends  the 
poet  to  youth  particularly  as  a  teacher  both  of  morals  and  of  style. 

At  the  same  time  he  went  eagerly  into  Greek,  read  Hesiod  with 
Oecolampadius,  and  translated  much  of  Plutarch  and  Lucian,  and 
the  whole  of  Aratus.  In  1518  he  brought  out  his  Greek  grammar: 
thus  early,  in  his  21st  year,  did  he  give  indications  that  he  was 
marked  out  to  be  the  "Praeceptor  Germaniae"  as  he  was  afterward 
familiarly  called.  On  the  death  of  Bebel,  which  took  place  in  1516, 


•  Comoediae  P.   Terentii  metro  numerisque  restitutae.     Tub.,  1516.     It  passed  through 
several  editions. 


PHILIP  MELANCTHON.  1(35 

Melancthon,  the  mere  stripling  of  nineteen,  was  invited  to  fill  his 
chair  and  teach  rhetoric ;  whereupon,  he  read  lectures  on  some  works 
of  Cicero  and  six  books  of  Livy.  During  ''is  period  the  logic  of 
Rudolf  Agricola  made  its  appearance,  and  .vielancthon  was  incited 
by  it  to  undertake  a  critical  examination  into  the  course  of  argument 
in  the  speeches  of  Demosthenes  and  Cicero.  He  likewise  cultivated 
the  acquaintance  of  Francis  Stadian,  professor  of  logic.  At  the  close 
of  his  Greek  grammar,  he  announced  "  that  he  intended,  in  conjunction 
with  a  number  of  his  friends,  Stadian  especially,  to  edit  the  works  of 
Aristotle."  "  If  Aristotle,  even  in  the  original,  is  somewhat  obscure/' 
said  Melancthon  in  one  of  his  orations,  "  in  the  Latin  versions  he  has 
become  horribly  mutilated  and  wholly  unintelligible."  We  have  seen 
that  the  Italians  likewise,  Politian,  for  example,  went  back  to  the 
original  text  of  Aristotle,  and  were  thus  enabled  to  lay  the  axe  at  the 
root  of  the  pseudo-Aristotelism  of  the  scholastics.  Heyd,  a  clear- 
sighted author,  thus  justly  observes  in  this  connection  :  "  Melancthon 
and  Stadian,  in  editing  and  translating  Aristotle,  sought  to  bring 
about  a  reformation  in  the  sphere  of  philosophy,  similar  to  that  which 
Luther's  translation  of  the  Bible  was  designed  to  effect  in  the  sphere 
of  theology.  Men  had  become  sick  of  turbid  streams,  and  longed  to 
quench  their  thirst  at  the  pure  fountains.  The  Bible  truly  was  a 
perennial  fountain,  but  a  century  later  Francis  Bacon  directed  inquiry 
from  Aristotle,  the  teacher  of  physics  back  to  nature,  (p^rf'S",)  the 
true  original  and  source  of  physics." 

Melancthon  attended  the  mathematical  lectures  of  Stoffler  for  three 
years,  and  entertained  the  highest  respect  for  his  character.  He 
dedicated  to  him  an  oration,  " de artibus  liberalibus"  that  he  delivered 
in  1517,  in  Tubingen;  and  it  was  at  Stoffler's  request  that  he 
translated  Aratus. 

He  cultivated  the  science  of  law  likewise,  and  it  would  appear  that 
he  gave  private  instruction  in  jurisprudence.  He  also  heard  medical 
lectures,  and  studied  Galen  quite  as  much  with  reference  to  the  matter 
as  to  the  style.  And  he  was  moreover  led  into  close  historical  researches, 
oy  remodeling  Naucler's  history  of  the  world  for  a  new  edition.  In 
theology  there  was  not  much  to  be  learned  from  the  professors  at 
Tubingen ;  and  for  that  reason  Melancthon  soon  applied  his  own 
linguistic  attainments  to  Biblical  exegesis ;  and  he  was  much  rejoiced 
at  the  appearance  of  the  New  Testament  of  Erasmus. 

Thus  were  his  studies,  yet  in  his  early  youth,  throughout  uni- 
versal,— no  branch  of  knowledge  remaining  wholly  unfamiliar  to  him  ; 
and  by  virtue  of  this  universality,  for  which  his  remarkable  talents 
fitted  him,  he  won  for  himself  the  appellation  "Praeceptor  Germaniae^ 


166  PHILIP  MELANCTHON. 

IV.       MELANCTHON    CALLED    TO    WITTENBERG. 

Melancthon  had  spent  six  years  at  Tubingen,  when  Frederick  the 
Wise,  in  the  year  1518,  applied  to  Reuchlin  to  provide  him  a  teacher 
of  Greek,  and  one  of  Hebrew  also,  for  the  university  of  Wittenberg. 
Reuchlin,  in  his  reply  to  the  Elector,  assured  him  that  Germany, 
hitherto  called,  and  not  without  reason,  in  other  countries,  "  barbarian  " 
and  "  brutish,"  needed  these  studies.  For  Hebrew  he  named,  by  way 
of  eminence,  Oecolampadius ;  "where  baptized  Jews  are  not  well- 
versed  in  Latin  they  are  not  fit  persons  to  teach  Hebrew,  as  their 
knowledge  has  been  derived  more  from  use  than  from  study."  For 
Greek,  Reuchlin  recommended  in  the  most  decided  terms  "  Master 
Philip  Schwarzerd,"  whom  "from  his  youth  up  he  himself  had 
indoctrinated  in  this  language." 

On  the  12th  of  July,  Melancthon  wrote  an  impatient  letter  to 
Reuchlin,  signifying  his  longing  to  be  delivered  from  his  "  house  of 
bondage,"  where,  occupied  in  unimportant  labors  with  boys,  he 
himself  was  fast  becoming  a  boy  again  himself.  He  was  willing  to 
go  whither  Reuchlin  should  send  him. 

Reuchlin  was  not  long  in  answering  the  letter.  The  Elector  had 
written  him  to  have  Melancthon  come  to  Wittenberg.  "  Not  figura- 
tively," Reuchlin  continued,  "but  in  their  literal  sense  I  address  you 
in  the  words  of  the  command  of  God  to  the  faithful  Abraham :  'Get 
thee  out  of  thy  country,  and  from  thy  kindred,  and  from  thy  father's 
house,  unto  a  land  that  I  will  show  thee.  And  I  will  make  of  thee  a 
great  nation,  and  I  will  bless  thee,  and  make  thy  name  great ;  and 
thou  shalt  be  a  blessing.'  Thus  my  spirit  prophecies  to  thee,  and  I 
hope  that  these  things  will  be  fulfilled  in  thee,  my  Philip,  my  pupil, 
and  my  consolation."  To  the  Elector,  Reuchlin  wrote :  "  Melancthon 
will  come,  and  he  will  be  an  honor  to  the  university.  For  I  know  no 
one  among  the  Germans  who  excels  him,  save  Erasmus,  of  Rotterdam, 
and  he  is  more  properly  a  Hollander.  He,  (Erasmus,)  surpasses  all 
of  us  in  Latin." 

Melancthon  now  left  Tubingen.  Simler,  his  old  teacher,  thus 
spoke  of  his  departure :  "As  many  learned  men  as  the  university  can 
boast  of,  they  are  nevertheless  none  of  them  learned  enough  to  form 
a  suitable  estimate  of  the  learning  of  him  who  is  about  to  leave  us." 
From  Augsburg  and  Nuremberg,  where  Melancthon  made  friends  of 
Pirkheimer  and  Scheurl,  he  went  to  Lfipzic.  Here  he  spent  much 
time  in  the  society  of  the  excellent  Peter  Mosellanus.  On  the  25th 
of  August,  1518,  he  entered  Wittenberg,  there  to  remain  until  the 
close  of  his  life.  There,  for  eight  and  twenty  years,  he  labored  in 
connection  with  Luther.  And  his  labors  bore  fruit  in  an  abundan 


PHILIP  MELANCTHON.  167 

harvest  of  blessings  ;  for  the  ecclesiastical  movement  set  on  foot  by  these 
two  men  in  a  small  German  university  assumed  an  ever  wider  sphere, 
till  at  last  it  encircled  the  globe,  and  thus  Reuchlin's  presentiments 
were  realized. 

Luther  could  not  find  words  to  depict  the  joy  that  he  felt  at 
Melancthon's  coming.  In  a  letter  to  Spalatin,  he  expresses  his 
admiration  of  the  inaugural  speech  which  Melancthon  delivered  four 
days  after  his  arrival.  He  only  fears  that  Melancthon's  delicate  con- 
stitution may  not  bear  the  North-German  climate  and  mode  of  life.  In 
another  letter  of  this  period,  he  styles  him  "profoundly  learned, 
thoroughly  grounded  in  Greek,  (Graecanicissimus,)  and  not  unfamiliar 
with  Hebrew."  To  Reuchlin  he  writes:  "Our  Melancthon  is  a 
wonderful  man ;  yea,  in  every  quality  of  mind  almost  above  humanity, 
and,  withal,  very  confiding  and  friendly  in  his  demeanor  toward  me." 

Thus  did  Luther,  on  his  first  acquaintance  with  Melancthon,  recog- 
nize him  as  the  man  who  was  to  prove  the  complement  of  his  own 
being,  and  to  make  possible  the  realization  of  the  great  purpose  of 

his  life. 

v.     MELANCTHON'S  ACTIVITY  IN  WITTENBERG. 

The  activity  of  Melancthon  from  this  time  on  was  extraordinary. 

What  he  did  directly  for  the*  church  I  omit,  as  not  coming  within 

the  scope  of  this  work.     The  universality  displayed  in  his  youthful 

studies  accompanied  him  throughout  the  whole  of  his  life,  as  we  see 

in  the  wide  range  of  subjects  which  he  taught,  or  on  which  he  wrote. 

a.     His  Lectures. 

His  lectures  embraced  the  most  diverse  subjects.  He  read  on  the 
exegesis  of  the  New  Testament ;  a  while  also  on  that  of  the  Old, 
besides  dogmatics.  At  the  same  time  he  gave  critical  interpretations 
of  many  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics.  To  these  were  added 
lectures  on  ethics,  logic,  and  physics.  From  his  writings  we  may 
perceive  what  a  union  of  depth  and  clearness  he  displayed  in  the 
treatment  of  his  subjects;  and  this  accounts  for.  the  homage  and 
the  admiration  of  his  hearers.  Their  number  reached  at  times  as 
high  as  two  thousand.  They  were  composed  of  all  ranks,  and  not 
Germans  alone,  but  also  Frenchmen,  Englishmen,  Poles,  Hungarians, 
Danes,  yea,  even  Italians  and  Greeks  flocked  to  hear  him.  And  what 
distinguished  men  too  were  formed  under  his  teachings !  Among 
them  we  may  include  those  highly  renowned  schoolmasters,  Joachim 
Camerarius,  Valentine  Trotzendorf,  and  Michael  Neander.  All  three 
loved  him  to  their  dying  clay  with  a  depth  of  devotedness  that  they 
could  not  express ;  and  his  doctrines  they  held  sacred  and  worthy  of 
lasting  remembrance. 


168  PHILIP  MELANCTHON. 

b.     His  Personal  Relations  to  the  Students. 

But  that  devotedness  was  not  merely  the  fruit  of  Melancthon's 
lectures ;  it  proceeded  rather  from  the  affectionate  manner  that  he 
displayed  toward  the  students  individually.  "It  was  a  part,"  so 
Camerarius  tells  us,  "of  Melancthon's  household  arrangements,  never 
to  deny  himself  to  any  one.  Many  came  to  him  for  letters  of  recom- 
mendation ;  many  for  him  to  revise  their  essays.  Some  sought  his 
counsel  in  their  embarrassments ;  others  told  him  of  incidents  that 
had  befallen  them,  either  in  private  or  in  public,  provided  they  were 
such  as  merited  his  attention ;  others  again  brought  this  or  that 
complaint  before  him."  "  I  can  assure  you,  of  a  truth,"  said  Melanc- 
thon  in  an  academical  oration,  "  that  I  embrace  all  the  students  with 
the  love  and  the  interest  of  a  father,  and  am  deeply  affected  by  every 
thing  that  menaces  them  with  danger." 

c.     What  he  did  for  the  School- System. 

Another  phase  of  Melancthon's  educational  activity  may  be  seen  in 
his  relation  to  schools.  For  he  was  often  and  in  various  ways 
appealed  to  for  counsel  in  school  matters.  Especially  noteworthy  in 
this  connection  is  his  correspondence  with  Hieronymus  Baumgartner, 
of  Nuremberg.  The  occasion  was  as  follows:  The  Nurembergers 
had  resolved  to  establish  a  gymnasium,  induced  thereto  chiefly  by 
the  solicitations  of  the  excellent  Lazarus  Spengler.  And  Melancthon 
was  formally  invited  through  Baumgartner  to  become  its  rector.  In 
his  reply  to  Baumgartner  he  declines,  because  in  the  first  place  he 
can  not  leave  Wittenberg  without  being  ungrateful  to  the  Elector; 
and  again,  he  is  not  adapted  by  his  previous  training  for  such  a 
position.  It  requires  a  man  who  is  a  practiced  rhetorician,  and 
therefore  able  with  a  master's  hand  to  mold  the  young  to  rhetorical 
perfection.  To  this  he  is  in  no  wise  adapted,  for  his  style  is  bare  and 
dry,  with  no  elegance  in  it,  in  fact  altogether  scant  and  devoid  of  sap ; 
whereas  the  diction  of  a  teacher  of  a  gymnasium  should  be  rich  and 
full  of  grace.  Reuchlin  had  sent  him,  when  on  the  threshold  of  man- 
hood, to  Saxony,  where  he  first  set  about  a  thorough  cultivation  of 
many  branches,  self-impelled  and  self-directed  thereto,  for  his  previous 
school-education  had  been  but  poor. 

The  Nurembergers,  as  might  have  been  anticipated,  did  not  take 
Melancthon's  estimate  of  himself  in  earnest,  but,  believing  it  to  be  the 
result  of  an  overweening  modesty,  repeated  their  invitation  through 
Baumgartner  again.  Melancthon  now  replied  decidedly  that  he 
could  not  come.  But,  on  his  suggestion,  Hessus  and  Camerarius  were 
applied  to.  Sigismund  Gelenius  likewise,  a  learned  Bohemian,  then 
living  at  Basle,  was  invited  by  Melancthon  himself  to  become  one  of 


PHILIP  MELANCTHON.  169 

the  teachers.  In  the  letter  of  invitation  Melanclhon  tells  him  "  that 
the  new  institution  was  designed  to  furnish  a  full  course  of  instruction 
from  the  elements  up  to  rhetoric.  Mathematics  too  was  to  receive 
attention."  Subsequently  Melancthon  was  urged  by  the  civic 
authorities  of  Nuremberg  to  take  part  in  the  inauguration  of  the 
gymnasium.  (His  letter  of  acceptance  was  dated  on  the  10th  of 
March,  1526,  and  he  went  to  Nuremberg  on  the  6th  of  May.)  He 
there  delivered  a  speech,  in  which  he  praised  the  Nurembergers  for 
the  spirit  they  displayed  in  providing  means  of  education  for  the 
young,  and  he  compared  their  city  to  Florence.  In  the  year  1826,  on 
the  third  centennial  anniversary  of  the  opening  of  the  gymnasium,  a 
statue  of  Melancthon  was  erected  in  front  of  the  building. 

o 

And  as  by  the  Nurembergers,  so  from  many  other  quarters  was 
Melancthon's  advice  solicited,  in  the  affairs  both  of  schools  and  uni- 
versities. But  the  event  of  his  life  that  was  attended  with  the  most 
important  consequences  upon  the  school-system  was  his  visitation,  in 
1527,  of  churches  and  schools,  undertaken  by  order  of  the  Elector, 
John  the  Constant,  and  through  the  influence  of  Luther.  The  field 
assigned  him  was  Thuringia,  and,  in  company  with  Myconius  and 
Justus  Jonas,  he  traveled  over  the  whole  of  it;  and,  in  1528,  likewise 
by  order  of  the  Elector,  he  published  his  "  Report."  or  "  Book  of 
Visitation,"  a  work  of  great  significance  alike  to  church  and  to  schools. 
Through  its  means  an  evangelical  church -system  was  established  for 
the  first  time  independent  of  the  Pope,  and  asserting  its  own  authority 
both  in  the  matter  of  doctrine  and  of  government.  Soon  other  states 
followed  the  example  of  Saxony. 

From  the  "  Book  of  Visitation  "  we  extract  the  following 

SCHOOL-PLAN.* 

Preachers  also  should  exhort  the  people  of  their  charge  to  send  their  children 
to  school,  so  that  they  may  be  trained  up  to  teach  sound  doctrine  in  the  church, 
and  to  serve  the  state  in  a  wise  and  able  manner.  Some  imagine  that  it  is  enough 
for  a  teacher  to  understand  German.  But  this  is  a  misguided  fancy.  For  he, 
who  is  to  teach  others,  must  have  great  practice  and  special  aptitude ;  to  gain  this, 
he  must  have  studied  much,  and  from  his  youth  up.  For  St.  Paul  tells  us,  in  1 
Tim.,  3 :  2,  that  a  bishop  must  be  "  apt  to  teach."  And  herein  he  would  have  us 
infer  that  bishops  must  possess  this  quality  in  greater  measure  than  laymen.  So 
also  he  commends  Timothy,  (1  Tim.,  4 :  6,)  in  that  he  has  learned  from  his  youth 
up,  having  been  u  nourished  up  in  the  words  of  faith,  and  of  good  doctrine."  For 
this  is  no  small  art,  namely,  to  teach  and  direct  others  in  a  clear  and  correct 
manner,  and  it  is  impossible  that  unlearned  men  should  attain  to  it.  Nor  do  we 
need  able  and  skillful  persons  for  the  church  alone,  but  for  the  government  of  the 
world  too  5  and  God  requires  it  at  our  hands.  Hence  parents  should  place  their 
children  at  school,  in  order  there  to  arm  and  equip  them  for  God's  service,  so  that 
God  can  use  them  for  the  good  of  others. 

But  in  our  day  there  ace  many  abuses  in  children's  schools.  And  it  is  that 
these  abuses  may  be  corrected,  and  that  the  young  may  have  good  instruction, 
that  we  have  prepared  this  plan.  In  the  first  place,  the  teachers  must  be  careful 

*  This  plan  appears  likewise  in  Luther's  works. 


170  PHILIP  MELANCTHON. 

/  to  teach  the  children  Latin  only,  not  German,  nor  Greek,  nor  Hebrew,  as  some 
'  have  heretofore  done,  burdening  the  poor  children  with  such  a  multiplicity  of 
pursuits,  that  are  not  only  unproductive,  but  positively  injurious.  Such  school- 
masters, we  plainly  see,  do  not  think  of  the  improvement  of  the  children  at  all, 
but  undertake  so  many  languages, solely  to  increase  their  own  reputation.  In  the 
second  place,  teachers  should  not  burden  the  children  with  too  many  books,  but 
should  rather  avoid  a  needless  variety.  Thirdly,  it  is  indispensable  that  the 
children  be  classified  into  distinct  groups. 

THE  FIRST  GROUP. — The  first  group  should  consist  of  those  children  who  are 
learning  to  read.  With  these  the  following  method  is  to  be  adopted :  They  are 
first  to  be  taught  the  child's-manual,  containing  the  alphabet,  the  creed,  the  Lord's 
prayer,  and  other  prayers.  When  they  have  learned  this,  Donatus  and  Cato  may 
both  be  given  them  ;  Donatus  for  a  reading-book,  and  Cato  they  may  explain 
after  the  following  manner :  the  schoolmaster  must  give  them  the  explanation 
of  a  verse  or  two,  and  then  in  a  few  hours  call  upon  them  to  repeat  what  he  has 
thus  said ;  and  in  this  way  they  will  learn  a  great  number  of  Latin  words,  and 
lay  up  a  full  store  of  phrases  to  use  in  speech.  In  this  they  should  be  exercised 
until  they  can  read  well.  Neither  do  we  consider  it  time  lost,  if  the  feebler 
children,  who  are  not  especially  quick-witted,  should  read  Cato  and  Donatus  not 
once  only,  but  a  second  time.  With  this  they  should  be  taught  to  write,  and  be 
required  to  shew  their  writing  to  the  schoolmaster  every  day.  Another  mode 
of  enlarging  their  knowledge  of  Laiin  wt/rds  is  to  give  them  every  afternoon  some 
words  to  commit  to  memory,  as  has  been  the  custom  in  schools  hitherto.  These 
children  must  likewise  be  kept  at  music,  and  be  made  to  sing  with  the  others,  as 
we  shall  show,  God  willing,  further  on. 

THE  SECOND  GROUP. — The  second  group  consists  of  children  who  have  learned 
to  read,  and  are  now  ready  to  go  into  grammar.  With  these  the  following  regu- 
lations should  be  observed :  The  first  hour  after  noon  every  day  all  the  children, 
large  and  small,  should  be  practiced  in  music.  Then  the  schoolmaster  must 
interpret  to  the  second  group  the  fables  of  JEsop.  After  vespers,  he  should 
explain  to  them  the  Paedology  of  Mosellanus  ;  and,  when  this  is  finished,  he  should 
select  from  the  Colloquies  of  Erasmus  some  that  may  conduce  to  their  improvement 
and  discipline.  This  should  be  repeated  on  the  next  evening  also.  Wrhen  the 
children  are  about  to  go  home  for  the  night,  some  short  sentence  may  be  given 
them,  taken  perhaps  from  a  poet,  which  they  are  to  repeat  the  next  morning, 
such  as  "Amicus  certus  in  re  incerta  cernitur" — A  true  friend  becomes  manifest 
in  adversity.  Or  "Fortuna,  quern  nimium  fovet,  stultum  facit." — Fortune,  if 
she  fondles  a  man  too  much,  makes  him  a  fool.  Or  this  from  Ovid:  "Vulgus 
amicitias  utilitqle  probat." — The  rabble  value  friendships  by  the  profit  they  yield. 

In  the  morning  the  children  are  again  to  explain  JEsop's  fables.  With  this  the 
teacher  should  decline  some  nouns  or  verbs,  many  or  few,  easy  or  d.fficult, 
according  to  the  progress  of  the  children,  and  then  ask  them  the  rules  and  the 
reasons  for  such  inflection.  And  at  the  same  time  when  they  shall  have  learned 
the  rules  of  construction,  they  should  be  required  to  construe,  (parse,)  as  it  is 
called ;  this  is  a  very  useful  exercise,  and  yet  there  are  not  many  who  employ  it. 
After  the  children  have  thus  learned  ^Esop,  Terence  is  to  be  given  to  them  ;  and 
this  they  must  commit  to  memory,  for  they  will  now  be  older,  and  able  to  work 
harder.  Still  the  master  must  be  cautious,  lest  he  overtask  them.  Next  after 
Terence,  the  children  may  take  hold  of  such  of  the  comedies  of  Pb'utus  as  are 
harmless  in  their  tendency,  as  the  Aulularia,  the  Trinummus,  the  Psevdolus,  etc. 

The  hour  before  mid-day  must  be  invariably  and  exclusively  devoted  to  instruc- 
tion in  grammar :  first  etymology,  then  syntax,  and  lastly  prosody.  And  when 
the  teacher  has  gone  thus  far  through  with  the  grammar,  he  should  begin  it 
again,  and  so  on  continually,  that  the  children  may  understand  it  to  perfection. 
For  if  there  is  negligence  here,  there  is  neither  certainty  nor  stability  in  whatever 
is  learned  beside.  And  the  children  should  learn  by  heart  and  repeat  all  the 
rules,  so  that  they  may  be  driven  and  forced,  as  it  were,  to  learn  the  grammar 
well. 

If  such  labor  is  irksome  to  the  schoolmaster,  as  we  often  see,  then  we  should 
dismiss  him,  and  get  another  in  his  place, — one  who  will  not  shrink  from  the  duty 
of  keeping  his  pupils  constantly  in  the  grammar.  For  no  greater  injury  can  befal] 
earning  and  the  arts,  than  for  youth  to  grow  up  in  ignorance  of  grammar. 


PHILIP  MEI  ANCTHON.  171 

This  course  should  be  repeated  daily,  by  the  week  together ;  nor  should  we  by 
any  means  give  children  a  different  book  to  study  each  day.  However,  one  day, 
for  instance,  Sunday  or  Wednesday,  should  be  set  apart,  in  which  the  children 
may  receive  Christian  instruction.  For  some  are  suffered  to  learn  nothing  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures  ;  and  some  masters  there  are  who  teach  children  nothing  but  the 
Scriptures;  both  of  which  extremes  must  be  avoided.  For  it  is  essential  that 
children  be  taught  the  rudiments  of  the  Christian  and  divine  life.  So  likewise 
there  are  many  ea«»ns  why,  with  the  Scriptures,  other  books  too  should  belaid 
bofore  them,  oui  of  which  they  may  learn  to  read.  And  in  this  matter  we 
propose  the  following  method:  Let  the  schoolmaster  hear  the  whole  group, 
making  them,  one  after  the  other,  repeat  the  Lord's  prayer,  the  creed,  and  the  ten 
commandments.  But  if  the  group  is  too  large,  it  may  be  divided,  so  that  one 
week  one  part  may  recite,  and  the  remaining  part  the  next. 

After  one  recitation,  the  master  should  explain  in  a  simple  and  correct  manner 
the  Lord's  prayer,  after  the  next  the  creed,  and  at  another  time  the  ten  com- 
mandments. And  he  should  impress  upon  the  children  the  essentials,  such  as  the 
fear  of  God,  faith,  and  good  works.  He  must  not  touch  upon  polemics,  nor  must 
he  accustom  the  children  to  scoff  at  monks  or  any  other  persons,  as  many 
unskillful  teachers  use  to  do. 

With  this  the  schoolmaster  may  give  the  boys  some  plain  psalms  to  commit  to 
memory,  which  comprehend  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  Christian  life,  which 
inculcate  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  faith,  and  good  works.  As  the  112th  Psalm, 
•'*  Blessed  is  the  man  that  feareth  the  Lord;"  the  34th,  "I  will  bless  the  Lord  at 
all  times;"  the  128th,  "  Blessed  is  every  one  that  fearelh  the  Lord,  that  walketh 
in  his  ways;"  the  125th,  ''They  that  trust  in  the  Lord  shall  be  as  Mount  Zion, 
which  can  not  be  removed,  but  abideth  forever;"  the  127th,  "Except  the  Lqrd 
build  the  house,  they  labor  in  vain  that  build  it;"  the  133d,  "  Behold  how  good 
and  how  pleasant  it  is  for  brethren  to  dwell  together  in  unity !"  or  other  such 
plain  and  intelligible  psalms,  which  likewise  should  be  expounded  in  the  briefest 
and  most  correct  manner  possible,  so  that  the  children  may  know,  both  the 
substance  of  what  they  have  learned  and  where  to  find  it. 

On  this  day  too  the  teacher  should  give  a  grammatical  exposition  of  Matthew ; 
and,  when  he  has  gone  through  with  it,  he  should  commence  it  anew.  But, 
when  the  boys  are  somewhat  more  advanced,  he  may  comment  upon  the  two 
epistles  of  Paul  to  Timothy,  or  the  1st  Epistle  of  John,  or  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon. 
But  teachers  must  not  undertake  any  other  books.  For  it  is  not  profitable  to 
burden  the  young  with  deep  and  difficult  books  as  some  do,  who,  to  add  to  their 
own  reputation,  read  Isaiah,  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  St.  John's  Gospel,  and 
others  of  a  like  nature. 

THE  THIRD  GROUP. — Now,  when  these  children  have  been  well  trained  in 
grammar,  those  among  them  who  have  made  the  greatest  proficiency  should  be 
taken  out,  and  formed  into  the  third  group.  The  hour  after  mid -day  they,  together 
with  the  rest,  are  to  devote  to  music.  After  this  the  teacher  is  to  give  an  explana- 
tion of  Virgil.  When  he  has  finished  this,  he  may  take  up  Ovid's  Metamorphoses, 
and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  afternoon  Cicero's  "  Offices,"  or  "  Letters  to  Friends." 
In  the  morning  Virgil  m;iy  be  reviewed,  and  the  teacher,  to  keep  up  practice  in 
the  grammar,  may  call  for  constructions  and  inflections,  and  point  out  the 
prominent  figures  of  speech. 

The  hour  before  mid-day,  grammar  should  still  be  kept  up,  that  the  scholars 
may  be  thoroughly  versed  therein.  And  when  they  are  perfectly  familiar  with  ety- 
mology and  syntax,  then  prosody  (metrica)  should  be  opened  to  them,  so  that 
they  can  thereby  become  accustomed  to  make  verses.  For  this  exercise  is  a  very 
great  help  toward  understanding  the  writings  of  others;  and  it  likewise  gives  the 
boys  a  rich  fund  of  words,  and  renders  them  accomplished  many  ways.  In  course 
of  time,  after  they  have  been  sufficiently  practiced  in  the  grammar,  this  same  hour 
is  to  be  given  to  logic  and  rhetoric.  The  boys  in  the  second  and  third  groups  are 
to  be  required  every  week  to  write  compositions,  either  in  the  form  of  letters  or 
of  verses.  They  should  also  be  rigidly  confined  to  Latin  conversation,  and  to  this 
end  the  teach  TS  themselves  must,  as  far  as  possible,  speak  nothing  but  Latin  with 
the  boys  ;  thus  they  will  acquire  the  practice  by  use,  and  the  more  rapidly  for  the 
incentives  held  out  to  them. 

Thus  much  for  schools.     We  have  here  the  yet  crude  beginnings 


172  PHILIP  MELANCTHON. 

of  a  high-school  system,  without  any  thorough  organization  or  well- 
regulated  activity.     These,  it  remained  for  Trotzendorf  and  Sturm  to 

develop. 

d.     Melancthon's  Manuals. 

His  influence  upon  schools  was  very  widely  diffused  by  means  of 
his  manuals,  which  were  universally  introduced  into  use,  and  were 
perpetuated  through  many  editions.  He  wrote  a  Greek  and  a  Latin 
grammar,  two  manuals  of  logic,  one  of  rhetoric,  one  of  ethics,  and  one 
of  physics. 

These  manuals  are  characterized  by  great  clearness  of  expression  : 
it  was  a  matter  of  great  moment  with  Melancthon,  by  means  of 
concise  and  clear  definitions  and  a  well-ordered  arrangement,  to  make 
himself. as  intelligible  as  possible.  Confused  sentiments,  and  obscure 
language,  whose  sense  we  vainly  perplex  ourselves  to  get  at,  these 
were  Melancthon's  abhorrence. 

The  Greek  Grammar. — An  edition  of  the  year  1542  lies  before 
me.*  In  the  preface  Melancthon  says  :  "  He  has  often  wished  that  his 
little  work  on  Greek  grammar  had  perished,  because  he  wrote  it 
while  yet  scarcely  out  of  boyhood,  for  the  use  of  the  boys  whom  he 
had  under  his  charge.  And  indeed  it  would  have  perished  had  not 
the  bookseller  constrained  him  to  repeat  the  foolish  action,  (denuo 
ineptire,)  and  to  rebuild  the  old  ruins.  He  has  accordingly  critically 
revised  the  whole,  altering  it  and  improving  it."  The  grammar  is 
simple  and  clear,  but  it  does  not  include  syntax ;  it  ends  with  the 
paradigms  of  the  verbs  in  fii.f 

The  Latin  Grammar. — Melancthon  wrote  this  originally  for  his 
pupil,  Erasmus  Ebner,  of  Nuremberg.  Goldstein,  afterward  recorder 
of  the  town  of  Halle,  issued  it,  as  he  tells  us  himself  in  the  preface, 
against  Melancthon's  wish,  in  1525.  In  the  edition  of  1542  there  is 
a  letter  of  Melancthon  to  the  Frankfort  bookseller,  Egenolph.  "  In 
the  first  edition  of  my  grammar,"  he  writes,  "there  were  various 
omissions.  These  may  be  supplied ;  yet  there  should  not  be  too 
many  rules,  lest  their  number  prove  discouraging  to  the  learner." 
He  then  expresses  his  confidence  that  Micyllus,  whom  he  has  prevailed 
upon  to  prepare  an  improved  edition,  will,  in  virtue  of  his  learning 
and  good  judgment,  adopt  the  right  method.  Next,  he  launches  into 
a  panegyric  of  grammar,  especially  of  its  usefulness  to  the  theologian. 
"How  important  it  is,"  he  says,  "to  the  church,  that  boys  be 
thoroughly  disciplined  in  the  languages !  Inasmuch  as  the  purity  of 

*  Grammatica  graeca  Ph.  Melancthonis  jam  novissime  recognita  atque  multis  in  locis  lo- 
cupletata.  Francofurti,  XLII. 

t  The  commentaries  on  syntax  he  sent  in  manuscript  to  Count  Nuenar,  but  they  were  not 
printed. 


PHILIP  MELANCTHON.  173 

the  divine  teachings  can  not  be  maintained  without  learning,  and 
weighty  controversies  can  only  be  settled  by  a  determination  of  the 
meaning  of  words,  and  a  wide  range  of  well-chosen  expressions  is 
indispensable  to  a  correct  construction ;  therefore  what  will  a  teacher 
in  the  church  be,  if  he  does  not  understand  grammar,  other  than  a 
silent  mask,  or  a  shameless  bawler  ?  He  who  does  not  understand 
the  mode  of  speech  of  God's  word  can  not  love  it  either.  Ignoti 
nulla  cupido  is  a  true  maxim.  But  how  can  he  be  a  good  teacher  in 
the  church  who  neither  loves  the  heavenly  doctrine,  nor  yet  under- 
stands it,  nor  is  able  to  explain  it  ?  Neglect  of  grammar  has  recoiled 
upon  our  own  heads,  in  that  through  the  means  the  monks  have 
palmed  off  upon  the  church  and  the  schools  spurious  wares  for  genu- 
ine. Hence  princes  should  have  a  care  to  maintain  learning ;  we 
observe,  however,  that  a  very  few  do  it.  And  cities  too  should  strive 
to  uphold  and  protect  these  studies,  that  embellish  not  only  the 
church  but  the  whole  of  life."  In  conclusion  he  exhorts  youth  to 
a  diligent  study  of  grammar. 

This  letter  of  Melancthon's  is  dated  in  1540.  It  was  also  printed 
with  the  edition  of  the  grammar  which  Camerarius  brought  out  in 
1550.  To  the  second  part  of  this  grammar,  or  the  syntax,  there  is 
prefixed  a  preface  addressed  to  the  son  of  Justus  Jonas.  It  is  written 
against  those  who  think  to  become  philologists  merely  through  the 
perusal  of  the  classics,  without  grammatical  studies.  Such  persons  will 
never  be  rooted  and  grounded.  Their  false  view  proceeds  from  a 
repugnance  to  the  restraint  of  rules, — a  repugnance  that  by  and  by 
will  degenerate  into  a  dangerous  contempt  of  all  law  and  order. 

The  following  is  the  history  of  this  edition  of  Melancthon's 
grammar :  Camerarius  requested  Melancthon,  on  behalf  of  the  book- 
seller, Papst,  in  Leipzic,  that  he  would  authorize  the  latter  to  bring 
out  a  new  edition.  Melancthon  acceded  to  the  request  in  the  most 
friendly  manner,  and  signified  his  approval,  in  advance,  of  all  the 
emendations  and  additions  which  Camerarius  should  make.  In  his 
preface,  Camerarius  thus  speaks  of  the  additions:  "They  will  not 
merely  profit  the  scholar,  but  they  will  likewise  assist  the  teacher." 
The  opinion  that  Schenk,  who  lectured  on  Latin  grammar  at  Leipzic, 
expressed  of  this  work,  will  doubtless  appear  to  most  of  us  somewhat 
exaggerated.  "  This  little  book  has  now  attained  to  that  perfection 
that  there  appears  to  be  nothing  deficient  in  it,  nor  can  there  here- 
after be  any  thing  added  to  it ;  and  accordingly  it  will  ever  continue  to 
be,  as  it  now  is,  the  sum  of  all  perfection,  neither  to  be  altered  nor 
remodeled." 

The  distinguished  Ilefeld  rector,  Michael  Neander,  did  not  assent 

No.  12.— [VoL.  IV.,  No.  3.]— 48. 


174  PHILIP  MELANCTHON. 

to  this  view,  as  far  as  it  referred  to  the  utility  of  Camerarius'  book  as 
a  school-grammar.  He  published  an  edition  himself,  with  this  title, 
namely,  "The  Latin  grammar  of  Ph.  Melancthon,  delivered  with 
brevity,  ease,  and  clearness,  in  the  compass  of  a  few  pages,  yet  in  such 
a  manner  as  not  only  to  give  Melancthon's  language,  but  his  method 
in  the  smaller  grammar  and  smaller  syntax,  that  first  and  oldest 
manual,  which  is  most  admirably  adapted  to  the  learner,  and  which 
more  than  any  other  has  been  used  in  all  our  German  schools."  He 
moreover  assures  us  on  the  title-page  that  boys  can  learn  every  thing  that 
is  necessary  to  the  understanding  of  Latin,  out  of  this  grammar,  in  a 
few  months.  In  the  preface,  Neander  explains  the  object  of  his  work 
more  distinctly.  He  says,  since  he  has  observed  that  boys  are 
burdened  by  a  multitude  of  rules  and  examples,  and  since  this  diffuse- 
ness  is  moreover  unsuitable  to  teachers,  therefore  he  has  made  this 
abridgment  of  Melancthon's  grammar.  It  is  so  concise  that  the 
scholar  should  be  required  to  learn  it  all  thoroughly;  then  he  can 
read,  compare,  and  exercise  himself  in  Melancthon's  own  admirable 
grammars,  both  the  smaller  and  the  larger ;  nay,  he  may  then  read 
and  digest  the  remarks  and  illustrations  which  have  been  incorporated 
into  the  larger  grammar  of  Melancthon  by  a  very  learned  man,*  and 
which  swell  the  book  to  twice  or  three  times  its  original  size. 
Camerarius'  edition  of  Melancthon's  grammar  contains  507  pages, 
Neander's  but  130.  It  is  evident  that  both  Camerarius  and  Micyllus 
before  him  neglected  Melancthon's  warning  against  discouraging  the 
pupil  by  too  great  diffuseness.  While  they  designed  their  grammars 
not  for  scholars  alone,  but  also  for  teachers,  as  Camerarius  claims  in 
so  many  words  in  the  title  of  his  book,  and  thus  aimed  at  complete- 
ness and  perfection,  it  happened  that  their  labor  was  lost  as  far  as 
school-instruction  was  concerned.  Neander's  simplification,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  sure  to  meet  with  the  general  approval  of  school- 
teachers ;  for  they  must  needs  feel  ever  more  deeply  that  there  is  a 
heaven-wide  difference  between  a  grammar  for  beginners  and  one  for 
learned  philologists, — a  difference  as  great  as  that  between  the  cate- 
chism and  a  learned  and  profound  treatise  on  doctrinal  theology. 
Every  intermingling  of  these  distinct  and  different  objects  results  in 
hybrid  grammars,  which  are  too  advanced  for  the  learner  and  too 
simple  for  the  teacher.  It  is  evident  from  Neander's  preface  that 
Melancthon's  grammar  held  the  chief  place  in  the  schools  of  Germany 
in  the  last  half  of  the  16th  century.  Yet  the  precise  and  critical 
Strobel  enumerates,  between  the  years  1525  and  1727,  no  fewer  than 
fifty-one  editions,  more  or  less  altered  from  the  original.  But 


PHILIP  MELANCTHON.  175 

notwithstanding,  its  influence  can  be  traced  even  to  our  time.  For 
'xafnple,  that  very  useful  book,  the  larger  "  grammatica  Marchica" 
strikingly  coincides  with  Melancthon's,  both  in  the  general  arrange- 
ment and  in  the  treatment  of  the  parts ;  and  the  phraseology  of  the 
two  is  often  alike,  in  definitions,  rules  of  syntax  and  the  like.  Again, 
Otto  Schulz,  in  the  preface  to  his  complete  Latin  grammar,  which 
appeared  in  1825,  says:  "In  respect  to  rny  method,  I  have  designed 
to  follow  as  closely  as  possible  the  larger  Mark  grammar,  whose  main 
features  all  teachers  concur  in  approving."  A  history  of  grammars, 
from  Donatus  to  Zumpt  and  Schulz,  would  be  a  most  interesting  book. 
How  characteristic  even  are  the  various  definitions  of  the  word 
"  grammar,"  which  have  been  given  in  different  periods  !  Melancthon 
defines  it  thus :  "  Grammar  is  an  exact  method  of  speaking  and 
writing."  The  Mark  grammar  of  1728,  in  essential  agreement  with 
Jris  definition,  says:  "Grammar  is  the  art  of  speaking  and  writing 
sorrectly."  Otto  Schulz,  on  the  other  hand,  has  it  thus :  "  Latin 
grammar  is  a  guide  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Latin  tongue  ;  it  shows 
how  the  universal  laws  of  language  should  be  applied  in  the  special 
instance  of  Latin."  Lastly,  Kuhner  thus  defines  it :  "  Grammar  is  the 
guide  to  a  correct  understanding  of  a  language,  through  its  words  and 
forms  of  speech."  In  these  definitions  we  may  perceive  what  progress 
has  been  made  since  1728,  from  a  practical  treatment  of  the  ancient 
languages,  according  to  the  art  of  speaking  and  writing,  to  a  theoreti- 
cal, whose  aim  is  by  means  of  science  to  attain  to  a  perfect  under- 
standing of  the  same. 

But  let  us  return  to  Melancthon  and  his  manuals. 

The  Manual  of  Logic. — The  first  edition  of  this  work  appeared  in 
1520,  an  enlarged  and  improved  edition  in  152 Y,  a  third  in  1529 ; 
this  latter  is  dedicated  to  William  Reiffenstein.  The  book,  Melanc- 
thon says,  is  designed  to  assist  in  a  better  understanding  of  Aristotle. 
It  was  followed  by  a  second  treatise  upon  the  same  subject,  the 
"Erotemata  Dialectices"  the  principal  portion  of  which  he  composed 
in  the  unfortunate  year  1547.  The  dedication,  addressed  to  John, 
son  of  Joachim  Camerarius,  bears  date,  September  1st,  1547;  by  the 
18th  of  October,  the  same  year,  three  thousand  copies  were  disposed  of. 

This  dedication  touches  upon  the  point  above  adverted  to  as  having 
been  discussed  in  the  preface  to  the  "Syntax,"  namely,  "Whether 
logic  is  indispensable  to  every  one,  inasmuch  as  we  find  its  absence 
atoned  for  in  many  instances  by  a  strong,  native  common  sense  ?" 
The  reply  is  that  it  is  a  necessary  art,  since  it  teaches  men  of  mod- 
erate capacities,  and  is  a  help  to  them,  while  on  the  other  hand  the 
more  gifted  are  controlled  by  it,  and  kept  within  bounds,  and  are  led 


J  7(J  PHILIP  MELANCTHON. 

to  seek  after  truth  and  to  prize  truth  alone.  Then  he  pronounces 
judgment  against  those  who  decry  logic.  "  Even  as  there  are  many 
men  of  unbridled  passions  who  hate  the  restraints  of  moral  law,  so 
there  are  those  who  can  not  abide  the  rules  of  art.  Dialectics,  as 
hitherto  taught  by  the  school-men,  had,  to  be  sure,  fallen  into 
contempt ;  however,  this  was  because  it  was  not  veritable  art,  but  only 
the  shadow  of  an  art,  and  entangled  men  amid  endless  labyrinthine 
mazes.  But,"  he  continues,  "I  present  here  a  true,  pure  and 
unsophisticated  logic,  just  as  we  have  received  it  from  Aristotle  and 
some  of  his  judicious  commentators."  He  then  proceeds  to  show  the 
necessity  of  logic  in  order  to  a  correct  statement  and  determination 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  church ;  its  abuse  by  heretical  teachers  ought 
not  to  deter  us  from  its  right  use.  He  urges  those,  who  have  the 
capacity,  to  read  Aristotle  himself,  and  that  in  the  Greek ;  but  adds, 
that  it  will  be  of  service  first  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the  elements, 
in  order  to  understand  him  the  more  readily. 

Manual  of  Rhetoric. — The  first  edition  appeared  in  1519,  under  the 
title  "De  Rhetorica  Libri  tres. — Wittenberg,  lo.  Grunenberg."  The 
dedication  to  Bernard  Maurus  was  written  in  January,  1519 ;  and 
treats,  among  other  things,  of  the  relation  of  rhetoric  to  logic.  The 
later  edition  was  dedicated  in  the  year  1531  to  the  brothers  Reiffen- 
stein.  Says  Melancthon  in  this  dedication,  'whereas  he  had  been 
compelled  to  speak  against  corrupt  logicians,  the  case  was  far  different 
with  rhetoric.  Upon  rhetoric  no  one  had  written  but  eminent  men, 
as  for  instance  Cicero  and  Quintilian.  And  his  rhetoric  was  designed 
to  be  an  elementary  guide  to  the  understanding  of  their  writings.  In 
these  they  (the  brothers  Reiffenstein)  might  perceive  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  art  of  eloquence,  and  not  fall  into  the  delusion  that 
many  self-conceited  blockheads  indulge,  namely,  that  those  have 
reached  the  very  pitch  and  perfection  of  eloquence  who  have  learned 
how  to  indite  a  letter.  But  eloquence  is  rather  to  be  ranked  among 
the  highest  accomplishments,  and  involves  extensive  learning,  great 
talents,  long  practice,  and  a  keen  judgment.  Rhetoric  is  closely  allied 
to  logic,  and  one  can  not  be  comprehended  without  the  other.' 

Manual  of  Physics. — I  shall  speak  at  greater  length  of  this  book, 
when  I  come  to  describe  the  pre-Baconian  realism.*  Melancthon's 
pious  and  sensible  manner  of  contemplating  nature  will  be  clearly  set 
forth,  as  well  from  passages  in  this  manual  as  from  his  preface  to 
Sacrobusto's  work  on  the  Sphere. 

Manual  of  Ethics. — As  early  as   the  year   1529,  he  issued  m& 

*  Knowledge  of  things  as  contra-distinguished  from  knowledge  of  words. 


PHILIP  MELANCTHON.  ]  ff 

commentary  on   the  ethics  of  Aristotle,  and  in  the  year  1538  Ha 
"  Pkilosophiae  moralis  epitome" 

With  these  manuals  we  should  rank  one  upon  history,  namely,  the 
"Chronicon"  of  his  pupil  Cario,  which  Melancthon  improved  and 
enlarged  in  1532  in  the  German,  and  in  1538  rewrote  entire  and 
published  in  Latin. 

e.     Declamation  es. 

Melancthon's  universal  learning,  his  eminent  skill  as  a  teacher,  and 
his  practical  exercise  in  teaching,  for  well-nigh  half  a  century,  lead  us 
to  infer  the  existence  of  many  excellent  hints  to  instructors  in  his 
manuals.  Nor  are  we  disappointed.  We  find  in  these  manuals  an 
educational  wisdom  of  enduring  value  for  all  time.  Much,  it  is  true, 
betokens  the  1 6th  century.  In  Melancthon,  the  preceptor  of  Germany, 
(Praeceptor  Germaniae,)  both  the  ideal  and  the  modes  of  culture  that 
prevailed  among  his  contemporaries,  appear  as  it  were  personified 
before  our  eyes. 

Not  merely  in  his  manuals,  however,  but  in  other  works  of  his,  the 
orations  especially,  there  is  contained  a  treasure  of  educational  wisdom. 
Under  the  title  " Declamationes"  we  have  a  collection  of  Melancthon's 
academical  orations,  delivered  some  by  himself  and  some  by  others.* 

In  these  orations  we  perceive  his  love  of  science,  and  are  made 
familiar  with  his  views  upon  mental  culture  and  upon  study  in 
general,  as  well  as  its  single  branches.  Repeatedly  does  he  express 
himself  on  these  topics, — above  all  on  the  relation  of  science  to  the 
church. 

1.     His  Love  of  Science. 

In  the  year  1535,  Melancthon  delivered  an  oration  on  love  of  truth. 
"  It  is  a  matter  of  inexpressible  moment,"  he  here  says,  "  that  a  man 
from  his  youth  up  should  cherish  a  burning  hatred  toward  all  sophis- 
try, especially  toward  that  which  wears  the  garb  of  wisdom."  Among 
the  abettors  of  this  latter  species  of  sophistry,  he  includes  both  Stores 
and  Epicureans,  as  well  as  the  Anabaptists,  who  were  wholly  wrapped 
in  the  mists  and  delusions  of  this  false  wisdom  ;  and  adds  : — 

There  are  others  who  have  misapplied  their  talents,  not  seeking  to  bring  the 
truth  to  light,  but  only  to  prove  or  to  disprove  in  perpetual  rotation  whatever  they 
have  happened  to  conjecture  possible.  And  this  legerdemain  they  have  taken  to 
be  the  true  element  of  genius.  Such  men  were  those  universal  doubters,  the 
academics  and  sophists  of  Plato's  time.  These  undisciplined,  lawless  spirits  were 
very  dangerous ;  whatever  pleased  their  fancy,  this  they  never  ceased  to  magnify, 
but  every  thing  disagreeable  to  them  they  rejected  as  of  no  account;  Jhat  which 
looked  plausible  they  insisted  upon  as  true;  they  united  things  which  did  not 
oelong  together,  and  things  which  were  manifestly  related  to  each  other  they  put 

*  Strobel,  in  the  "  Literary  Miscellany,"  Nuremberg,  i781,  in  speaking  of  Melancthon's  ora- 
tions, says  that  the  most  eminent  of  Melancthon's  colleagues,  men  like  Major,  Reinholt,  and 
Winshemius,  were  not  ashamed  to  deliver  orations  prepared  by  him. 

12 


17  &  PHILIP  MELANCTHON. 


they  employed  clear  and  well-defined  terms  to  express  nothing,  and 
threw  around  sober  realities  an  air  of  irony.  Against  this  kind  of  sophistry  all 
well-meaning  persons  must  wage  an  implacable  warfare.  Plato  was  very  earnest 
to  exhort  men  in  their  speech  to  seek  not  the  applause  of  men  but  the  approbation 
of  God.  And  accordingly  we  ought  with  our  whole  soul  to  aim  at  this  one  point, 
namely,  to  find  the  truth,  and  to  set  it  forth  with  as  much  simplicity  and  clearness 
as  possible.  Men  who,  in  matters  of  science,  sport  with  truth,  are  blind  guides 
likewise  where  revelation  is  concerned.  Sophistry  has  by  means  of  its  false 
precepts  occasioned  religious  dissensions  and  'religious  wars.  The  dispositions  of 
men  are  easily  warped,  and  it  needs  great  wisdom  to  keep  them  in  the  right  way  ; 
and  Christ  calls  down  the  severest  judgments  upon  those  by  whom  offenses  come. 

Studies.     The  Old  time  and  the  New.     Science  and  the  Church. 

In  the  oration,  which  Melancthon  delivered  in  1518,  at  his  induc- 
tion into  his  preceptorial  office,  he  marks  the  contrast  between  the 
old  and  barbarous  studies,  that  had  hitherto  been  in  vogue,  and  those 
excellent  and  new  objects  of  inquiry  that  were  beginning  to  receive 
attention.  "  The  advocates  of  the  old  method,"  he  says,  "  decry  tha 
new.  *  The  study  of  the  restored  classical  literature,'  they  say,  '  with 
great  labor,  yields  but  small  profit.  Idle  men  have  betaken  them- 
selves to  Greek  in  order  to  make  a  vain  boast  of  their  knowledge  ; 
the  Hebrew  promises  but  little  with  the  moderns  ;  all  true  studies 
have  fallen  away,  and  philosophy  is  utterly  neglected.'  " 

Against  such  accusers  Melancthon  entered  the  lists,  first  attack- 
ing with  vigor  the  old  methods  of  study.  Those  scholastics  had 
planted  themselves  upon  Aristotle,  who  was  hard  to  understand  even 
for  the  Greeks,  but  had  become  in  the  scholastic  Latin  versions  abso- 
lutely unintelligible.  Better  things  fell  into  disrepute,  Greek  was 
forgotten,  a  jargon  of  useless  learning  forced  upon  the  mind,  and  the 
classics  were  thrown  aside  altogether.  He  himself  had  been  almost 
ruined  by  being  six  long  years  under  the  teachings  of  the  pseudo- 
Aristotelian  sophists,  men  who  bore  not  the  least  trace  of  resemblance 
to  Socrates.  For  this  one  had  said  "  that  one  thing  only  did  he  know, 
namely,  that  he  knew  nothing,  while  they  knew  every  thing,  save  this 
one,  namely,  that  they  did  not  know  any  thing." 

Then  he  goes  on  to  indicate  briefly  what  the  students  at  the  Wit- 
tenberg university  were  expected,  after  the  new  method,  to  take  hold 
of,  viz.,  Aristotle  as  he  is  in  the  original,  Quintilian  and  Pliny,  the 
mathematics,  poets,  orators,  historians,  and  a  sound  philosophy. 

These  were  studies  which  the  clergy  and  jurists  equally  needed  ; 
and  the  former  in  addition  to  Greek  should  understand  Hebrew.  For 
with  the  downfall  of  these  studies  the  church  had  sunk  into  ruins, 
Having  become  marred  and  disfigured  by  ordinances  of  man's  device. 

Of  a  similar  purport  is  a  speech  which  Melancthon  delivered 
eighteen  years  later,  (in  1536.)  In  this  he  commends  not  merely 
the  study  of  the  languages,  but  also  of  philosophy  and  the  other  arts, 


PHILIP  MELANCTHON.  179 

since  they  all  serve  to  enrich  and  adorn  the  church.  Ignorance 
obscures  religion,  and  leads  to  frightful  divisions,  and  to  barbarism, — 
in  short  to  the  entire  destruction  of  all  social  order.  An  unenlightened 
theology  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  evils,  confounding  all  doctrines, 
having  no  clear  conception  of  vital  truths,  uniting  things  that  should 
be  divided,  and  tearing  asunder  things  that  are  joined  together.  It 
is  contradictory  and  inconsistent,  and  there  is  neither  beginning, 
progress,  nor  result  in  it.  Such  teachings  are  prolific  of  unnumbered 
errors  and  endless  disagreements,  because  in  the  general  confusion 
one  and  the  same  thing  is  understood  thus  by  one  man  and  quite 
differently  by  another.  And,  since  every  one  defends  his  own  view, 
there  arises  strife  and  discord.  Meanwhile  consciences  are  racked 
with  doubt,  and  doubt  not  resolved  ends  in  disbelief.  But  an  enlight- 
ened theology  should  not  rest  content  with  grammar  and  logic ;  it 
also  has  need  of  physics,  moral  philosophy,  and  history,  for  which 
latter  too  a  knowledge  of  the  mathematics,  for  their  bearing  on 
chronology,  is  indispensable. 

And  with  great  justice  does  Melancthon  remark  in  this  speech : 
"  Learning  is  at  this  day  of  the  utmost  consequence  to  the  church, 
because  ignorant  priests  are  growing  ever  bolder  and  more  careless 
in  their  office.  Learned  men,  who  have  accustomed  themselves  to 
thorough  investigation  in  every  thing  they  undertake,  know  but  too 
well  how  liable  they  are  to  fall  into  error,  and  thus  diligence  itself 
teaches  them  modesty.  But  what  great  disasters  ever  befall  the 
church,  from  the  recklessness  of  ignorance,  this,  the  present  condition 
of  things  will  teach  us." 

The  theme,  "  Learning  is  a  blessing  to  the  church  and  ignorance  its 
curse,"  was  frequently  taken  up  by  Melancthon.  So,  in  the  already 
cited  preface  to  his  Latin  Grammar,  and  again  in  the  introduction  to 
a  treatise  on  the  art  of  poetry,  "Cuidam  libello  de  arte  poetica" 
"  Hand  in  hand  with  diligent  study,"  he  here  says,  "  we  ever  find 
modesty  and  a  prayerful  spirit."  A  disciple  of  Schwenkfeld  had 
written  a  book  against  him  and  Paul  Eber,  in  which  he  attacked 
the  liberal  arts,  and  undertook  to  prove  that  the  church  is  not  built 
up  and  established  by  means  of  reading,  hearing,  and  reflecting  upon 
the  doctrines  of  the  Bible,  but  that  a  certain  enthusiasm  first  over- 
masters the  spirit,  and  reading  the  Scriptures  and  meditation  comes 
afterward.  "  Thus,"  he  adds,  "  these  fanatics  invert  the  order  indi- 
cated by  Paul,  namely, '  how  shall  they  believe  who  have  not  heard  ?'  '* 

In  the  oration  entitled  "Encomium  eloquentiae"  he  takes  a  survey 
of  the  studies  essential  to  a  complete  education.  Here  he  again 
censures  the  unintelligible  style  of  Scotus  and  the  school-men.  Picus, 


lyQ  PHILIP  MELANCTHON. 

he  thinks,  was  but  in  jest  when  he  took  up  the  gauntlet  for  them, 
and  maintained  the  proposition  that  it  mattered  not  whether  a  man 
spoke  with  elegance  or  not,  provided  only  that  he  expressed  his 
thoughts  clearly.  The  earlier  theological  bunglers  were  of  a  piece,  aa 
well  in  style  as  in  sentiments, — barbarians  in  both.  He  then  advo- 
cates the  reading  of  the  ancient  poets,  historians,  and  orators,  and  at 
the  same  time  a  diligent  practice  in  style,  both  in  prose  and  poetry.  In 
the  close  he  recurs  again  to  the  importance  of  a  knowledge  of  the 
languages  to  the  theologian  to  assist  him  in  understanding  the 
Scriptures.  A  godless  spirit  goes  hand  in  hand  with  ignorance.  The 
classical  studies  had  again  dawned  upon  the  world  in  order  that 
theology,  which  had  become  corrupt,  might  again  be  purified.  The 
deeper  meaning  of  the  word,  it  is  true,  is  imparted  to  us  by  the  Holy 
Spirit ;  but  we  must  first  come  to  a  knowledge  of  the  language,  for  it 
is  in  this  that  the  divine  mysteries  are  embodied.  He  then  gives  an 
example  of  the  mistakes  which  continually  occur,"  where  the  knowledge 
of  language  is  inadequate  to  convey  the  true  meaning  of  the  words. 
One  of  their  masters  of  arts  rendered  the  words  "Melckisedec  rex 
Salem  panem  et  vinum  obtulit,"  thus :  Melchisedec  set  before 
(Abraham)  salt,  bread,  and  wine ;  and  he  then  proceeded  at  great 
length  to  remark  upon  the  nature  of  salt. 

From  his  oration  upon  the  study  of  Hebrew  it  would  appear  that 
the  Wittenberg  university  ranked  the  original  language  of  the  Old 
Testament  among  the  chief  objects  of  attention.  The  opinion  of 
Politian  that  this  was  an  unpolished  language,  and  that  it  formed  a 
hindrance  both  to  the  study  of  the  classics  and  the  attainment  of 
Latin  eloquence, — this  opinion  was  there  opposed  with  the  utmost 
earnestness.  In  this  connection,  Melancthon's  preface  to  Terence, 
written  in  1525,  is  worthy  of  note.  "  There  is  scarcely  any  book,"  he 
says,  "  which  is  more  worthy  of  daily  perusal  than  this  poet.  In 
point  of  fitness  of  expression  he  surpasses  perhaps  every  other  author. 
Chrysostom  took  such  pleasure  in  Aristophanes  that  he  laid  him  under 
his  pillow  at  night ;  and  without  doubt  he  perused  this  poet  with 
such  assiduity,  in  order  by  the  means  to  perfect  himself  in  eloquence. 
How  much  more  highly,"  he  continues,  "is  Terence  to  be  esteemed, 
whose  plays  are  both  free  from  obscenity,  and  likewise,  if  I  mistake 
not,  models  of  rhetoric.  I  therefore  advise  all  teachers  urgently  to 
commend  this  author  to  the  study  of  youth.  For  he  appears  to  me 
to  present  a  theory  of  human  life  that  far  surpasses  that  set  forth  in 
most  philosophical  works.  And  no  other  author  teaches  a  purer 
diction,  none  other  accustoms  boys  so  well  to  those  forms  of  speech 
in  which  they  need  to  be  drilled  for  future  use." 


PHILIP  MELANCTHON.  Igj 

vi.     REVIEW  OF  MELANCTHON'S  LIFE  FROM  1518  TO  1560. 

Agreeably  to  the  scope  of  this  work,  I  have  kept  in  view  the  edu 
cational  labors  of  Melancthon,  and  have  accordingly  dwelt  but  little 
upon  the  part  he  played  in  the  reformation  of  the  church.  This  too 
was  the  less  called  for,  inasmuch  as  so  many  histories  of  the  Reforma- 
tion and  recent  biographies  have  rendered  us  familiar  with  his 
efficiency  in  this  field.  Repeated  expressions  in  his  letters  prove  that 
he  was  drawn  into  the  wide  arena  of  the  Reformation  almost  against 
his  will,  and,  amid  the  dust  of  the  conflict,  that  he  often  yearned  to 
devote  himself  wholly  to  philology  and  philosophy.  Even  his  theo- 
logical lectures  were  undertaken  contrary  to  the  dictates  of  his  own 
inclination,  and  only  in  compliance  with  the  desire  of  Luther. 
"Thou  knowest,"  he  wrote  to  Spalatin,  "the  circumstance  thajb 
occasioned  me  to  give  a  theological  course.  I  first  began  it  in  order, 
as  Baccalaureus  ad  biblia,  to  conform  to  established  usage,  nor  had  I 
then  the  most  distant  presentiment  of  the  turn  that  matters  were 
destined  to  take.  My  exegesis  was  not  finished  when  Dr.  Martin 
went  to  Worms;  and,  so  long  as  he  continued  absent,  it  was  not 
possible  for  me  to  uive  up  these  lectures.  Thus  it  has  come  to  pass 
that  I  have  dangled  from  that  cliff  for  more  than  two  years.  I  yes- 
terday finished  John's  gospel,  and  this  appears  to  me  to  be  an  appropri- 
ate time  to  make  a  change  in  respect  to  the  lectures.  I  can  not  hesi- 
tate to  follow  whither  thou  leadest,  even  to  become  a  keeper  of  cattle. 
Nevertheless,  I  could  wish  in  this  one  respect  to  be  free."  Note- 
worthy too  is  the  fact  that  he  did  not  take  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Theology,  while  Luther,  in  virtue  of  his  theological  doctorate,  felt 
constrained  in  his  conscience  to  go  into  the  lists  against  emperor  and 
Pope ;  nor  did  Melancthon  ever  preach,  notwithstanding  that  Luther 
frequently  urged  him  to  do  so, — "Nolentem  trahunt  fata  ;"  and, 
whether  he  would  or  not,  he  was  forced  to  remain  his  life  long  in  the 
field  as  a  soldier  of  Christ,  and  ever  to  fight  in  the  fore-front  of  the 
battle,  while  he  yearned  forever  after  a  life  of  literary  retirement  and  quiet. 
Luther,  so  long  as  he  lived,  hurried  Melancthon  along  with  him  ;  and, 
when  he  died,  it  was  too  late  for  Melancthon  to  withdraw,  for  the 
powerful  current  and  commotion  of  the  reorganizing  church  was 
bearing  him  resistlessly  on.  Whatsover  opinion  we  may  any  of  us 
have  form  •<!  of  those  doctrinal  controversies,  yet  we  can  not  but  feel 
a  deep  sympathy  for  Melancthon  when  we  read  of  the  unhappy  feuds 
in  which  the  excellent  man  was  involved  in  the  closing  years  of  his 
life,  and  what  rudeness  and  indignity  he  suffered  at  the  hands  of  his 
adversaries. 

Let  us  now  turn  back  again  for  a  few  moments  to  his  younger 


182  PHILIP  MELANCTHON. 

days.  In  1520  he  married  Catherine,  daughter  of  Herr  Krapp, 
Mayor  of  Wittenberg.  Camerarius  said  of  her :  "  She  was  pious, 
very  affectionate  toward  her  husband,  careful  and  diligent  in  matters 
pertaining  to  the  household,  and  kind  and-  benevolent  to  all." 
She  bore  her  husband  two  sons  and  two  daughters.  Anna,  the  eldest 
of  these  children,  who  was  her  father's  idol,  was  married  in  1536  to 
George  Sabinus,  a  man  of  learning  indeed,  but  of  a  restless,  ambitious 
spirit;  she  died  in  1547.  The  second  child  was  a  son  named  Philip, 
whose  talents  were  quite  inferior.  He  was  born  in  1525,  and  died  in 
1603.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  secretary  of  the  consistory. 
George,  the  second  son,  did  not  survive  quite  two  years ;  Magdalena, 
the  second  daughter,  was  married  in  1550  to  the  physician  Casper 
Peucer,  who  afterward  suffered  many  years'  imprisonment  on  account 
of  his  clandestine  adherence  to  Calvinism.  Through  her  grief  at 
this  calamity  she  died  in  the  year  1576. 

Of  Melancthon's  domestic  life,  Camerarius,  who  was  an  intimate 
friend  of  his,  tells  us  much  that  is  worthy  of  our  admiration ;  as  that 
he  loved  his  children  most  dearly,  was  unstinted  in  his  charity  toward 
the  needy,  and  kindly  and  cheerful,  true  and  single-minded  in  his  in- 
tercourse with  his  friends.  Almost  too  thoughtless  with  respect  to 
the  goods  of  this  life,  he  amassed  nothing  to  bequeath  to  his  family. 
We  might  hence  conclude  that  he  was  perpetually  serene  and  happy 
in  his  disposition ;  but  his  life  and  many  of  his  letters  undeceive  us 
in  this  respect.  He  suffered  from  bodily  afflictions ;  sleeplessness  in 
his  earlier  years,  and  later  the  sharp  pains  of  the  gravel.  He  was 
also  weighed  down  by  many  family  troubles ;  the  death  of  two  of  his 
children,  and  of  his  wife,  and,  in  addition  to  all,  the  perverse  behavior 
of  his  son-in-law,  Sabinus.  Yet  all  this,  as  his  letters  evince,  receded 
into  the  back-ground,  compared  with  the  overshadowing  unrest  which 
grew  out  of  his  relations  to  the  church.  A  conscientious  man  will 
pass  sleepless  nights,  if  his  soul  is  weighed  down  with  anxiety  for  the 
welfare  of  a  few  children  or  pupils.  Is  it  then  to  be  wondered  at  if 
Melancthon, — with  his  so  tender  conscience,  at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg, 
for  instance,  where  his  words  were  to  decide  the  temporal  and  eternal 
welfare  of  countless  souls  among  those  who  w'ere  then  living,  as  well 
as  of  those  who  should  come  after  him, — is  it  to  be  wondered  at  if 
he  there  was  overwhelmed,  like  Moses  and  Jeremiah,  by  the  fearful 
responsibilities  which  devolved  upon  him  ?  To  this  too  was  afterward 
added  a  deeper  sorrow,  namely,  to  be  forsaken  by  his  own  familiar 
friends,  and  to  be  most  bitterly  persecuted. 

We  may  behold  depicted  before  us,  as  it  were,  the  trials  which  he 
was  called  to  endure,  if  we  compare  the  admirable  likeness,  engraved 


PHILIP  MELANCTHON.  183 

upon  copper  -by  Albert  Durer,  of  Melancthon,  the  young  man  of 
twenty-nine,  with  that  portrait  of  Melancthon,  the  gray-haired  old 
man,  which  Luke  Cranach  has  bequeathed  to  us.  The  one  is  a  fair 
and  a  very  striking  head,  with  a  high  forehead,  and  eyes  out  of  which 
the  liveliest  expression  of  kindness  and  grace  beams  toward  you.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  countenance  of  the  old  man  is  deeply  scored  with 
the  furrows  of  many  sorrowful  years,  toiled  through  amid  heavy  trials, 
and  the  ceaseless  and  bitter  whirl  of  controversy. 

Melancthon  was  at  Heidelberg  in  1557,  when  Camerarius  brought 
him  the  news  of  the  death  of  his  wife.  Without  betraying  the  least 
token  of  sorrow,  although  every  one  felt  that  his  heart  was  sore  and 
sad  almost  to  bursting,  he  only  said,  "  I  shall  soon  follow  her." 

The  depth  of  his  grief  may  be  estimated,  however,  from  a  letter 
which  he  wrote  two  years  after  the  death  of  his  wife,  and  one  year 
before  the  final  summons  came  to  him  also.  "  Passionate  and  sor- 
rowful yearning  for  a  deceased  wife  is  not  effaced  in  the  old  man  as  it 
may  be  with  those  who  are  younger.  When  day  by  day  I  gaze  upon 
my  grandchildren,  I  recall  not  without  a  sigh  their  grandmother,  and 
thus  at  the  sight  of  the  bereaved  little  ones  my  sorrow  is  renewed. 
She  cared  for  the  whole  family,  she  cherished  the  infants,  she  nursed 
the  sick;  by  her  consoling  words  she  lessened  my  griefs;  she  taught 
the  children  to  pray.  And  so  it  is  that  I  miss  her  everywhere.  I 
bethink  me  how  almost  daily  she  repeated  these  words  of  the  psalm, 
'  Forsake  me  not  in  my  old  age ;'  and  thus  I  also  continually  pray." 

After  the  departure  of  his  wife  Melancthon  repeatedly  spoke  of  his 
own  approaching  death.  The  increasing  violence  which  marked  the 
theological  controversies  of  the  day  embittered  his  life  more  and  more. 
He  himself  came  in  danger  thereby  of  banishment.  "  If  they  drive 
me  out,"  he  wrote  to  Hardenberg,  "  I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  go 
to  Palestine,  and  there  in  the  seclusion  of  the  cloister  of  Hieronymus, 
at  the  call  of  the  Son  of  God,  to  record  my  unclouded  testimony  to 
the  doctrine,  and  dying  to  commend  my  soul  to  God." 

In  a  subsequent  letter  he  wrote :  "  My  troubles  and  sorrows  are 
waxing  greater,  but  the  far  journey  to  the  church  in  heaven  will  soon 
liberate  me  from  them  all." 

The  19th  of  April,  1560,  was  the  day  of  his  death.  When  he  was 
dying  he  found  consolation  from  passages  in  the  Bible,  this  especially, 
"  As  many  as  received  him,  to  these  gave  he  power  to  become  softs 
of  God."  Then  he  repeated  in  an  undertone  these  words  from  the 
last  prayer  of  Christ,  "  that  they  may  all  be  one,  even  as  we  are  one." 
Attacked  and  maligned  in  his  closing  years,  and  tired  of  the  unholy 
war,  the  old  man  felt  a  longing  desire  for  an  assured  and  peaceful 


184  PHILIP  MELANCTHON. 

rest,  and  for  a  union  with  his  Lord  and  Master,  whom  with  truest 
love  he  had  served  all  his  days.  Paul  Eber  and  other  godly  men 
kneeled  around  his  death-bed.  To  Fencer's  question  "  whether  he 
desired  any  thing,"  he  replied  "nothing  but  heaven  ;  let  me  rest  and 
pray.  My  time  has  almost  come."  In  the  evening,  before  seven 
o'clock,  he  passed  away  to  his  heavenly  rest,  on  the  21st  of  April. 
He  was  buried  in  the  Wittenberg  castle  church,  by  the  side  of  Luther. 

Note.— MELANCTHON'S  LATIN  GRAMMAR. — The  indefatigable  Strobel,  in  his  "  Contributions 
to  Literature,  with  reference  especially  to  the  16th  century,"  has  furnished  a  chapter  on  "  Me- 
lancthou's  grammatical  labors  and  influence."  In  this  we  find  a  list  of  the  various  editions 
of  the  Latin  grammar. 

The  first,  brought  out  under  the  auspices  of  Goldstein,  is  of  the  year  1525.  The  fourth,  ac- 
cording to  Strobel,  is  that  of  1529.  as  follows:  "  Gram.  lat.  P.  Melancthonis  ab  authore  nuper 
et  aucta  et  recognita.  Norembergae  apud  I  Pelreium,  1529." 

The  following  edition,  of  which  I  have  a  copy,  Strobel  has  not  mentidned:  "  Gram.  lat.  P. 
Mel.  ab  authore  nuper  aucta  et  recognita.  Secunda  editio.  Parisiis  ex  officina  Roberti  Ste- 
phani,  1529."  On  the  last  page  it  reads  :  "  Excudebat  Rob.  Stephanus.  Par.  anno  1529.  XVI. 
Cal.  Octobris."  This  is  a  reprint  of  the  preceding  edition,  save  that  the  syntax  is  omitted, 
and  all  German  words  are  translated  into  corresponding  terms  in  the  French.  For  instance, 
in  the  sentence  "  Subsfantivum  cui  non  potest  addi  Mann,  Weib,  Ding  ut  campus,"  Stepha- 
nus uses  the  words  "  homme,  femme,  chose. 

Next  in  Strobel's  enumeration  is  "  Gram.  P.  Mel.,  Latina,  jam  denuo  vecoguita  et  plerisque 
in  locis  locupletata.  Nor.  ah.  I.  Petreium.  1542."  At  the  end  of  this  edition,  (a  copy  of  which 
lies  before  me,)  Strobel  met  with  Melancthon's  letter  to  Egenolph,  as  he  says,  -'for  the  first 
time." 

This  letter  was  afterward  repeatedly  reprinted  in  various  editions  of  the  grammar,  and 
likewise  of  the  Declamations  of  Melancthon.  and  always  under  the  date  of  1540.  It  is  some- 
what singular  fhat  the  letter  of  1540  should  not  have  appeared  until  1542,  and  moreover  that 
it  should  have  appeared  first  in  the  edition  of  Petreius,  while  it  is  addressed  to  the  bookseller 
Egenolph,  at  Frankfort,  who  himself  published  under  his  own  imprint  many  editions  of  Me- 
lancthon's grammar.  It  is  altogether  probable  that  the  revision  of  Micyllus  first  appeared 
from  the  press  of  Egenolph  as  early  as  1540  or  154 J,  and  was  afterward  reprinted  or  rather 
pirated  by  Petreius. 

After  Micyllus,  Camerarius,  aided  by  Bechius  and  Schengius,  undertook  the  work  of  editing 
Melancthon's  book. 

Strobel  gives  the  edition  of  1552  as  the  first  by  Camerarius ;  I  have  an  earlier  one,  however, 
of  the  year  1550,  to  which  I  have  before  adverted  ;  the  preface  bears  date,— Lipsiae,  XIII.  Cal- 
endas  Octobris,  1550.  In  an  issue  of  1560.  which  lies  before  me.  the  same  preface  is  reprinted 
word  for  word,  though  with  an  addition  having  reference  to  the  chapter  on  orthography,  then 
first  introduced,  and  the  edition  is  designated  as  the  second,  (recens  editio.)  This  preface 
dates,— Lipsiae,  Id.  April,  1552. 

While  preparing  the  first  edition  of  my  history.  1  had  only  a  copy  of  Camerarius  before  me, 
but  none  of  Micyllus.  And  the  expressions  used  by  Camerarius  in  reference  to  his  additions 
and  those  of  his  coadjutors  led  me  to  infer  that  the  increased  size  of  the  grammar  was  chiefly 
owing  to  their  labors.  For  instance,  he  says,  •'  though  Schengius  may  appear  of  his  boundless 
diligence  to  have  elaborated  some  points,  with  it  may  be  an  excess  of  care;"  and  again,  "the 
grammar  in  its  new  form  will  be  of  service  not  merely  to  scholars,  but  to  teachers  likewise ; 
and  it  has  now  reached  that  degree  of  perfection  that  nothing  important  remains  to  be  added 
to  it." 

But  the  rector  Schoenborn.  of  Breslau,  after  comparing  the  grammar  of  Micyllus  with  that 
of  Camerarius,  remarked,  as  the  result  of  his  comparison,  that  the  latter  agreed  word  for 
word  with  the  former,  save  that  passages  from  the  old  grammarians  referred  to  by  Micyllus 
or  Melancthon  were  given  in  full, — quoted  for  the  use  of  teachers. 

I  have  since  compared  Camerarius'  book  with  the  editions  of  1542  and  1546  of  Micyllus, 
and  have  thereby  been  able  to  confirm  this  remark  of  Sehoenborn  ;  but  as  regards  another 
of  his  observations.  I  may  be  permitted  to  differ  from  him.  It  is  this:  "Melancthon,  in  the 
letter  to  Egenolph,  speaks  as  if  the  revision  of  Micyllus  were  completed  He  says,  'I  am 
rejoiced,  my  Egenolph.  that  Micyllus  has  undertaken  (instituisse)  this  task  of  emendation, 
arid  in  view  of  it  I  solicit  the  thanks  of  the  young,  both  for  you  and  Micyllus.'  The  high  praise 
which  Melancthon  in  this  letter  to  Egenolph  bestows  upon  the  enlargement  of  the  grammar, 
shews  conclusively  that  he  was  not  dissatisfied  with  the  editor,  though  he  deprecates  at  the 
eame  time  any  future  increase  in  it." 

Had  Melancthon  really  the  completed  grammar  of  Micyllus  before  him,  and  if  so,  would  he 
have  praised  the  work,  but  said  nothing  in  commendation  of  the  workman?  In  that  letter  he 
says  thai  he  requested  Micyllus  lo  undertake  the  grammar;  then  he  continues,  "though  I 
myself  had  sufficient  time,  ypt  I  would  prefer  the  criticism  of  Micyllus  to  my  own."  And 
further:  "I  am  rejoiced  that  Micyllus  has  undertaken  this  task."  Much,  he  implies,  had 
been  omitted  in  the  first  edition.  "Although,"  he  says,  "  it  is  desirable  to  add  much,  still  a 
certain  limit  should  be  observed  in  the  selection  of  examples,  lest  the  young  be  intimidated  by 
their  extent.  But  I  intrust  this  whole  matter  to  the  judgment  and  the  faithfulness  of  Micyllus, 
and  may  God  accept  his  earnest  and  devout  labors." 

These  passages  appear  to  me  rather  to  prove  that  Micyllus ^was  yet  engaged  upon  the 
grammar,  when  Melancthon  wrote  to  Egenolph  Perhaps  he  feared  lest  Micyllus.  carried 
away  by  his  love  of  learning,  should  overstep  the  limits  of  a  school-grammar,  and  accordingly 
wrote  this  letter  to  serve  indirectly  as  a  caution  to  him. 


VALENTINE  FRIEDLAND  TROTZENDOKP. 

[Translated  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education,  from  the  German  of  Karl  von  Raumer.j 


VALENTINE  TROTZENDORF  was  the  son  of  a  farmer,  Bernard  Fried- 
land  by  name,  who  lived  in  the  village  of  Trotzendorf,  near  Gorlitz. 
He  assumed  the  surname  Trotzendorf,  in  remembrance  of  the  place 
of  his  birth. 

Born  in  1490,  he  was  seven  years  younger  than  Luther,  and 
seven  older  than  Melancthon.  The  monks  induced  his  father  to 
send  him  in  1506  to  the  school  at  Gorlitz;  but  he  soon  took  him 
away,  to  help  him  at  his  work  in  the  field.  His  mother,  who  greatly 
desired  to  see  him  a  priest  or  a  monk,  persuaded  the  village  pastor  to 
instruct  him  in  writing  and  reading.  And  after  two  years'  time  he 
went  back  to  the  Gorlitz  school.  At  his  departure,  his  mother  ex- 
horted him  to  be  true  to  the  duties  of  the  school ;  and  in  after  life  he 
considered  himself  bound  by  this  exhortation,  as  if  it  were  his  mother's 
vow,  to  assume  the  office  of  teacher. 

When  in  1513  Trotzendorf 's  father  died  of  the  plague,  he  sold  his 
paternal  inheritance  and  moved  to  Leipzic,  where,  during  two  years  he 
perfected  himself  in  Latin  under  Peter  Mosellanus,  and  learned  Greek 
from  Richard  Crocus.  In  1516  he  became  a  teacher  in  the  Gorlitz 
school ;  here  his  fellow  teachers  as  well  as  the  scholars  learned  from 
him,  and  even  the  Rector  took  lessons  in  Greek  from  him. 

Luther's  appearance  induced  him,  in  1518  to  surrender  his  post  as 
teacher,  and  to  go  to  Wittenburg,  where  he  remained  for  five  years. 
Here  he  took  lessons  in  Hebrew  from  a  converted  Jew,  named  Adrian. 
And  he  here  formed  a  most  intimate  acquaintance  with  Melancthon, 
for  whom  throughout  his  life  he  continued  to  testify  the  greatest 
respect. 

In  the  year  1523,  Helmrich,  a  university  friend  of  Trotzendorf 's, 
was  chosen  Rector  of  the  Goldberg  school,  and  through  his  influence 
Trotzendorf  was  invited  to  become  his  colleague.  And  when,  in  the 
following  year,  Helmrich  obtained  another  post,  Trotzendorf  was 
made  Rector  in  his  stead.  Affairs  of  church — the  reformatory  dis- 
cussion of  Dr.  J.  Hess  at  Breslau,  in  which  Trotzendorf  took  an 
active  part,  and  Schwenkfeld's  evil  influence  in  Liegnitz,  against  which 
he  made  a  vigorous  defense — would  appear  at  that  time  to  have 
stood  in  the  way  of  an  active  prosecution  of  his  legitimate  calling 


186  VALENTINE  FRIEDLAND  TROTZENDORF. 

In  the  year  1527  he  was  called  to  Liegnitz  to  a  Professorship  in  a 
new  university,  which  institution  was  then  rather  an  unformed  project 
than  a  perfect  organization ;  but  he  left  the  place  in  1529  and  re- 
turned to  Wittenburg.  And  now  in  a  short  time  the  Goldberg 
school  was  completely  broken  up  ;  but,  at  the  pressing  solicitation  of 
Helmrich,  who  had  risen  to  be  Mayor  of  Goldberg,  Trotzendorf,  in  1531, 
resumed  the  post  of  Rector  there,  which  office  he  filled  with  honor 
and  dignity  for  five  and  twenty  years.  His  school  soon  acquired  an 
extraordinary  renown.  Scholars  poured  in  upon  him,  not  merely 
from  Silesia,  but  from  Austria,  Styria,  Carinthia,  Hungary  and 
Poland :  to  have  had  him  for  a  teacher,  was  the  best  of  recom- 
mendations. 

Trotzendorf  adopted  quite  a  peculiar  organization.  His  school  was 
divided  into  six  classes,  and  each, class  into  tribes.  The  scholars  too,  he 
associated  in  the  government  with  himself,  by  appointing  some  to  be 
Oeconomi,  others  Ephori,  and  others  again,  Quaestors.  The  Oecono- 
mi  were  to  oversee  the  household  arrangements,  as,  for  example,  that 
all  should  rise  in  the  morning  or  retire  at  night  at  the  set  time,  that 
the  rooms,  clothes,  etc.,  should  be  kept  in  good  order,  etc.  It  was  the 
duty  of  the  Ephori  to  see  that  order  was  observed  at  the  table. 
Finally,  each  tribe  had  its  Quaestor,  and  all  these  Quaestors  were 
made  subject  to  one  supreme  Quaestor.  Those  were  chosen  weekly, 
this  one  monthly ;  on  laying  down  their  office  they  delivered  Latin 
orations.  The  Quaestors  were  expected  to  secure  a  punctual  attend- 
ance on  lessons,  to  report  the  indolent,  to  give  out  subjects  for  the 
Latin  debates  customary  during  the  half-hour  after  meal  time. 

Trotzendorf  moreover  established  a  school  magistracy.  This  con- 
sisted of  a  consul  chosen  monthly  by  himself,  twelve  senators  and  two 
censors.  Had  a  scholar  committed  any  fault,  he  was  obliged  to  justify 
himself  before  this  Senate,  and  in  order  to  do  it  the  better,  he  was 
allowed  eight  days  in  which  to  prepare  his  plea.  At  the  trial  Trot- 
zendorf presided  as  perpetual  dictator.  If  the  accused  party  cleared 
himself  from  the  charge,  he  was  acquitted,  especially  when  he  de- 
livered a  well  framed  plea ;  but  if  his  speech  was  good  for  nothing  in 
point  of  style,  he  was  condemned  even  for  a  trivial  misdemeanor. 
And  Trotzendorf  repeated  the  decree  of  the  Senate  in  such  cases  with 
great  solemnity,  and  insisted  strongly  on  its  fulfillment. 

These  singular  regulations  had  the  good  effect  of  accustoming  the 
boys  early  in  life  to  have  respect  to  the  civil  government.  A  similar 
tendency  may  be  observed  in  the  laws  which  Trotzendorf  established 
in  his  school.  In  the  introduction  to  these  laws,  he  says :  "  Those 
men  will  rule  conformably  to  the  laws,  who,  when  boys, learn  to  obey 


VALENTINE  FRIEDLAND  TROTZENDORF.  1Q7 

the   laws."     These  school-laws   are  characteristic  of  the  man.     He 
first  lays  down  these  five  principles : 

1.  Tros  Tyriusque  mihi  nullo  discrimine  apetur.      Here,  where 
scholars  are   assembled  from   all   countries,    all   must   be   governed 
equally  and  alike. 

2.  Factus  tribulus  serva  legem,  was    a   Lacedaemonian   proverb. 
And  here  too  must  those  favored  by  fortune  as  well  as  the  base-born, 
so  long  as  they  are  scholars,  conform  to  the  laws.     The  pupil  is  no 
longer  the  nobleman. 

3.  According  to  the  degree  of  their  demerit, the  scholars  are  to  be 
punished  with  the  rod,  the  lyre,*  or   imprisonment.     Those  who, 
either  on  account  of  noble  descent,  or  years,  shrink  from  the  disgrace 
of  these  punishments,  must  either  do  right  and  thus  not  come  under 
sentence,  or  leave  our  school,  and  seek  freedom  to  do  as  they  please 
elsewhere.     Fines  are  never  to  be  imposed  in  any  case,  since  they 
affect  parents  rather  than  children. 

4.  Every  new  comer,  before  being  enrolled  among   the  scholars, 
must  first  promise  to  obey  the  laws  of  the  school. 

5.  The  members  of  our  school  must  be  members  likewise  of  our 
faith  and  our  church. 

The  first  chapter  of  the  school -laws  treats  of  piety.  "The  fear  of 
God  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom  " — this  is  the  opening  sentence.  A 
clear  knowledge  of  Christian  doctrine  is  required,  together  with  prayer, 
church-going,  confession,  taking  the  communion,  diligence  and  obe- 
dience ;  while  swearing,  cursing,  foul  language,  the  practice  of  magic, 
with  every  superstition,  are  forbidden. 

In  regard  to  instruction,  Trotzendorf  's  school  agreed  in  the  main 
with  other  schools  of  that  period.  It  was  based  upon  the  customary 
trivium,  grammar,  logic  and  rhetoric. 

In  Trotzendorf 's  German  School  Regulations  of  1548,  it  is  laid 
down  as  the  aim  of  his  school  "to  prepare  boys  to  enter  upon 
the  study  of  the  higher  faculties,  as  theology,  medicine,  philosophy, 
and  jurisprudence."  To  accomplish  this  aim,  "in  the  first  place, 
grammar,  inasmuch  as  it  is  the  mother  and  nurse  of  all  other  arts, 
must  be  pursued  with  the  most  thorough-going  diligence.  There- 
with should  be  combined  useful  readings  from  good  authors,  such  as 
Terence  or  Plautus,  and  Cicero,  the  epistles  and  offices  chiefly.  Thus 
boys,  being  guided  into  the  Latin  tongue  both  by  rule  and  by  exam- 
ple, will  learn  to  speak  Latin  and  to  write  it  with  equal  propriety. 

*  The  lyre,  lyra  orjidicula,  was  made  of  wood  in  the  shape  of  a  violin,  and  furnished  with 
strings.  Triflers  were  disgraced  by  being  made  to  stand  with  this  about  their  neck,  and  their 
hands  oassed  through  it  and  fastened. 


188  VALENTINE  FRIEDLAND  TROTZENDORF. 

Next  should  come  reading  from  the  poets,  as  Virgil,  and  some  books 
of  Ovid,  so  that  the  boys  may  comprehend  metre,  and  learn  to  con- 
struct verses."  "  Every  week  there  should  be  a  common  exercise  in 
writing  letters  in  Latin,  and  every  week,  likewise,  a  common  theme 
should  be  versified  by  the  whole  school."  The  Latin  school-code  pro- 
vides that  the  scholars,  in  these  exercises,  "  should  use  no  phrase  be- 
fore ascertaining  in  what  author  it  occurs,  and  whether  it  is  sufficiently 
elegant  and  appropriate;7'  also  that  "they  should  never  use  the 
mother  tongue;  but  with  teachers,  fellow-scholars  or  other  learned 
persons,  speak  in  Latin  alone."  In  a  poetical  eulogium  on  the  Gold- 
berg school,  cited  by  Pinzger,  we  are  told  that  "  none  were  permitted 
to  speak  German  there,  so  that  the  boys  came  gradually  to  regard 
their  mother  tongue  as  a  foreign  language."  Still  stronger  expres- 
sions occur  in  a  eulogium  on  Trotzendorf :  "  He  had  so  thoroughly 
infused  the  Roman  tongue  into  all  the  neighborhood,  that  it  was 
deemed  a  disgrace  to  utter  even  a  word  of  German  ;  and,  could  you 
have  heard  the  Latin  accents  that  poured  from  the  tongues  even  of 
plough-boys  and  dairy- maids, you  would  have  thought  'surely  Gold- 
berg is  within  the  borders  of  Latium.'  "* 

To  speak  and  to  write  Latin  was  the  universal  ideal  of  that  era, 
and  hence,  among  the  authors  to  be  read,  Terence  and  Plautus  were 
deemed  the  most  important.  In  addition  to  Latin,  Greek  grammar 
and  readings  from  Greek  authors  were  prescribed.  Logic  and  rhet- 
oric were  likewise  classed  among  regular  studies,  as  we  learn  from  the 
German  School  Plan  above  cited.  "  Trotzendorf  exercised  his  schol- 
ars in  the  art  of  speaking,  and  that  of  thinking  likewise.  Logic  was 
never  intermitted  by  him,  and  he  prepared  his  scholars  for  excellence 
in  rhetoric,  by  a  frequent  study  of  the  speeches  in  Livy,  and  those  of 
Cicero."  Music  and  arithmetic  are  likewise  named  in  the  School 
Plan,  though  without  being  enlarged  upon.'  Lectures  were  read,  on 
the  Sphere  of  Sacro  Bosco,  by  a  "  Sphaerista"  and  on  the  principles 
of  moral  and  natural  philosophy,  by  a  "  Magister"  Religious  in- 
struction was  given  by  Trotzendorf  himself,  with  faithfulness  and  so- 
lemnity, and  he  read  with  his  scholars  the  epistles  of  Paul,  as  well  as 
portions  of  the  Old  Testament  in  the  original. 

The  instruction  of  the  upper  classes  he  at  first  took  entirely  upon 
himself,  nor  did  he  employ  assistant  teachers  until  many  years  had 
elapsed;  but  the  lower  classes  he  committed  to  the  charge  of  older 
scholars. 

*  Atque  ita  Romanam  linguam  transfudit  in  omnes, 

Turpe  ut  haberetur,  Teutonico  ore  loqui. 

Audisses  famulos  famulasque  Latina  sonare, 

Ooldbergarn  in  Latio  crederes  esse  sffam. 


VALENTINE  FRIEDLAND  TROTZENDORF.  189 

And  here  we  can  not  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  quite  peculiar  char- 
acter of  Trotzendorfs  educational  system.  Schools,  in  general,  will 
be  found  to  consist  of  two  sharply  defined  and  distinct  bodies, — teach- 
ers on  the  one  hand,  and  pupils  on  the  other.  The  teachers  are 
learned,  the  pupils  ignorant;  the  former  impart  knowledge,  the  latter 
receive  it ;  those  dictate  and  these  obey.  This  sharp  division,  Trot- 
zendorf  rendered  impossible,  both  in  discipline  and  instruction.  In 
instruction,  for  while  he  himself  taught  the  older  scholars  in  the  high- 
er classes,  he  appointed  these  same  scholars  teachers  of  the  lower 
classes,  that  they,  too,  might  learn  by  teaching.  This  reminds  us  of 
the  monitorial  system  of  the  present  clay,  and  perhaps  Trotzendorf, 
like  Lancaster,  was  first  led  to  adopt  this  plan  from  the  impossibility 
of  giving  his  personal  attention  to  a  large  number.  He  found  the 
need  of  scholars  to  aid  him,  both  in  oversight  and  instruction,  as  the 
resources  of  the  school  were  too  slender  to  admit  of  his  hiring  an  ad- 
equate body  of  sub-teachers.* 

But  if  we  look  more  closely  into  this  plan,  it  will  appear  not  mere- 
ly to  have  been  adopted  from  the  necessities  of  the  case,  but,  at  the 
same  time  to  have  been  the  organic  outgrowth  of  a  principle.  Trot- 
zendorfs school  appears  to  have  been  a  republic,  where  all  the  schol- 
ars, noble  and  obscure,  were  alike  and  unconditionally  subject  to  the 
laws:  he  himself  was  Dictator  in perpetuo  over  this  republic.  And 
his  authority  was  rendered  secure  and  universally  effective  by  the  fact 
that  he  delegated  to  the  scholars  themselves,  though  ever  under  his 
supreme  direction,  a  share  in  the  government,  and  made  them  more- 
over responsible  for  law  and  order.  He  thus  rendered  impossible 
that  absolute  hostility  which  is  so  often  cherished  by  a  firmly  united 
band  of  scholars  toward  a  too  often  divided  corps  of  teachers.  The 
many  scholars,  who,  as  teachers,  ephori,  oeconomi,  quaestors,  senators, 
censors  and  consuls,  assisted  in  the  government,  formed  an  intermedi- 
ate body  between  the  teachers  and  the  scholars,' and  by  their  mutual 
relations  to  each  disarmed  that  hostility,  and  paralyzed  its  power. 

Whatever  judgment  we  may  pass  upon  Trotzendorf's  regulations, 
still  we  are  warranted,  from  what  we  know  of  his  character,  in  con- 
cluding, that  he  would  not  permit  those  regulations  to  degenerate  into 
a  mere  round  of  lifeless  observances.  He  was  a  genuine  dictator, 
and,  as  Melancthon  says  of  him,  born  to  the  government  of  a  school, 
as  truly  as  was  the  elder  Scipio  African  us  to  the  command  of  an 

*About  the  year  1547,  at  the  death  of  Frederick  II.,  Duke  of  Liegnitz,  there  were  but  six 
teachers  employed,  quite  an  inadequate  number  for  the  size  of  the  school.  Trotzendorf  waa 
wont  to  say  : — "If  he  should  muster  all  his  scholars  together,  he  could  present  the  emperor 
with  quite  a  respectable  army  to  fight  the  Turks."  Still,  strange  to  say,  we  have  no  more 
precise  information  on  the  subject. 


190  VALENTINE  FRIEDLAND  TROTZENDORF. 

army.  Yea,  lie  was  more  than  a  dictator,  since  by  the  exercise  of  a 
Christian  faith,  and  a  warm  and  active  love,  he  secured  the  affections 
of  his  pupils. 

With  his  views  of  study  we  are  not  disposed  to  quarrel,  for.  though 
he  aimed  to  make  Goldberg  a  second  Latium,  he  did  no  more  than 
his  contemporaries  were  continually  doing  around  him.  Neither  do 
we  censure  him  for  his  sentiments  respecting  physical  education,  al- 
though we  can  not  entirely  agree  with  him  therein.  It  is  stated  of 
him  that  he  did  not  insist  upon  exercise,  but  simply  permitted  it. 
And  yet  he  would  look  on  while  the  boys  were  wrestling  or  running, 
praising  the  active  and  skillful,  and  rebuking  the  indolent  and  awk- 
ward. However,  one  of  the  laws  of  the  school  forbade  the  boys  to 
bathe  in  cold  water  in  the  summer  time,  and  to  go  upon  the  ice,  or 
to  throw  snow-balls  in  the  winter.  Surely  such  a  law  as  this  would 
have  been  disregarded  in  ancient  Rome,  and  in  ancient  Germany  too ! 

In  the  closing  years  of  his  life,  the  worthy  old  man  experienced 
many  misfortunes.  In  1552  there  was  a  great  famine  in  Goldberg, 
and  in  1553  the  place  was  swept  by  a  pestilence.  During  this  period 
he  taught  the  few  scholars  who  remained  with  him,  in  the  upper  gal- 
lery of  the  church,  as  he  thought  the  air  purer  at  that  elevation.  Al- 
ready earlier,  in  1549,  a  crushing  sorrow  had  cast  its  dark  shadow 
across  his  path.  Three  of  his  pupils,  Karl  Promnitz,  Jonas  Talkwitz, 
and  Wolfgang  Keppel,  were  making  merry  over  their  wine  in  the 
Goldberg  wine-cellar,  when  a  drunken  watchman  staggered  in  upon 
them,  and,  without  saying  a  word,  took  a  full  oup  off  from  the  table, 
and  drank  it  down.  Enraged  at  his  impudence,  Promnitz  hurled  an 
empty  glass  at  him,  and,  without  designing  it,  wounded  him  in  the 
head.  The  watchman  accused  them  before  the  court,  and  thereupon 
the  three  young  men  were  imprisoned,  and  their  case  carried  before 
Frederick  III.,  Duke  of  Liegnitz.  He  summoned  them  to  Liegnitz, 
and  without  listening  to  their  defense,  or  entering  into  any  examina- 
tion of  the  case,  condemned  them  to  death.  Promnitz  alone,  at  the 
intercession  of  the  Bishop  of  Breslau,  who  was  his  cousin,  was  par- 
doned, but  the  two  others,  who  had  committed  no  crime  at  all,  were 
beheaded  upon  the  Monday  next  following  the  feast  of  the  Three 
Martyr  Kings. 

In  1554,  the  year  after  the  pestilence,  a  great  conflagration  laid  a 
large  part  of  Goldberg  in  ashes,  and  TrotzendorPs  school  house 
among  the  rest.  He  then  went  with  his  scholars  to  Liegnitz,  and 
while  there  took  measures  to  rebuild  his  school  upon  the  old  site. 
But  he  was  never  permitted  to  return  thither.  On  the  20th  of  April, 
1556,  he  was  expounding  the  23d  Psalm,  and  as  he  came  to  the 


VALENTINE  FRIEDLAND  TROTZENDORF.  191 

words,  "  Yea,  though  I  walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death,  I  will  fear  no  evil  :  for  thou  art  with  me  ;  thy  rod  and  thy 
staff,  they  comfort  me ;"  he  was  suddenly  seized  with  apoplexy.  He 
sank  back,  gazed  up  to  heaven,  and  spake  these  words,  the  last  he 
ever  uttered  ;* — "  My  friends,  now  am  I  called  away  to  another  school." 
He  lingered  speechless  for  five  days,  but  retained  his  consciousness  to 
the  last.  He  died  on  the  25th  of  April,  at  the  age  of  66,  and  was 
buried  on  the  29th,  in  the  church  of  St.  John.  His  remains  were 
followed  to  the  tomb  by  high  and  low ;  men  of  princely  rank  uniting 
with  peasants  in  paying  respect  to  his  memory.  Abraham  Bock 
erected  his  monument.  But  it  was  destroyed  in  1699,  when,  by 
order  of  the  Emperor  Leopold,  the  church  of  St.  John  was  given  to 
the  Jesuits. 

Trotzendorf  died  unmarried.  With  a  small  income,  and  a  benevo- 
lent disposition,  he  always  remained  poor.  The  few  writings  which 
we  have  from  his  pen,  were  first  issued  after  his  decease,  and  by  some 
of  his  grateful  pupils.  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  same  : 

1.  Catachesis  scholae  Goltpergensis  scripta  a  Valentino  Trocedor- 
fio  cum  praefacione  Phil.  Melancth.     Vitebergae,  1561. 

The  preface  is  dated,  1558,  two  years  after  Trotzendorf's  death. 

2.  Precationes  V.  Trocedorfii    recitatae    in    schola    Goltbergensi, 
Lipsiae,  1581. 

3.  Rosarium  scholae  Trocedorfii.     Viteb.  1568. 

4.  Methodi  doctrinae  catacheticae.     Gorlic,  15 70. 

*Dr.  Stevens,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Public  High  School  of  Edinburgh 
makes  the  following  record  of  the  last  illness  and  death  of  Dr.  Adam,  for  forty 
years  Rector  of  that  institution. 

"  On  the  13th  of  December,  1809,  Dr.  Adam  was  seized,  in  the  High  School, 
with  an  apoplectic  affection.  He  lingered  five  days  under  the  disease.  Amidst 
the  wanderings  of  mind  that  accompanied  it,  he  was  continually  reverting  to  the 
business  of  the  class,  and  addressing  the  pupils ;  and  in  the  last  hour  of  his  life, 
as  he  fancied  himself  examining  on  the  lesson  of  the  day,  he  stopped  short,  and 
said :  "  But  it  grows  dark,  boys,  you  may  go ,"  and  almost  immediately  ex 
oired."— ED. 


AND  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  JOHN  STUML 

PROM  THE  GERMAN  OF  KARL  .VON  RAUMER.* 


JOHN  STURM,  or  Sturmius,  as  his  name  was  latinized,  one  of  the 
best  classical  scholars  and  school  teachers  of  his  time,  was  born  at 
Schleiden,  in  the  Eiffel,  near  Cologne,  in  1507.  His  father  was  stew- 
ard to  Count  Manderscheid,  with  whose  sons  the  young  John  was 
educated  until  his  fourteenth  year,  when  he  went  to  the  school  of  the 
Hieronymians  f  at  Liege,  and  thence,  in  1524,  to  the  University  of 
Louvain,  where  he  spent  three  years  in  studying,  and  two  more  in 
teaching.  Of  his  parents  and  early  teachers  he  ever  spoke  with  grati- 
tude and  veneration,  and  his  mother  he  characterizes  as  a  "superior 
woman."  Among  his  fellow-students  was  Sleidanus,  the  historian,  and 
Andreas  Bersalius,  the  anatomist. 

In  connection  with  .Rudiger  Rescius,  the  professor  of  Greek  at 
Louvain,  Sturm  established  a  printing  press,  from  which  Homer  and 
other  Greek  and  Roman  classics  were  issued.  With  copies  of  these 
books  for  sale,  and  for  use  by  students,  he  removed  to  Paris,  in  1529, 
where  he  studied  medicine,  read  public  lectures  on  logic,  and  the 
Greek  and  Roman  classics,  was  married,  and  had  private  scholars  from 
Germany,  England,  and  Italy.  Here  he  established  a  high  reputation 
as  a  scholar  and  teacher,  and  corresponded  with  Erasmus,  Melancthon, 
Bucer,  and  others.  Such  was  his  reputation  as  a  classical  scholar  and 
teacher  that,  when  the  magistrates  of  the  city  of  StrasburgJ  decided 

*Geschichteder  Padagogik.  The  biographical  portion  of  Von  Raumer's  chapter  is  abridged, 
and  that  portion  which  treats  of  the  theological  controversies  of  the  times,  and  particularly 
of  the  differences  between  the  German,  and  the  Swiss,  and  French  reformers,  with  the  for- 
mer of  whom  Sturm  sympathized,  and  to  some  extent  cooperated,  is  altogether  omitted. 
Sturm  was  avowedly  a  Lutheran,  and  the  Calvinists  charged  him  with  absenting  himself  from 
the  communion  table  and  from  church  for  twenty  years. 

t  The  Hieronymians  were  a  regular  order  of  canons,  or  clergy,  employed  in  teaching, 
founded  by  Gerhard  Grovte,  in  1373.  They  wore  a  white  dress,  with  black  scapula,  and 
were  most  numerous  and  efficient  in  the  Netherlands,  where  they  originated.  They  were 
also  known  as  Hieronymites,  Hermits  of  St.  Hieronymus,.Collatian  Brothers,  Gregorians,  or 
Brethren  of  Good  Will.  The  instruction  in  their  schools  was  partly  elementary  and  partly 
classical.  Their  scholars  learned  to  copy  MSS.,  to  read  and  write,  were  diligently  drilled  in 
speaking  Latin,  and  in  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  the  Fathers,  and  a  few  of  the  classics, 
especially  Cicero.  See  Raumer,  Hist,  of  Fed.,  Vol.  1,  p.  64:  Cramer,  Hist,  of  Ed.  in  the 
Netherlands,  p.  260.  et  seq.  It  was  at  Liege,  from  the  Hieronymians,  that  Sturm  received  the 
educational  principle  which  he  afterward  embodied  in  his  own  school  at  Strasburg,  "Pietas 
sapiens  et  eloquens  est  finis  studiorum." 

I A  theological  school  was  proposed  in  1501,  but  not  established  till  1534.    In  1524,  a  number 

13 


194  STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

to  establish  a  gymnasium,  he  was  earnestly  solicited  to  organize  and 
conduct  it  as  Rector.  He  accordingly,  in  1537,  removed  to  that  city 
where  he  labored  for  forty-five  years  as  a  teacher,  and,  bv  his  example, 
correspondence  and  publications,  was  greatly  influential  in  introducing 
a  better  organization  and  methods  of  instruction  into  the  schools  of 
Europe.  His  plan  of  organizing  a  gymnasium  or  classical  school  was 
drawn  up  in  1538,  and  published  under  the  title  of  "The  best  mode 
of  opening  institutions  of  learning."  The  development  of  this  plan 
was  exhibited  in  Letters  which  he  addressed  to  the  teachers  of  the 
various  classes  of  his  Gymnasium,  in  1565,  and  in  an  account  of  the 
examination  of  the  school,  published  in  1578. 

On  the  7th  of  December,  1581,  by  a  decree  of  the  city  council, 
Sturm  was  deposed  from  the  Rectorate,  "  on  account  of  his  advanced 
age,  and  for  other  reasons,"  viz.:  publishing  a  pamphlet,  in  which  he 
opposed  the  dominant  religious  majority  in  some  of  the  theological 
disputes  of  'the  day.  He  was  soon  after  attacked  with  blindness, 
and,  worn  out  by  the  labors  of  a  toilsome  life,  and  weakened  by  age, 
and  pinched  by  poverty  incurred  by  his  generosity  to  those  who  fled  to 
him  from  persecution,  he  died  in  1589,  in  the  eighty-second  year  of 
his  age,  and  was  buried  in  the  church-yard  of  St.  Gallus,  in  Strasburg. 

Sturm  was  a  man  of  medium  size,  dark  and  ruddy  complexion, 
firm  features,  long  beard,  clear  and  well-modulated  voice,  honorable 
presence,  and  a  somewhat  slow  gait.  He  was  amiable  and  dignified, 
in  conversation  earnest  and  courteous,  in  action  decided  and  prompt, 
and  industrious  both  in  his  public  and  private  relations.  He  was  ever 
keeping  pace  with  those  about  him,  learning  Hebrew,  for  instance,  in 
his  fifty-ninth  year,  and  inspiring  his  teachers  with  his  own  enthusiasm. 
He  enjoyed  the  respect  of  the  emperors  Charles  V.,  Ferdinand  I.,  and 
Maximilian  II.,  as  well  as  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  of  England.  His  fame 
as  a  teacher  and  educator  was  European,  and  his  school  was  a  Normal 
School  of  classical  instruction.  His  pupils  were  among  the  "men  of 
mark  "  throughout  Germany.  At  one  time  there  were  two  hundred 
noblemen,  twenty-four  counts  and  barons,  and  three  princes  under  his 
instruction ;  and,  besides  organizing  directly  many  classical  schools,  his 
pupils  rose  to  be  head-masters  of  many  more,  and  his  principles  were 
embodied  in  the  School  Code  of  Wurtemberg  in  1559,  and  in  that 
of  Saxony  in  1580,  and  in'the  educational  system  of  the  Jesuits. 

of  elementary  schools  were  instituted,  which  were  placed  under  the  direction  of  school  in- 
spectors, of  whom  the  preacher,  James  Sturm,  was  one,  and  through  whose  influence  John 
Sturm  was  induced  to  remove  to  Strasburg.  The  gymnasium  organized  in  1537  was  endowed 
with  tie  privileges  of  a  College,  in  1567,  by  Emperor  Maximilian  II.,  and  John  Sturm  WM 
appointed  its  Rector  in  perpetuo. 


STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION.  195 

STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

Whoever  clearly  conceives  a  distinct  object  of  pursuit,  and  brings 
perseverance,  intelligence  and  tact  to  bear  upon  its  attainment,  will 
be  sure,  at  least,  to  do  something  worthy  of  note ;  and  especially  so, 
when,  at  the  same  time,  he  falls  in  with  the  tendency  and  the  senti- 
ments of  the  age  in  which  he  lives.  This  is,  above  all,  true  of  school 
reformers.  If  they  know  not  what  they  would  have,  if  they  have 
no  definite  aim  in  view,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  speak  with  any  pro- 
priety of  the  methods  which  they  may  have  taken  to  reach  their  aim. 
Their  course  is  wavering  and  uncertain,  and  they  inspire  distrust 
instead  of  confidence.  But  Sturm  was  no  wavering,  undecided,  pur- 
poseless man.  With  firm  step  he  advanced  toward  the  realization  of 
a  definitely  conceived  ideal ;  an'  ideal,  too,  which,  in  greater  or  less 
distinctness,  floated  before  the  minds  of  most  of  his  contemporaries, 
and  which  was  regarded  by  them  as  the  highest  aim  of  mental  cul- 
ture. Hence,  he  enjoyed  a  widely  extended  and  an  unquestioning 
confidence.  This,  his  ideal,  Sturm  has  defined  for  us  in  numerous 
passages  ;  and  it  is  our  first  duty  to  examine  it,  if  we  wish  to  judge  of 
his  method. 

"  The  end  to  be  accomplished  by  teaching,"  says  he,  "  is  three-fold  ; 
embracing  piety,  knowledge  and  the  art  of  speaking."  In  another 
place,  he  expresses  himself  thus ;  "A  wise  and  persuasive  piety  should 
be  the  aim  of  our  studies.  But,  were  all  pious,  then  the  student 
should  be  distinguished  from  him  who  is  unlettered,  by  scientific  cul- 
ture and  by  eloquence,  (ratione  et  oratione.)  Hence,  knowledge,  and 
purity  and  elegance  of  diction,  should  become  the  aim  of  scholarship, 
and  toward  its  attainment  both  teachers  and  pupils  should  sedulously 
bend  their  every  effort."  What  description  of  knowledge,  and  what 
species  of  eloquence  Sturm  had  in  view,  we  shall  now  proceed  to 
inquire. 

The  boy  should  be  sent  to  school, — so  he  insists, — in  his  sixth  or 
seventh  year.  His  school  education  proper  should  occupy  nine  years, 
or  until  he  is  sixteen ;  it  should  then  be  succeeded  by  a  more  inde- 
pendent style  of  culture.  Lectures  should  be  substituted  for  recita- 
tion, and  that  for  five  years,  or  until  he  is  in  his  twenty -first  year. 

The  Gymnasium  included  nine  classes,  corresponding  with  the  nine 
years  that  the  pupil  was  to  spend  there.  Seven  of  these  years  Sturm 
assigned  to  a  thorough  mastery  of  pure,  idiomatic  Latin ;  the  two 
that  remained  were  devoted  to  the  acquisition  of  an  elegant  style ; 
and  to  learn  to  speak  with  the  utmost  readiness  and  propriety,  was 
the  problem  of  the  five  collegiate  years.  During  the  first  seven  years 


1UG  STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

of  the  child's  life,  he  was  to  be  left  in  the  care  of  his  mother.  Every 
year  the  scholars  in  the  lower  classes  were  to  be  promoted,  each  into 
the  next  higher  class,  and  premiums  were  to  be  awarded  to  the  two 
best  scholars  in  each  class. 

Thus,  Sturm  expressed  himself,  in  1537,  in  the  "Plan,"  on  which 
he  organized  his  school,  in  which  he  gives  a  full  sketch  of  the  course 
of  study  to  be  pursued  by  each  class.  And,  the  arrangement,  thus 
previously  indicated,  was  essentially  the  same  after  the  lapse  of  twenty 
seven  years,  save  that  the  Gymnasium  then  embraced  ten  classes, 
instead  of  nine.  This  appears  from  the  "Classic  Letters"  which,  in 
1565,  Sturm  wrote  to  the  teachers  of  the  various  classes.  Forty 
years  after  the  foundation  of  the  Gymnasium,  in  1578,  a  general  ex- 
amination took  place,  the  particulars  of  which  were  recorded  with  the 
faithful  minuteness  of  a  protocol.  And  this,  again,  as  well  as  th«// 
"Classic  Letters,"  harmonizes,  in  the  main,  with  Sturm's  original  plan 
of  instruction.  And,  in  all  this,  the  observation  forces  itself  upon  us 
that,  as  he  proposed  to  himself  a  well-marked  and  distinct  aim  at  the 
outset  of  his  career,  so  he  advanced  toward  that  aim  through  all 
those  long  years  with  an  iron  will  and  a  steady  step. 

I  will  now  give  Sturm's  course  of  instruction  in  detail,  on  the 
authority  chiefly  of  the  report  above  mentioned  of  the  examination 
of  the  school,  and  of  the  "Classic  Letters."  We  will  commence, 
following  the  order  of  the  "  Letters,"  with  the  exercises  of  the  tenth 
or  lowest  class,  and  so  proceed  to  the  first. 

TENTH  CLASS. — To  Frisius,  the  teacher  of  this  class,  Sturm  writes, 
"  That  he  is  to  lay  the  foundation ;  to  teach  tl  e  children  the  form 
and  the  correct  pronunciation  of  the  letters  of  the  alphabet,  and,  after 
that,  reading ;  which  will  be  better  expedited  by  learning  Latin  de- 
clensions and  conjugations  than  by  the  use  of  the  catechism.  The 
German  catechism  must  be  committed  to  memory,  for  the  Latin 
would  be  a  mere  matter  of  rote.  The  love  of  the  children  will  re- 
ward him  for  his  pains ;  as  he  himself  (Sturm)  can  testify  from  his 
own  grateful  recollections  of  his  earliest  teachers.  At  the  examination, 
(in  1578,)  the  first  scholar  in  the  ninth  class  put  the  following  ques- 
tions to  the  first  scholar  in  the  tenth. 

Q.  What  have  you  learned  in  the  tenth  class  ? 

A.  Letters,  spelling,  reading  and  writing,  all  tl*  »aradigms  of  nouns  and  verbs,  and  the  German 
catechism  likewise. 

Q.  Read  me  something  from  the  Neanisci  of  our  Rector. 

Jl.  Jin  tu  non  es  Lucius  socius  studiorum  meorum,  qui  modo  a  me  eforo  discesseras? 

Q.  What  is  the  meaning  of  socius  ? 

A.  A  companion. 

Q.  Decline  socius. 

Jl.  Socius,  socii,  socio,  etc. 

Q.  What  is  the  meaning  of  distcdof 


STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION.  197 

A   X  |p  away. 

Q.  Conjugate  discedo. 

Jl.  DiscedO)  discedere,  etc. 

Q.  To  what  conjugation  does  discedo  belong  1 

Jl.  That  I  have  not  learneu. 

NINTH  CLASS. — To  Schirner,  the  teacher  of  this  class,  Sturm  writes, 
"  That  he  is  to  ground  the  scholar  more  thoroughly  in  declining  and 
conjugating,  adding  all  the  anomalous  and  irregular  forms.  Then, 
too,  he  must  see  that  the  scholars  learn  a  great  number  of  Latin 
words,  particularly  the  appellations  of  common  and  familiar  objects. 
Of  such  words,  he  must  every  day  give  a  few  to  one  scholar,  a  few  to 
another,  and  so  on,  to  commit  to  memory ;  only  taking  care  not  to 
select  words  at  random,  but  in  their  natural  groups,  as  organic  sys- 
tems, each  formed  upon  a  distinct  and  independent  idea.  Thus,  too, 
each  boy,  by  listening  to  the  words  which  the  others  repeat,  will  him- 
self the  more  readily  fasten  them  in  his  own  mind. 

This  method  of  enriching  the  memory  with  words,  Sturm  says,  he 
should  have  introduced  twenty-seven  years  before,  had  it  been  appre- 
ciated. How  was  it  that  Roman  youths,  at  so  early  an  age,  learned 
to  express  themselves  with  ease  and  propriety?  They  prattled  in 
Latin  on  their  mother's  breast;  the  nurses,  in  whose  care  they  were 
placed,  talked  to  them  in  infantile  dialect  in  broken  Latin ;  and  this, 
as  they  grew  older,  was  gradually  corrected.  And  then  the  children 
were  continually  learning  new  words  from  the  household  servants, 
who  played  with  them,  not  simply  to  amuse  them,  but  likewise  to 
exercise  them  in  speaking  Latin.  To  this  we  must  add  their  daily 
intercourse  with  their  companions,  in  which  the  older  boys  derived  an 
ever  increasing  knowledge,  both  of  words  and  things.  All  this  the 
youth  of  the  present  day  lack  entirely,  as  neither  parents,  domestics, 
nor  comrades  speak  Latin.  "  This  evil,"  continues  Sturm,  "  must  be 
removed  by  the  diligent  efforts  of  the  teacher,  and  in  the  way  which 
I  have  indicated."  In  another  place  he  repeats  the  same  complaint. 
"  Cicero,"  he  says,  *'  was  but  twenty  years  old  when  he  delivered  his 
speeches  in  behalf  of  P.  Quintius  and  Sextius  Roscius;  but,  in  these 
latter  days,  where  is  the  man,  of  fourscore  even,  who  could  bequeath 
to  the  world  such  masterpieces  of  eloquence?  And  yet,  there  are 
books  enough,  and  there  is  intellect  enough.  What,  then,  do  we 
need  further  ?  I  reply,  the  Latin  language,  and  a  correct  method  of 
teaching.  Both  these  we  must  have,  before  we  can  arrive  at  the 
summit  of  eloquence."  In  conclusion,  Sturm  implores  Schirner  not 
to  undervalue,  for  a  moment,  his  labors  with  the  elementary  class ; 
but,  to  stand  up  as  a  champion  against  those  gladiators  of  barbarism 
who  from  indolence  have  corrupted,  or  from  envy  have  withstood, 
tlae  purity  of  the  Latin  tongue. 


198  STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

At  the  examination,  the  first  in  the  eighth  class  asked  the  first  in 
the  ninth,  as  follows. 

Q.  To  what  conjugation  does  discedo  belong] 

A.  To  the  third,  because  it  makes  e  short  before  re  in  the  infinitive. 

Q.  To  what  class  does  discedo  belong  ? 

3.  It  is  a  neuter  verb. 

Q.  Wbat  is  a  neuter  verb  7 

A.  A  neuter  verb  is,  &,c. 

Q.  Decline  the  imperative  of  discedo. 

A.  Discede,  discedito,  etc. 

Q.  Wbat  else  have  you  learned  in  the  ninth  class  ? 

A.  Besides  the  German  catechism,  I  have  committed  to  memory  the  Second  Onomasticon,  and 
translated  the  Neanisci  of  our  Rector  into  German. 

Q.  Translate  the  dialogue  that  has  just  been  rehearsed. 

A.  An  tn  non  es  Lucius,  Are  you  not  Lucius ;  socius  studiorum  meorum,  my  school-fellow ; 
q ui,  who  ;  discesseras,  went ;  a  me,  from  me  ;  modo,  just  now  ;  e  foro,  at  the  market  place. 

Q.  To  which  of  the  parts  of  speech  does  modo  belong  ? 

A.  I  do  not  know  ;  for  the  indeclinables  are  not  taught  in  my  class. 

EIGHTH  CLASS. — To  Matthias  Huebner,  teacher  of  this  class,  Sturm 
writes,  "That  it  must  be  his  especial  care  that  the  boys  forget  noth- 
ing they  have  learned  in  the  lower  classes.  And  what  they  have 
there  learned  he  can  best  ascertain  by  consulting  their  prescribed 
school-books,  which  in  all  the  classes  are  most  faithfully  conformed  to. 

The  boys,  who  have  been  promoted  from  the  ninth  into  the  eighth 
class,  must  be  able  to  inflect  all  the  nouns  and  verbs.  This  they  will 
have  learned  more  by  practice  than  in  a  scientific  manner,  just  as  the 
Roman  and  Greek  boys  were  exercised  in  language  before  the  gram- 
marians gave  them  the  reasons  why  they  ought  to  speak  as  they  did. 
Moreover,  the  boys  in  the  next  lower  class  had  learned  by  heart  many 
short  sayings  and  sentences ;  but,  since  in  these  no  very  wide  range 
of  words  occurred,  they  were  enjoined  to  compile  dictionaries,  and  to 
enter  therein  all  the  common  and  necessary  words  under  distinct  heads, 
such  heads  for  instance  as  the  following,  the  whole  and  its  parts, 
friendship  and  enmity,  cause  and  effect,  etc.  These  dictionaries  must 
now,  in  the  eighth  class,  be  increased  and  enlarged ;  if  the  boys  have 
before  fixed  in  their  minds  the  definition  of  epistola,  they  will  now 
learn  what  is  meant  by  the  phrase  epistolam  reddere,  etc.  As  thu 
boys  in  the  lower  classes  have  learned  by  practice  how  to  decline  and 
conjugate,  so  now  they  must  be  thoroughly  grounded  in  all  the  eight 
parts  of  speech,  and  each  declension  and  conjugation  must  be  fully 
and  distinctly  characterized,  and  illustrated  by  examples  drawn  from 
that  which  they  have  already  learned. 

Besides  this,  they  are  to  read  the  select  letters  of  Cicero  with  con- 
stant reference  to  the  grammatical  construction  of  the  language ;  and, 
in  such  reading,  different  letters  are  to  be  assigned  to  the  different 
decuriae* 


*  The  classes  were  subdivided  into  decuriae,  or  tens ;  the  first  in  each  ten  was  called  the  decurion. 


STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION.  ^99 

During  the  last  months  of  their  school-year,  the  boys  of  this  class  are 
to  commence  a  series  of  exercises  in  style,  which  will  take  the  place  of 
their  previous  oral  practice  in  the  formation  of  new,  or  the  alteration  of 
given  Latin  phrases. 

At  the  examination,  the  first  scholar  in  the  seventh  class  put  to  the 
first  scholar  in  the  eighth  class  the  following  questions,  beginning  as 
before  with  the  last  of  the  preceding  series. 

Q.  Tell  me,  to  which  of  the  parts  of  speech  modo  belongs. 

A.  It  is  an  adverb  of  time. 

Q.  What  is  an  adverb  1 

Jl.  It  is  an  indeclinable  part  of  speech,  &c. 

Q.  How  many  indeclinable  parts  of  speech  are  there  1 

Jl.  Four,  &c.,  &c. 

Q.  What  else  have  you  learned  in  your  class  ? 

Jl.  Besides  a  fuller  etymology,  we  have  read  the  first  book  of  the  select  letters  of  Cicero,  the 
fourth  dialogue  in  the  Neanisci,  the  last  part  of  the  Second  Onoma.-ticon,  and  the  German 
Catechism. 

Q.  Read  a  letter  from  Cicero. 

Jl.  Cicero  filitts  Tironi  S.  P.  D.  Etsi  justa  et  idonea  usus  es  excusatione  intermissionit, 
etc.,  etc. 

Q.  Translate  what  you  have  read. 

Jl.  Etsi  usus  es,  although  you  have  offered ;  excusatione  justa,  a  just  apology,  etc. 

Q.  To  what  part  of  speech  do  you  refer  idonea  ? 

Jl.  It  is  an  adjective ;  in  the  ablative  case,  and  singular  number. 

Q.  How  do  you  form  its  comparative  1 

Jl.  By  prefixing  magit  ;  magis  idoneus. 

Q.  By  what  rule  do  we  say  uti  excusatione  ? 

A.  Syntax  is  not  taught  in  my  class. 

SEVENTH  CLASS. — Sturm  writes  to  Lingelsheim,  the  teacher  ot 
this  class,  "  It  must  be  his  care  that  the  scholars  do  not  lose  any 
thing  of  that  which  they  have  learned  in  the  three  preceding  classes  ; 
and  then  that  they  should  add  to  what  they  have  already  learned ; — 
in  the  first  place,  Latin  syntax.  This  must  contain  but  few  rules, 
must  be  clear,  and  set  forth  by  examples,  and  that  chiefly  from  Cicero. 
In  the  daily  reading  of  Cicero's  letters,  the  rules  of  syntax,  through 
constant  use,  must  be  more  and  more  impressed  on  the  memory. 
Pliny  says  that  we  must  read  much,  but  not  many  things ;  in  this 
class,  however,  many  things  must  be  read,  in  order  to  arrive  at  much. 

Subjects  must  be  assigned  to  the  scholars  for  their  exercises  in  style ; 
but,  in  the  treatment  of  such  subjects,  conciseness  must  be  aimed  at. 
The  teacher  should  render  assistance  in  this  matter,  either  orally  or 
by  writing,  (on  the  blackboard,)  constructing  sentences  beforehand,  as 
music-teachers  sing  first  what  they  wish  their  pupils  to  learn.  The 
subjects  are  to  be  drawn  from  what  the  scholars  have  learned  in  this 
or  the  previous  classes,  so  that  the  exercise  in  style  shall  involve  a 
repetition,  and  thus  refresh  the  memory.  And,  for  such  an  exercise 
on  Sundays,  the  German  Catechism  is  to  be  translated.  This  transla- 
tion must  be  made  in  classical  Latin,  such  words  alone  excepted  as 


200  STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

have  been  authorized  by  the  church,  as  Trinitas,  sacramentum,  bap- 
tismus,  etc.  The  scholars  in  this  class  should,  by  no  means,  use  any 
other  catechism  than  that  which  they  have  had  before  in  the  lower 
classes. 

At  the  examination,  the  first  in  the  sixth  class,  asked  the  first  in 
the  seventh : 

Q.  By  what  rule  do  we  say  idonea  uti  excusatione  ? 

A.   Utor,  fruor,  fungor,  etc. 

Q.  Excusatione  idonea  ? 

Jl.  Adjectives,  pronouns  and  participles,  etc. 

Q.  Excusatione  intermissionis  ? 

A.  One  substantive  governs  another,  etc. 

Q.  What  else  do  you  learn  in  your  class  7 

Jl.  We  read  two  dialogues  in  the  Neanisci  of  our  Rector,  the  second  book  of  the  select  letters 
of  Cicero,  the  "Precepts"  of  Cato,  the  catechism,  and  the  "  Sunday  Sermons  ;"  and,  in  the  first 
book  of  music,  we  learn  the  scale  and  intervals.  Also,  in  my  class,  exercises  in  style  are 
commenced. 

Q.  Read  a  sentence  from  Cato. 

Jl.  Disce  align  id,  nam  quum  subito  fortuna  recedit. 
Jlrs  remanet  vitamque  hominis  non  deserit  unquam. 

Q.  Translate  this  distich. 

Jl.  Disce  aliquid,  learn  something;  nam,  for;  cum  fortuna  recedit,  when  fortune  fails,  etc, 

Q.  Disce  aliquid;  what  is  the  rule  for  this  construction  1 

Jl.  A  verb  signifying  actively,  etc. 

Q.  For  cum  subito  recedit  ? 

Jl.  Adverbs  qualify  verbs,  etc. 

Q.  Read  something  in  Greek. 

Jl.  I  have  not  read  any  Greek  in  my  class. 

SIXTH  CLASS. — To  Malleolus,  the  teacher  of  this  class,  Sturm  writes, 
"  That,  from  the  examination  of  the  scholars  of  the  seventh  class  for 
their  promotion,  he  has  learned  their  progress.  He  is  to  consider 
that  to  keep  what  has  been  acquired  is  no  less  an  art  than  the  first 
acquisition  of  it.  The  longer  letters  of  Cicero  may  now  be  translated 
into  German,  and  in  such  an  order  that  different  letters  shall  be 
assigned  to  different  decuriae.  And,  in  a  similar  manner,  he  is  to 
proceed  with  poetical  selections.  The  first  decurion,  for  example,  may 
repeat  the  "  Veni  redemptor  gentium"  of  Bishop  Ambrose ;  the  second, 
Martial's  epigram,  "  Vitam  quae  faciunt  beatiorem  ;  "  the  third,  the 
ode  of  Horace,  commencing  with  "Rectius  vives, Licini,  nequealtum" 
for  the  teacher  to  translate  and  explain.  Then  each  of  the  three  may 
require  a  similar  translation  and  explanation  of  the  other  scholars. 
In  the  writing  exercises,  pains  is  to  be  taken  to  arrive  at  a  greater 
elegance  of  style. 

Saturdays  and  Sundays  are  to  be  devoted  to  the  translation  of  the 
catechism,  and  to  the  reading  of  some  letters  of  Hieronymus. 

Greek,  moreover,  is  to  be  commenced  in  this  class. 

At  the  examination,  the  first  in  the  fifth  class  asked  the  first  in  the 
sixth  as  follows: 

Q.  Read  a  fable  from  the  Greek  of  jEsop. 


STURM  S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION.  201 


icai 

Kvvqyovs  <pevyovca,  etc. 

Q.  Decline  eXa^oj. 

Jl.  'O  /cat  >}  £\<uf>os,  etc. 

Q.  What  is  Qevyovaal 

A.  A  participle,  from  (psvyb)  ;  future,  <p£V%c>}. 

Q.  What  have  you  read  in  Latin  1 

J.  The  last  two  books  of  the  select  letters  of  Cicero,  the  Andria  of  Terence,  the  tirst  book  of 
poetry,  the  Syntaxis  Figurata,  the  shorter  Latin  catechism  of  Luther,  and  the  Sunday  Sermon*. 
In  music,  we  have  attended  to  the  science  of  time. 

Q.  Rend  something  from  the  fifth  book  of  the  Tristia  of  Ovid. 

Jl.  Littora  quot  conchas,  quot  amoena  rosaria  flares 
Quotve  soporiferum  grana  papaver  habet,  etc. 

Q.  Littora,ete.    What  kind  of  construction  is  this? 

A.  It  is  a  zeugma  ;  for  the  verb  agrees  in  number  with  the  nearest  nominative,  etc. 

Q.  How  does  zeugma  differ  from  syllepsis  1 

A.  In  syllepsis,  the  adjective  or  verb  agrees  with  the  most  important  word;  but,  in  zeugma,  with 
the  nearest. 

Q.  Conchas  ;  what  is  the  quantity  of  its  first  syllable  ? 

Jl.  The  quantity  of  syllables  is  not  taught  in  the  sixth  class. 

FIFTH  CLASS.  —  Sturm  writes  to  Bitner,  the  teacher  of  this  class, 
that  the  boys  come  to  him  well  versed  in  grammar,  provided  with  a 
store  of  Latin  words  for  every-day  objects,  the  German  appellations 
for  which  had  become  familiar  to  them  beforehand.  But  now,  in  the 
fifth  class,  objects  entirely  unknown  to  the  boys,  and  words,  designat- 
ing such  objects,  also  equally  unknown  to  them,  are  to  be  brought 
forward.  Since  they  have  as  yet  heard  nothing  relative  to  the  art  of 
poetry,  they  are  now  to  be  made  acquainted  with  metre,  with  the 
quantity  of  syllables,  and  with  the  varieties  of  feet  and  of  verses,  and 
metrical  examples  are  to  be  given  to  them.  And  further,  they  must 
learn  mythology  ;  and,  in  addition  to  Cicero's  Cato  and  Laelius,  must 
read  the  Eclogues  of  Virgil.  Instruction  in  Greek  is  to  be  continued. 
The  boys  are  to  learn  the  Greek  words  for  virtues  and  vices,  for  man- 
ners, practices  and  customs,  etc.,  and  also  to  complete  their  encyclo- 
paedias of  Latin  words. 

Style,  too,  is  to  be  more  thoroughly  cultivated.  And,  toward  the 
close  of  the  school-year,  they  must  practice  the  art  of  making  verses; 
not,  however,  by  composing  poems  upon  given  subjects,  so  much  as  by 
restoring  the  meter  to  stanzas  that  have  been  disarranged  for  the  pur- 
pose. In  this  there  is  no  occasion  either  for  invention  or  for  a  choice 
of  words  ;  they  are  simply  to  put  the  words  given  them  in  their 
proper  places. 

It  will  be  a  good  exercise  to  give  the  scholars  some  example  of  elo- 
quence to  translate  into  German,  and  then  to  make  them  reproduce  it, 
extempore,  in  Latin  again  ;  for,  in  such  case,  the  Roman  orator  him- 
self, instead  of  the  teacher,  will  act  the  part  of  prompter.  Saturdays 
and  Sundays  one  of  the  shorter  Pauline  epistles  is  to  be  interpreted. 

At  the  examination,   the  first  in   the  fourth  class   repeated   the 


202  STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

question  which  the  first  in  the  sixth  class  could  not  answer;  but  directed 
it,  as  well  as  the  succeeding  questions,  to  the  first  in  the  fifth. 

Q.  What  is  the  quantity  of  the  first  syllable  of  the  word  conchas  ? 

j&.  It  is  long,  by  position.     Position  is,  etc. 

Q.  What  is  the  quantity  of  the  last  syllable  of  littora  ? 

A.  It  is  short,  by  the  rule,  etc. 

Q.  What  sort  of  a  foot  is  littora? 

A.  A  dactyle :  because  the  first  syllable  is  long,  the  last  two  short. 

Q.  How  many  kinds  of  feet  are  there  ? 

A.  Three ;  those  of  two,  three  and  four  syllables,  respectively. 

Q.  What  do  we  construct  out  of  such  feet? 

A.  A  poem  or  verse. 

Q.  What  is  a  verse  1 

A.  A  metrical  whole  constructed  of  separate  feet 

Q.  What  have  you  read  besides  in  Latin  ? 

A.  Some  of  Cicero's  letters  to  his  friends,  the  first  and  second  Eclogues  of  Virgil,  the  second 
book  of  poetry,  and  the  shorter  Latin  catechism  of  Luther. 

Q.  What  have  you  read  in  Greek  ? 

A.  The  second  part  of  the  "  Instruction  in  the  Greek  tongue,"  and  the  Sunday  Sermons. 

Q.  What  is  the  perfect  tense  of  Qevyk)  ? 

A.  ff£0cwxa. 

Q.  Why  do  you  not  say  0f0£t>xa,  as  \e\exfl.  from  Xlyw  ? 

A.  Because,  when  the  verb  begins  with  a  rough  mute,  the  reduplication  takes  the  corresponding 
smooth. 

Q.  What  is  the  Second  Aorist  of  Qevyw  ? 

A.  e<}>vyov,  formed  from  the  imperfect,  sQevyov,  by  rejecting  the  first  vowel  of  the  diphthong. 

Q.  Conjugate  IOT;J/«. 

A.  IOTJJ/II,  etc. 

Q.  Conjugate  the  anomalous  verb  fo-jj^t. 

A.  The  anomalous  verbs  and  the  Attic  tenses,  the  teacher  of  the  fifth  class  has  not  explained. 

FOURTH  CLASS. — To  Laurence  Engler,  the  teacher  of  this  class, 
Sturm  writes,  "  That  he  receives  the  boys  from  the  fifth  class  well 
grounded  in  Latin  and  Greek  grammar,  provided  with  a  good  store 
of  choice  words,  and  familiar  with  illustrations  drawn  from  poets,  and 
with  a  greater  number  still  from  orators.  With  all  this  in  view,  he 
must  now  see  to  it  that  the  boys  exert  themselves  to  their  utmost  in 
listening,  in  interpreting,  and  in  rehearsing  from  memory ;  but  he 
must  be  careful,  at  the  same  time,  not  to  task  them  beyond  their 
powers.  The  sixth  oration  against  Verres,  which  includes  nearly  all 
kinds  of  narration,  must  be  read ;  further,  the  epistles  and  satires  of 
Horace ;  and,  in  Greek,  together  with  the  grammar,  the  u  Book  of 
Examples."  That  which  has  been  learned,  in  the  preceding  classes, 
must  be  repeatedly  recalled  into  the  memory.  Diligent  practice  must 
be  bestowed  on  style ;  and,  on  Saturdays  and  Sundays,  the  shorter 
Pauline  epistles  are  to  be  read  by  the  boys,  who  are  to  explain  them 
as  they  read,  but  in  the  plain  manner  of  paraphrase  alone. 

At  the  examination,  the  first  of  the  third  class  asked  the  first  of  the 
fourth  as  follows : 

Q.  Conjugate  icrrjpt. 

A.  iffnpi,  To-ijf,  etc. 

Q.  How  is  it  in  the  middle  voice  ? 

A.  icapai,  and  by  epenthesis,  tora/jat,  from  whence  comes  lirfaTCtpat,  I  know. 


STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION.  203 

Q.  What  have  you  interpreted  in  Greek? 

A.  ^Esop's  fables,  and,  on  Sundays,  the  first  epistle  to  Timothy. 

Q.  Repeat  a  Greek  sentence  to  me. 

A.  Te5i/  v£(dv  ol  iir)5iv  iiriaTafitvoi,  ov  //«//:rrot  tiaiv,  orav  aiirovg  ol  yovsts  ovrus  dyavuoiv, 
which  means,  etc. 

Q.  In  what  mood  and  tense  is  dyaywatv  ? 

A.  In  the  second  aorist,  subjunctive,  from  aycti  ;  whose  second  aorist  is  yyov,  or,  by  Attic  epen- 
thesis,  riyayov. 

Q.  How  many  metaplasms  occur  in  dyaywaiv  ? 

A.  Two;  epenthesis  and  paragoge. 

Q.  What  is  paragoge  ? 

A.  The  addition  of  a  letter  or  a  syllable  to  the  end  of  a  word,  as  TOVTOVI  for  roirov,  or  lauda- 
rier  for  laudari. 

Q.  What  Latin  have  you  studied  ? 

A.  The  Eclogues  of  Virgil,  some  odes  of  Horace,  the  second  book  of  Cicero's  "  Letteis  n> 
Friends,"  and  his  speech  in  behalf  of  Marcus  Marcellus ;  also,  a  part  of  the  Adelphi  of  Terence. 

Q.  Repeat  something  out  of  Horace. 

j3.  Integer  vitae  scelerisque  purus 

JVoTi  effet  Mauri  jaculis  neque  areu 
JVec  venenatis  gravida  sagittis 
Fusee  pharetra. 

Q.  To  what  species  of  verse  does  this  ode  belong  ? 

A,  It  is  called  dicolon  tetrastrophon  ;  dicolon,  because  two  kinds  of  verse  unite  in  its  formation, 
namely,  the  Sapphic,  of  five  feet,  in  the  first  three  lines,  and  the  Adonic,  of  two  feet  in  the  last 
line :  and  tetrastrophon,  because  the  ode  recurs,  after  every  fourth  line,  to  the  same  kind  of  verse 
with  which  it  commenced. 

Q.  What  figure  is  exemplified  in  eget? 

A.  A  zeugma  of  speech. 

Q.  How  does  this  differ  from  a  zeugma  of  construction  ? 

A.  It  is  a  zeugma  of  speech  when  the  meaning  of  a  verb  or  an  adjective  is  applicable  to  every 
thing  to  which  it  is  referred  ;  as,  in  this  sentence  from  Horace,  Linquenda  tettus  et  damns  et  plat- 
ens uxor.  But,  if  such  meaning  is  not  applicable  to  every  thing,  then  a  zeugma  of  syntax  or  con- 
struction is  witnessed  ;  as,  for  example,  in  the  following: 

Viscndus  ater  flumine  langiddo 
Cocytus  errans  et  Danai  genus 
Infame,  damnatusque  longi 
Sisyphus  JEolides  Idboris. 

Q.  Have  you  attended,  also,  to  tropes  ? 

A.  No  ;  our  teacher  has  not  told  us  any  thing  of  them. 

THIRD  CLASS. — To  Boschius,  the  teacher  of  this  class,  Sturm  writes, 
"  That  he  should  not  only  give  to  the  boys  a  firm  hold  on  what  they 
have  already  learned,  but  should  extend  the  range  of  their  studies ; 
should  open  to  them  the  graces  of  rhetoric,  such  as  tropes,  figures, 
etc.,  illustrating  all  by  examples.  The  treatise  of  Herennius  on  rhe- 
toric must  be  laid  before  them,  and,  with  it,  the  speech  for  Cluentius 
must  be  read ;  and,  in  Greek,  the  best  efforts  of  Demosthenes  must, 
be  studied,  besides  the  first  book  of  the  Iliad,  or  that  of  the  Odyssey. 

On  Sundays,  the  Pauline  epistles  are  to  be  read  in  the  five  upper 
classes,  and,  either  entirely  or  in  part,  committed  to  memory.  Style 
exercises  are  a  matter  of  course ;  for  style  must  be  always  incessantly 
practiced  and  improved.  Selections  from  orations  in  Greek  must  be 
translated  by  the  boys  into  Latin,  or  from  orations  in  Latin  into  Greek. 
The  historians  and  poets,  too,  may  be  turned  to  account  in  a  similar 
manner ;  the  odes  of  Pindar  and  Horace  changed  into  a  different 

No.  10.— [VOL.  IY.,  No.  1.]— 12. 


204  STURM'S  SVSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

ineter,  many  poems  composed,  many  letters  written,  and  other  like 
tasks  constantly  undertaken. 

The  comedies  of  Terence  and  Plautus  are,  likewise,  to  be  acted ; 
and,  in  this  matter,  the  boys  are  to  be  encouraged  to  rival  the  classes 
above  them.  All  the  plays  of  these  two  poets  are  to  be  acted  by  the 
four  highest  classes;  twenty  decuriae  can  accomplish  this  within  six 
months.  He,  Sturm,  had  himself,  three  years  before  the  revolt  of  the 
peasants,  acted  at  Liege  the  part  of  Geta  in  the  Phormio  of  Terence, 
and,  although  he  had  had  no  one  to  direct  his  practice,  he  yet 
derived  great  benefit  from  it. 

At  the  examination,  the  first  in  the  third  class,  a  certain  Baron  von 
Sonneck,  was  catechised  by  the  first  in  the  second  class,  as  follows  : 

Q.  Since,  O.  noble  Baron,  I  understand  that  you  are  acquainted  with  figures,  allow  me  to  ask 
you  what  a  figure  is  ? 

A.  A  figure,  (in  Greek  o^i^a,)  is  an  ornament  of  speech,  substituted  for  a  plainer  and  more 
direct  mode  of  conveying  thought. 

Q.  What  else  have  you  learned  in  the  third  class  1 

A.  I  have  read  the  Menippus  of  Lucian,  and  the  two  Epistles  of  Paul  to  the  Thessalonians. 

Q.  What  have  you  read  in  Latin  ? 

A.  The  third  book  of  Cicero's  Letters  to  his  Friends,  his  speech  post  reditum,  and  the  greater 
part  of  the  sixth  book  of  the  ^Eneid. 

Q.  Repeat  some  prominent  passage  from  Lucian's  dialogue,  the  Menippus. 

A.  Menippus  says  to  Philonides,  concerning  the  punishment  of  the  proud  in  Hades:  ^txrdrret  & 
ToJa/iai/0os  rr\v  6\iyoxp6viov  d\a^oveiav  T&V  dvQpumcjv,  on  //»j  ejutjui/jjiro  OVTITOI  TS  O'VTSS 
avroi  Kai  Ovi)Tuiv  dyaBwv  rfrir^Kdrcf. 

Q.  What  is  the  rule  for  the  construction,  rervx^Kdreg  ru>v  dyaQ&v  ? 

Jl.  Participles  are  followed  by  the  same  cases  as  their  verbs;  but,  verbs  signifying  "to  obtain  or 
to  miss"  govern  the  genitive  in  Greek;  wherefore,  rvxeiv  governs  the  genitive. 

Q.  Give  me  a  verse  from  Virgil. 

A.  ^Eneas  thus  pravs  to  Apollo:  "Phabe,  graves  Trojae  semper  mixe.rate  labores." 

Q.  Can  you  show  that  these  verses  of  the  poet  are  constructed  after  the  rules  of  art  ? 

A.  The  critics  of  poetry  lay  down  seventeen  demands,  (accidentia,)  which  must  he  conformed 
to  in  every  verse.  That  Virgil  has  conformed  to  all  these  in  the  above  verses,  I  will  now  attempt 
to  shew.  The  measure  is  dactylic,  as  befits  epic  verse ;  the  feet,  (the  dactyle  and  the  spondee,; 
which  are  appropriate  to  this  measure,  being  employed.  In  the  scansion,  the  caesura,  etc.,  the 
passage  harmonizes  with  all  the  rules  of  the  art. 

Q.  "  You  observe,"  continues  the  questioner,  "  that  the  noble  Lord  understands  all  these  sub- 
jects, but  I  wish  to  know  one  thing  further  ;  is  the  phrase  'Phtzbe  da  Latio  considers  Teucros'  a 
logically  accurate  proposition  7  " 

A.  To  this  point,  with  reference  to  the  rules  of  logic,  it  is  your  part  to  respond. 

SECOND  CLASS. — To  Renard,  the  teacher  of  this  class,  Sturm  writes, 
that  he  himself  is  not  to  give  a  literal  interpretation  of  the  Greek 
poets  and  orators,  but  rather  to  assign  that  labor  to  the  scholars ;  but 
he  may,  nevertheless,  direct  their  attention  to  the  relation  which  exists 
between  oratorical  and  poetical  usage,  and  may  require  them  to  copy 
striking  passages  from  the  classics  in  their  commonplace-books. 

And  the  like  course  is  to  be  taken  with  Latin  authors,  and  a  com- 
parison is  to  be  instituted  between  these  and  the  Greek. 

Logic,  the  instrument  of  wisdom,  must  be  laid  before  the  scholars, 
the  analytical  or  introductory  part  first,  and  afterward  the  synthetical 
or  syllogistic ;  and  rhetoric,  too,  must  ever  accompany  logic,  for  which 


STURM  S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION.  205 

study  the  "Institutes  of  Herennius"  maybe  taken  as  a  text-book. 
The  teacher  may  read,  with  reference  to  rhetoric,  the  Olynthiac  and 
Philippic  orations  of  Demosthenes,  and  also  some  of  Cicero's.  What  ora- 
tions of  Cicero  shall  he  read  ?  Either  he  may  decide  himself,  or  he  may 
allow  the  boys  to  choose ;  for  these  should  be  often  permitted  to  use 
their  own  judgment.  Daily  exercises  in  style  are  indispensable,  and  a 
higher  point  must  be  reached  therein  than  in  the  previous  classes.* 
The  scholars  may  also  write  short  dissertations,  and  deliver  them 
either  memoritcr  or  from  their  notes. 

On  Sundays,  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  is  to  be  read,  learned 
by  heart,  and  recited  by  all.  The  scholars  of  this  class  must  act  the 
comedies  of  Terence  and  Plautus  to  greater  perfection  than  those 
below  them  can  do ;  and,  later  in  their  course,  they  may  represent  a 
play  of  Aristophanes,  Euripides,  or  Sophocles,  which  the  teacher  has 
first  expounded  to  them ;  and,  if  they  should  wish  to  take  up  any 
others  afterward,  they  may  do  so  at  their  pleasure,  as  those  who  are 
self-instructed. 

At  the  examination,  the  first  in  the  first  class  put  to  the  first  in  the 
second  the  same  question  which  the  first  in  the  third  had  left 
unanswered. 

Q.  Resolve  me  this  question  in  dialectics,  is  "  Phoebe,  da  Latio  considere  TeucrosJ*  a  completed 
or  logically  accurate  proposition  ? 

A.  It  is  not,  and  I  thus  prove  why  it  is  not.  A  completed  proposition  is  a  perfect  sentence,  in 
which  the  noun  is  united  to  the  verb,  and  which  enunciates  either  a  truth  or  a  falsity.  But,  this 
phrase  embodies  neither  that  which  is  true  nor  that  which  is  false.  Therefore,  I  conclude  that  it 
is  not  a  completed  proposition. 

Q.  From  what  part  of  logic,  and  for  what  reason,  do  you  so  conclude? 

A.  From  the  part  that  relates  to  definition ;  upon  the  rules  of  which  part  I  take  my  stand,  and 
thence  argue  again.  If  a  sentence  does  not  conform  to  some  one  logical  definition,  that  which  is 
conveyed  by  this  definition  is  not  applicable  to  such  sentence.  But  the  phrase  in  question  does  not 
conform  to  the  definition  of  a  completed  proposition.  Therefore,  the  term  "completed  proposition  " 
is  not  applicable  to  this  phrase. 

Q.  But  here  is  another  rule  of  dialectics :  From  pure  negations  no  conclusion  can  follow.  Your 
propositions  are  pure  negations ;  therefore,  your  conclusion  is  a  -non  sequitur. 

A.  I  deny  the  minor  of  your  argument;  for  my  second  proposition  is  an  indirect  affirmation. 
Hence,  my  syllogism,  since  it  is  stated  in  the  terms  of  the  figure  called  Ferio,  remains  impregnable. 

Q.  Allow  me  to  ask  you  whether  you  would  call  your  syllogism  demonstrative,  argumentative, 
or  sophistical. 

A.  To  judge  by  its  purport,  I  would  call  it  demonstrative.  But,  if  you  were  to  require  more  of 
me,  as  that  I  should  answer  with  respect  to  the  science  of  demonstration  or  to  sophistical  argu- 
ments, I  could  not  satisfy  you ;  for  the  precepts  of  these  are  not  taught  in  the  second  class. 

Upon  this  the  questioner  proceeds  as  follows : 

Q.  What  have  you  read  in  rhetoric? 

A.  The  first  and  second  dialogues  of  Dr.  Sturm  upon  Cicero's  divisions  of  the  oration,  in  which 
is  discussed  the  five-fold  problem  of  the  orator;  namely,  invention,  disposition,  expression,  action 
and  memory. 

Q.  Does  not  judgment  belong  here,  too  1 

A.  Orators  class  judgment  uuder  the  head  of  invention ;  for,  invention  supposes  a  selection  of 
the  best  arguments,  and  certainly  we  must  discriminate  and  judge  when  making  such  selection. 

*  It  is  incredible,  Sturm  adds  in  this  place,  how  much  one  can  accomplish  by  effort,  by  imitation, 
by  emulation,  and  by  the  belief  that  all  obstacles  yield  to  art  and  industry. 


206  STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

Q.  What  other  authors  have  you  read  ? 

Jl.  The  second  Philippic  of  Demosthenes,  and  Cicero's  pleas  in  behalf  of  Roscius  Amerinus  and 
Cams  Rabirius,  besides  the  first  book  of  the  Iliad. 

Q.  Why  the  name  Iliad  1 

A.  Because  it  is  a  narration  of  events  and  exploits,  of  which  Ilium  or  Troy  was  the  theatre. 

Q.  What  species  of  argument  (status)  is  employed  in  the  plea  for  B-birius? 

Jl.  I  have  heard  it  called  the  conjectural  argument ;  *  but  I  am  no  more  fa.niliar  with  the  nature 
of  arguments  than  with  that  of  the  various  subdivisions  of  the  oration. 

FIRST  CLASS. — To  Goelius,  the  teacher  of  the  first  class,  Sturm 
writes,  that  he  is  to  carry  logic  and  rhetoric  to  a  further  extent,  though 
not  to  their  perfection,  after  the  manner  of  the  Aristotelians  and  the 
Greek  rhetoricians ;  for  this  should  be  deferred  until  the  boys  have 
left  the  gymnasium,  and  then  should  be  achieved  by  means  of  a 
shorter  method  composed  by  himself,  (Sturm,)  a  method  which, 
though  not  following  Aristotle  throughout,  yet  contains  all  the  di- 
visions and  subdivisions  (genera  et  partes)  which  are  to  be  found  in 
Aristotle,  Hermogenes,  and  Cicero.  The  rules  of  logic  and  rhetoric 
are  to  be  applied,  by  way  of  illustration,  to  Demosthenes  and  Cicero. 
And,  to  the  same  end,  too,  what  remains  of  Virgil,  and  some  portion 
of  Homer,  should  be  read ;  for,  these  poets,  Homer  especially,  have 
conduced  greatly  to  the  perfection  of  oratory.]- 

Thucydides  and  Sallust  are  to  be  translated  in  writing  by  tho 
scholars  themselves,  some  having  these  passages,  and  others  those, 
assigned  to  them ;  not  all  taking  the  same. 

In  this  class,  too,  the  dramatic  representations  are  to  be  more  fre- 
quent, and  not  a  week  is  to  elapse  without  its  play. 

Of  the  scholars,  Sturm  desires  a  thoroughly  cultivated  facility  in 
writing  and  in  declamation  :  all  that  they  produce,  whether  in  prose 
or  in  poetry,  must  be  artistic. 

The  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  are  to  be  expounded  by  the  scholars,  and 
prominent  passages  of  the  same,  after  the  manner  of  the  rhetoricians, 
are  to  be  amplified. 

At  the  examination,  one  member  of  the  first  class  asked  another, 
as  follows: 

Q.  Tell  me  what  you  have  read  in  the  first  class  1 

Jl,  In  the  logic  of  Dr.  Sturm,  I  have  learned  the  precepts  of  demonstrative  and  sophistical  syllo- 
gisms; in  rhetoric,  the  last  two  dialogues  upon  Cicero's  divisions  of  the  oration,  and  his  three 
books  "  De  Officiis ; "  besides  the  Phoenissae  of  Euripides;  out  of  Demosthenes,  Philip's  letter,, 
and  Demosthenes'  reply  to  the  same ;  the  latter  part  of  the  catechism  of  Chytraeus ;  and,  on 
Sundays,  St  Paul's  epistle  to  the  Gulatians. 

Q.  What  is  a  demonstrative  syllogism  1 

Jl.  It  is  a  conclusion  drawn  from  necessary  truths,  and  of  special  use  in  extending  the  area  of 
knowledge.  For,  thus  says  Aristotle,  "  Demonstration  is  the  syllogism  of  science,  predicated  upon 
necessary  propositions,"  as  for  instance : 

*The  conjectural  argument,  (status  conjecturalis,)  or  the  "An  sit"  of  Quintilian,  consists 
wholly  ard  solely  of  an  attempt  to  establish  or  to  set  aside  the  truth  of  the  charges  alledged. 

f  "  I  am  convinced  that  the  rules  of  each  species  of  oratory,  as  well  as  the  ornaments  of  each,  can 
be  shewn  to  exist  in  Homer ;  so  that,  if  the  art  of  eloquence  were  extinct,  it  could  be  fully  restored 
from  this  rich  fountain." — Sturm. 


STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION.  207 

Every  cause  is  antecedent  to  its  effect ; 

The  rising  of  the  sun  is  the  cause  of  day ; 

Therefore,  the  rising  of  the  sun  is  antecedent  to  the  day. 

Q.  Of  what  nature  is  this  demonstration  1 

A.  It  is  a  perfect  demonstration,  and  is  called  by  Aristotle  rou  it  8rt,  (of  the  Why.)  It  consists 
of  true  propositions,  primary,  not  secondary  ;  the  more  prominent,  the  antecedent,  and  those  which 
are  the  causes  of  the  conclusion,  and  which  furnish  us  with  demonstrative  science. 

Q.  Is  there  any  other  species  of  demonstration  ? 

A.  There  is;  namely,  the  imperfect  demonstration,  which  is  called  TOT;  STI,  (of  the  Because;/ 
when  the  conclusion  does  not  flow  from  primary  or  direct,  but  from  intermediate  propositions,  or 
from  effects,  or  secondary  and  remote  causes,  as  if  I  should  say, 

Wherever  it  is  day,  there  the  sun  has  arisen ; 

But,  it  is  day  with  us ; 

Therefore,  with  us  the  sun  has  arisen. 

This  is  the  domonstration  a  posteriori.  For  the  cause  is  demonstrated  from  its  effect.  The  day 
is  not  the  cause  of  the  sun's  appearance ;  but,  the  rising  of  the  sun  is  the  necessary  and  efficient 
cause  of  the  day. 

Q.  Since,  then,  you  assert  that  the  rising  of  the  sun  is  the  cause  of  day,  what  would  you  say  if 
I  should  prove  to  you  that  it  is  not  yet  day  with  us  1 

A.  I  would  like  to  hear  whether  you  can  truly  demonstrate  what  you  thus  advance. 

Q.  Is  not  the  state  of  things  at  Frankfort  different  from  that  which  obtains  here  at  Strasburg1? 

A.  Yes. 

Q.  Is  it  not  day  now  at  Frankfort  7 

A.  So  I  imagine. 

Q.  Then  it  is  not  day  with  us  at  Strasburg. 

A.  I  deny  your  consequence.  For  you  have  stated  a  fallacy  in  the  form  of  the  seventh  species 
of  the  ignoratio  elenchi.  Your  terms  do  not  both  refer  to  the  same  thing,  (irpds  avr6,)  but  each 
to  a  different  point,  (irpd?  aXXo.)  The  major  of  your  argument  possesses  nothing  in  common  with 
the  minor;  therefore,  your  conclusion  is  a  non  sequitur. 

Q.  Then,  you  have  studied  sophistics,  if  I  may  judge  by  your  rejoinder. 

A.  Yes ;  I  have  learned  the  rules  of  that  art  as  they  have  been  delivered  to  us  by  our  illustrious 
rector,  Dr.  Sturm,  from  the  sophistical  problems  of  Aristotle. 

Hereupon  the  respondent  exposed  the  fallacy  of  the  two  following 
sophisms. 

(1.)  He  who  is  well  versed  in  sophistical  reasoning  seeks  to  deceive  others  by  his  conclusions 
You  say  that  you  are  well  versed  in  sophistical  reasoning;  you,  therefore,  seek  to  deceive  me. 

(2.)  He  who  has  five  fingers  on  one  of  his  hands,  also  has  three,  and  two,  and  has  five,  likewise. 
But,  he  who  has  three,  two,  and  five,  has  ten.  Whoever,  therefore,  has  five  fingers  on  one  of  hi» 
hands,  has  ten  on  the  same  hand. 

In  rhetoric  there  was  no  examination,  but  the  questioning  proceeded 
as  follows : 

Q.  What  have  you  learned  in  your  class,  of  mathematics  ? 

A.  To  that  which  we  learned  in  the  second  class  we  have  added  astronomy,  and  some  problems 
from  the  first  book  of  Euclid. 

Q.  In  what  manner  do  astronomers  measure  the  primary  movement  (primum  motum)  of  the 
heavens  ? 

Q.  By  means  of  ten  circles ;  namely,  the  horizon,  the  meridian,  the  equator,  the  zodiac,  2  eo- 
lures,  2  tropics,  and  2  polar  circles. 

Q.  Are  these  circles  visible  1 

A.  No;  they  are  imaginary,  and  conceived  to  result  from  the  movements  of  certain  celestial 
points  and  lines. 

Q.  What  is  the  name  of  the  first  circle  ? 

A.  The  Greeks  called  it  bptgav,  (horizon,)  from  bptgf.adai,  to  limit;  and  the  Romans,  finitor. 

Q.  How  is  it  situated,  with  respect  to  the  axis  of  the  earth  1 

A.  When  it  passes  through  the  poles  it  is  in  a  right  position;  but,  when  one  pole  is  above  it, 
while  the  other  is  below  it,  it  is  oblique.  Whence,  the  one  sphere  is  called  right,  the  other 
tblique.* 

*As  this  definition  is  not  sufficiently  clear,  I  will  quote  the  more  intelligible  words  of  John 


208  STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

Q.  What  purpose  does  the  horizon  serve  ? 

Jl.  To  divide  the  celestial  sphere  into  an  upper  and  a  lower  half,  and  thereby  mark  out  those 
periods  of  its  primary  motion  which  determine  day  and  night.  When  the  sun  is  in  the  uppet 
hemisphere,  it  is  day ;  when  in  the  lower,  night.  The  stars,  at  their  rising,  come  up  above  the 
horizon  ;  at  their  setting,  they  sink  below  it. 

Q.  Which  is  the  second  circle  ? 

Jl.  The  meridian.    This  passes  through  the  zenith  and  the  poles. 

Q.  For  what  does  it  serve  ? 

jl.  For  the  determination  of  latitude.  The  celestial  sphere  it  divides  into  an  eastern  and  a  west- 
ern half.  It  likewise  halves  the  arc  of  day,  and  the  arc  of  night,  so  that  when  the  sun  crosses  this 
circle  in  the  upper  hemisphere,  it  is  mid  day ;  when  it  crosses  it  in  the  lower,  it  is  midnight.  It 
also  divides  the  day  into  forenoon  and  afternoon. 

Q.  Which  is  the  third  circle? 

Jl.  The  equator ;  so  called  from  its  equalizing  day  and  night.*  It  runs  from  east  to  west,  and  is 
at  all  points,  equi-distant  from  the  poles. 

Q.  For  what  does  the  equator  serve  ? 

A.  From  it  we  reckon  longitude.  The  celestial  sphere  it  divides  into  a  northern  and  a  southern 
half.  The  primary  motion  of  the  heavens  it  measures  off  into  periods  by  twenty-four  arcs,  which, 
in  the  order  of  their  ascension,  mark  the  course  of  the  twenty-four  hours. 

Q.  Which  is  the  fourth  circle? 

Jl.  The  zodiac ;  called  by  Ptolemy  the  oblique  circle ;  described  by  the  revolutions  of  the  sun 
and  the  other  planets. 

Q.  Whence  comes  the  name  1 

Jl.  From  the  animals  which  the  ancients  represented  in  its  belt. 

Q.  What  are  they? 

Jl.  Aries,  etc. 

Q.  Which  of  these  are  opposite,  the  one  to  the  other  ? 

Jl.  Aries  to  Libra.  Taurus  to  Scorpio,  Gemini  to  Sagittarius,  Cancer  to  Capricornus,  Leo  to 
Aquarius,  and  Virgo  to  Pisces. 

Q.  To  what  use  is  the  zodiac  applied  ? 

Jl.  We  determine  both  longitude  and  latitude  by  it;  and  it  is  the  pathway  of  the  planets,  whose 
revolutions  measure  times  and  seasons.  The  sun  travels  over  its  course  in  a  year,  which  is  not  far 
from  the  space  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  and  six  hours;  and  the  moon  runs  completely 
round  it  in  a  month,  or  twenty-seven  days  and  eight  hours,  etc.  In  conclusion,  the  examiner 
spoke  as  follows:  ''  Not  to  detain  the  audience  longer,  I  feel  satisfied  that  you  are  familiar  with  all 
other  things  which  have  been  given  to  your  class  to  study,  and  I,  therefore,  willingly  accord  to  you 
the  palm  of  victory." 

The  foregoing  description  will  serve  to  denote  the  character  of  the 
Strasburg  Gymnasium.  We  will  now  consider  the  College,  with 
which  it  was  connected. 

(To  be  continued.) 

Sacrobusto,  whose  treatise  "  on  the  Sphere  "  Sturm  employed  as  a  text-book.  "  There  are  two 
horizons  ;  the  right  and  the  oblique.  Those  have  a  right  horizon  and  a  right  sphere  whose  zenith 
is  in  the  equinoctial ;  because  their  horizon  is  a  circle  passing  through  the  poles,  cutting  the  equi- 
noctial at  right  spherical  angles;  whence,  their  horizon  is  called  right,  and  their  sphere  right. 
Those  have  an  oblique  horizon  with  whom  the  pole  is  situated  above  their  horizon  ;  and,  because 
their  horizon  intersects  the  equinoctial  at  oblique  angles,  their  horizon  is  called  oblique,  and  their 
sphere  oblique. 

*  We  find  this  more  intelligibly  expressed  in  Sacrobusto,  as  follows :  "  It  is  called  the  equinoctial 
because,  when  the  sun  crosses  it,  as  it  does  twice  in  the  year,  the  days  and  nights  are  equal  ov«r 
the  whole  world ;  whence,  it  is  called  the  equator  of  the  day  and  the  night. 


LIFE  AND  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  JOHN  STURM, 

FROM   THE   GERMAN   OP  KARL  VON   RAUMER. 
(Continued  from  No.  10.,  page  182.) 


As  EARLY  as  the  year  1537  Sturm,  in  his  treatise  "On  the  correct 
mode  of  opening  literary  institutions"  had  designated  courses  of 
"  Public  and  Free  Lectures,"  which  graduates  from  the  first  class  of 
the  gymnasium  should  attend  upon  during  their  five  collegiate  years. 
He  also  lays  down  therein  the  main  branches  thus  to  be  taught,  which 
are  theology,  jurisprudence,  and  medicine.  Beside  these,  he  enumer- 
ates five  other  departments  of  learning,  (which  we  now  associate  in  a 
distinct  group,  and  assign  to  philosophical  faculties,)  namely,  mathe- 
matics, history,  logic  with  rhetoric,  grammar,  and  reading  of  the  poets. 
And  he  requires  a  more  extended  course  of  private  study  to  be  pursued  by 
students  at  the  college  than  had  been  provided  for  at  the  gymnasium. 

Lecturers  as  well  as  teachers  are  provided  for,  likewise,  in  his  plau 
for  a  school  organization  at  Lauingen.  After  he  has  here  character- 
ized the  duties  of  the  various  classes,  he  continues,  "  In  these  classes 
the  boys  must  be  kept  under  the  discipline  of  the  rod,  nor  should 
they  learn  according  to  their  own  choice,  but  after  the  good  pleasure 
of  the  teacher.  But,  when  they  leave  the  classes,  then  they  go  as 
their  inclination  prompts  them,  some  to  theologians,  for  the  sake  of 
religion,  some  to  naturalists,"  etc.  It  appears  from  the  second  book 
of  Sturm's  "Classic  Letters,"  that  even  prior  to  the  year  1565  many 
learned  men  were  giving  public  lectures  in  Strasburg,  while,  at  the  same 
time,  he  was  zealously  engaged,  by  means  of  correspondence  with  many 
others,  in  efforts  to  increase  the  number  of  lecturers.  But,  it  was  not 
until  1567  that  the  Emperor  Maximilian  II.  accorded  permission  to 
the  Strasburgers  to  found  a  college,  which,  long  afterward,  (in  1621,) 
was  invested  by  Ferdinand  II.  with  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  a 
university. 

In  the  year  1569,  the  Strasburg  magistracy  empowered  Sturm  to 
organize  the  college,  whereupon  he  composed  his  "  Collegiate  Letters," 
which  were  addressed  to  the  various  instructors  in  the  new  institution. 

What  was  the  actual  course  of  instruction  therein  will  best  aooear 
from  the  subjoined  schedule  of  lectures  for  the  summer  term  of  the 
year  1578.  which  I  qnote  in  the  original  Latin. 
U 


210  STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION 

Designatio  Lectiontim  publicarun  pro  hoc  aestivo  semestri,  in  academia  Argentoratensi 
Anno  1578. 

J.  Stiirmius,  Rector,  docebit  dialog.  Cic.  de  Senectute. 

Melckior  Junior,  Decanus,  libros  III.,  Cic.  de  Oral,  et  orationem  Cic.  Philippicam  secundam. 

THEOLOGI. — D  Marbachius  perget  in  explicatione  Psalmorum. 

D.  Joh.  Pappus  explicabit  Danielem  nroohetam  et  acta  Anostolorum. 

M.  JVic.  Floras  epist.  Pauli  ad  Galatal. 

Er.  Marbachius  Lie.  perget  in  lib.  Judicum. 

JURKCONSULTI. — D.  Laur.  Tuppius  perget  in  Pandectis. 

D.  Obert.  Oiphanius  interpret  libb.  IV.  Inslitutionem  Justin. 

D.  Georg.  Obrechtus  perget  in  lib.  II.  Codicis. 

MEDICI  ET  PHYSICI. — D.  Andr.  Pianerus  leget  parvam  artem  Galeni.  Deinde  parva  naturalii 
Aristotelis. 

E.  Lud.  ffawenreuterus  perget  in  compendio  Physices. 
HISTORICUS. — J).  Mich.  Beuterus  explic.  C.  Taciturn. 

ETHICUS. — M.  Teoph.  Golius  perget  in  libris  Ethicis  Aristotelis  ad  Nicomachum. 

OROANICUS. — M.  L.  Hawenreuterus  perget  in  Analyt.  prioribus  Aristotelis. 

MATHEMATICUS. — M.  Conr.  Dasypodius  docebit  sex  libros  priores  Euclidis,  item  Theorias  Solit 
et  Lunae  et  doctrinain  addet  Eclipsium. 

LINGUARUM  PROFESSORES. — M.  Henning.  Oldendorpius  docebit  Grammaticam  hebraeam 
Clenardi  et  adjunget  aliquot  Psalmorum  Davidis  explicationem. 

M.  J.  Wilvesfiemius,  graecanicae  linguae  Professor,  interpretabitur  "Epya  Kal  fi/iepas  Hesiodi. 

DISPCTATIONES  ET  DKCLAMATIONES  PtiBLlCAK.— Singulis  mensibus  singulae  attributae  sunt 
disputationes  et  declamationes.  quae  publice  a  Professoribus  haberi  debent  suo  ordine,  praeter 
exercitationes  illas,  quae  privatim  suscipiuntur  cum  Studiosis  et  honorum  Candidatis. 

The  Strasburg  college  created  Baccalaureates  and  Masters  of  Phi- 
losophy, as  we  learn  from  the  lists  of  Melchior  Junius,  of  degrees 
conferred  in  the  years  1574  and  1578.  But,  Doctorates  in  theology, 
law,  and  medicine,  it  did  not  create ;  for  this  only  universities  could  do. 

If  then,  as  we  see,  the  Strasburg  college  was  neither  a  gymnasium 
nor  a  university,  what,  in  reality,  was  it?  Manifestly  an  unfortunate 
compound  of  both ;  a  sort  of  philosophical  faculty  that  laid  claim  to 
an  isolated,  independent  existence,  almost  entirely  ignoring  the  three 
other  faculties.  But,  a  philosophical  faculty  can  not  thrive  unless  it 
is  a  branch  of  a  full-grown  university,  and  unless,  co-existing  with 
the  three  other  faculties,  each  sufficiently  well  represented  in  itself,  it 
receives  life  from  them,  and,  in  turn,  imparts  it  to  them.  Those 
faculties,  divorced  from  the  philosophical,  but  too  readily  degenerate 
into  mere  instrumentalities  for  gaining  a  livelihood,  while  the  philo- 
sophical, when  standing  alone  and  paying  no  attention  to  the  urgent 
demands  of  life  and  to  the  future  calling  of  the  student,  is  devoid 
both  of  purpose  and  aim.  Such  a  dubious  position  exerts  a  perni- 
cious influence  on  the  character  of  the  pupils  of  the  college.  School- 
boys they  should  not  be,  students  they  fain  would  be ;  but,  they  are 
neither  one  thing  nor  the  other.  For  philosophical  lectures,  which 
tend  to  refresh,  strengthen,  and  improve  the  student  in  bi»  own 
special  department,  appear  to  the  scnolars  of  the  college  out  a  mere 
wearisome  continuation  of  their  school  studies,  that  they  had  hoped 
were  at  an  end.  And  if,  moreover,  the  instructors  in  logic,  philology, 
rhetoric,  etc.,  are  altogether  of  that  kmd,  that  their  discourses  differ 


STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION.  211 

in  no  respect  from  those  which  their  hearers  have  before  listened  to  in 
the  gymnasium,  then  truly  is  such  hearing  fatiguing,  and  painful  even 
to  the  most  attentive.  Sturm  felt  a  deep  interest  in  his  Strasburg 
college,  and  used  every  means  in  his  power  to  impress  upon  it  the 
stamp  of  a  university.  From  many  of  his  "Classic "  and  "Collegiate  " 
letters  we  see  how  he  invited  jurists,  physicians,  etc.,  to  Strasburg,  to 
deliver  lectures  upon  law,  medicine,  natural  philosophy,  and  other 
branches  of  learning.  But,  it  is  impossible  thus  to  improvise  a  uni- 
versity, by  persuading  men,  who  are  already  filling  other  and  widely 
different  offices  it  may  be,  to  become  professors  likewise.  For,  the 
appropriate  duties  of  the  professor  call  for  the  undivided  energies  of 
the  whole  man. 

That  the  lectures  of  theologians,  jurists,  and  physicians  in  the 
Strasburg  college  were  entirely  unsuited  to  impart  to  the  youth,  within 
the  Quinquennium  from  his  sixteenth  to  his  twenty-first  year,  an  ade- 
quate preparation  for  his  future  calling,  as  Sturm  originally  designed 
that  it  should  do,  a  single  glance  at  the  schedule  of  the  college 
lectures  inserted  above  will  abundantly  convince  us.  The  theologians, 
for  example,  read  only  upon  Old  and  New  Testament  exegesis,  while 
one  solitary  physician  confines  his  labors  to  the  "lesser  art  of  Galen," 
and  "Aristotle's  minor  philosophy  !  "  And  Sturm  himself,  with  all 
his  partiality  for  the  college,  most  keenly  felt  its  deficiencies.  He 
laments,  among  other  things,  the  lack  of  discipline  that  prevailed  there, 
as  well  as  the  neglect  of  the  prescribed  lectures,  and  the  want  of  respect 
for  the  instructors.  On  this  point,  his  letters  to  Erythraeus,  teacher  of 
rhetoric,  is  especially  noteworthy.  He  has  observed,  he  writes,  that  it 
is  a  difficult  task  to  deliver  lectures  in  their  college  upon  poets,  histo- 
rians, and  orators,  and  he  has  also  been  astonished  that  such  lectures 
have  often  been  wholly  unattended.  The  reason  which  he  assigns  for 
this  state  of  things  is  this,  "  the  scholars  had  already,  at  the  gymna- 
sium, become  familiar  with  the  principal  classic  poets,  historians,  and 
orators,  and,  accordingly,  if,  in  the  college  lectures,  they  heard 
nothing  new,  they  would  either  go  away  altogether,  or  would  else 
betake  themselves  to  others,  whether  jurists,  physicians,  or  mathema- 
ticians, who  could  teach  them  something  that  they  did  not  know 
before.  And  these  laid  before  the  scholars  subjects  that  possessed 
the  freshness  of  novelty ;  but  the  teachers  of  grammar  and  rhetoric, 
on  the  other  hand,  only  such  as  they  had  already  learned  at  school ; 
and,  if  these  teachers  could  not  be  persuaded  to  undertake  a  better 
method,  then  the  whole  affair  would  fall  through." 

But,  enough  of  the  Strasburg  college  :  it,  however,  did  not  remain 
in  its  original  form  ;  but,  as  has  been  stated,  emerged  from  its  chrysa- 

condition,  in  the  year  1621,  a  full-fledged  university. 


212  STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

We  turn  now  to  examine  Sturm's  educational  method  critically 
and  to  note  its  operation  in  the  Strasburg  gymnasium. 

His  ideal  of  culture  we  have  already  spoken  of  as  embracing  the  three- 
fold attainment  of  piety,  knowledge,  and  eloquence.  How  clearly  he 
knew  what  he  wished,  how  clearly  he  recognized  the  means  that  were 
best  adapted  to  procure  him  what  he  wished,  and  also  with  what  decision, 
circumspection,  and  admirable  perseverance  he  labored  to  achieve  his 
aim,  all  this  appears  from  what  I  have  already  communicated,  both  from 
his  own  lips  and  from  the  authority  of  others.  There  was  no  discord- 
ant element  in  him ;  he  was  a  whole  man,  a  man  of  character,  in 
whom  a  strong  will  and  a  wise  activity  were  united  in  perfect  equi- 
poise. And,  on  this  account,  it  is  no  marvel  that,  as  I  have  before 
mentioned,  he  was  appreciated  among  his  contemporaries,  and  enjoyed 
their  utmost  confidence.  Even  in  the  year  1578  the  Strasburg  school 
numbered  many  thousand  scholars,  among  whom  were  two  hundred 
noblemen,  twenty-four  counts  and  barons,  and  three  princes.  Not 
alone  from  Germany,  but  also  from  the  remotest  countries,  from 
Portugal,  and  Poland,  Denmark,  France,  and  England,  youths  were 
sent  to  Sturm.  But  his  educational  efficiency  was  not  limited  to  the 
Strasburg  gymnasium ;  he  exerted,  far  and  wide,  by  his  counsel,  his 
example,  and  through  his  pupils,  a  vast  influence,  as  a  second  "  Pre- 
ceptor of  Germany."  He  himself  organized  schools  at  Lauingen  on 
the  Danube,  Trasbach  on  the  Moselle,  and  at  Hornbach,  in  the 
Bipontinate;  his  pupil,  Schenk,  planned  the  Augsburg,  a  second  pupil, 
Crusius,  the  Meminger  gymnasium. 

The  school-code  of  Duke  Christopher,  of  Wirtemberg,  of  the  year 
1559,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Elector,  Augustus  I.,  of  Saxony,  of  the 
year  1580,  would  certainly  seem  to  have  felt  the  influence  of  Sturm's 
system.  The  grammar  of  the  lower  classes,  the  logic  and  the  rhetoric 
of  the  upper,  Cicero  in  the  ascendant,  Terence  and  Plautus  acted  by 
the  scholars,  the  rudiments  of  astronomy  in  the  highest  class,  and 
arithmetic  here  much  neglected,  while,  in  the  lower  classes,  it  receives 
no  attention  at  all,  music,  decurions  for  monitors, — all  these  arrange- 
ments would  appear  to  have  been  borrowed  from  Sturm,  and  so  much 
the  more  as  they  are  not  to  be  found,  at  least,  in  the  Saxon  code  of 
1538.  Even  the  school  regulations  of  the  Jesuits  are,  as  we  shall 
find,  in  many  points  of  view,  quite  similar  to  Sturm's,  and  he  himself 
was  surprised  at  their  correspondence.  And,  hand  in  hand  with 
Sturm's  method,  his  school-books  also  penetrated  throughout  the 
whole  of  Germany. 

In  his  letters  to  the  teachers  of  the  Strasburg  gymnasium,  Sturm 
appears  the  experienced  teacher  and  the  accomplished  rector-  clearly 


STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION.  213 

and  in  few  words,  marking  out  for  all  the  teachers  under  him  their 
own  particular  and  appropriate  duties ;  and,  in  his  advice,  how  best 
to  undertake  and  to  discharge  those  duties,  he  approves  himself  the 
sage  and  practiced  counselor.  For,  with  the  kindest  expressions,  he 
cheers  and  strengthens  them  in  their  path  of  labor,  and  repeatedly 
calls  their  attention  to  the  fact  that  they  all  have  one  common  cause, 
since  the  teachers  of  the  upper  classes  can  do  nothing  unless  those  of 
the  lower  classes  use  care  in  laying  the  foundation ;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  the  latter  will  have  been  faithful  to  no  purpose  if  the 
former  are  not  as  conscientious  in  building  upon  the  foundation  when 
laid.  And  he  most  earnestly  insists  that  they  must  all  instruct  after 
one  and  the  same  method,  and  must  keep  the  same  end  in  view,  if 
they  would  see  the  work  prosper  in  their  hands.  Thus  he  shows 
himself  to  be  a  pattern  rector,  and  the  center  and  heart  of  the  school. 
Yet,  he  is  never  overbearing,  but  is  a  dictator  who  scarce  ever  appears 
to  command  or  to  censure,  content  with  requesting  and  encouraging. 
Moreover,  by  constant  application,  he  is  keeping  pace  with  those  about 
him  ;  learning  Hebrew,  for  instance,  when  in  his  fifty -ninth  year. 

Now,  that  I  have  given  full  credit  to  the  praiseworthy  efforts  and 
achievements  of  Sturm,  I  must  also  pay  homage  to  truth,  and  exhibit 
the  reverse  and  unfavorable  side  of  his  educational  activity.  I  have 
praised  him,  in  that  he  clearly  conceived  his  plan,  and  then,  fixing  his 
steady  gaze  upon  the  object  before  him,  worked  vigorously  and  skil- 
fully to  accomplish  it. 

But,  shall  I  bestow  unqualified  praise  upon  Sturm's  ideal  ?  On  a 
nearer  view,  I  can  not  do  it.  The  Christian  element  of  his  educational 
system  alone  deserves  entire  recognition.  But,  the  other  two  ele- 
ments, namely,  knowledge  and  eloquence,  or  rather  Sturm's  concep- 
tion of  the  kind  of  knowledge  and  of  eloquence  to  be  inculcated  at 
school ;  this  conception,  judged  not  alone  by  our  present  standard, 
but  considered  in  itself  and  under  any  circumstances,  is,  in  many 
points,  deserving  of  censure.  Shall  I  be  asked  "  How  can  this  be  ? 
To  furnish  the  pupil  with  a  rich  store  of  scientific  knowledge,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  to  cultivate  in  him  that  readiness  of  expression  which 
will  enable  him  to  utter,  either  orally  or  by  writing,  whatever  thoughts 
or  fancies  he  may  thus  have  accumulated ;  do  not  these  two  objects, 
even  at  the  present  day,  constitute  together  the  highest  aim  of  edu- 
cation ?  "  They  do,  indeed ;  but,  let  us  consider  more  closely  what 
kind  of  knowledge  and  what  species  of  eloquence  Sturm  had  in  view, 
and  then  we  shall  be  in  a  better  position  to  see  whether  we  agree  with 
him  throughout  or  not.  And,  first,  as  to  the  knowledge.  The 
thoroughness  with  which  both  Greek  and  Latin  grammar  were  taught 


214  STURM'S  SVSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

in  Sturm's  school,  our  teachers  now  a-days  will  approve,  although  it 
may  be  that  occasionally  their  standard  of  thoroughness  does  not 
precisely  coincide  with  that  of  the  old  rector,  which  demanded,  for 
instance,  that  the  second  aorist  should  be  formed  from  the  imperfect, 
or  that  a  future  form,  "  <psu£w  "  should  be  recognized,  and  the  like. 
But,  could  they  approve  of  the  classics  selected,  and  the  order  in 
which  they  were  read  at  the  Strasburg  gymnasium  ?  Hardly ;  else  it 
would  not  be  that,  in  our  gymnasiums  now,  far  different  classical 
authors  are  read ;  or,  where  the  same  are  taken  up,  that  it  is  in  an- 
other order  and  another  spirit.  We  can  overlook  the  fact  that 
Cornelius  Nepos,  who  is  studied  .in  most  schools  at  the  present  day, 
was  rejected ;  but,  so  was  Livy,  and  so  was  Tacitus.  And,  of  the 
most  important  of  the  classics,  only  a  small  portion  was  read ;  I  need 
only  mention  Homer.  Such  fragments  surely  can  never  lead  to  a 
spiritual  appreciation  of  the  genius  and  the  character  of  authors. 
But,  how  all  this  has  become  changed  in  the  progress  of  time,  we 
shall  discuss  elsewhere. 

On  a  first  glance,  we  might  be  led  to  believe  that  Sturm  was 
devoted  not  merely  to  the  knowledge  of  words,  but  to  that  of  things 
also ;  but,  if  we  examine  the  matter  more  closely,  we  shall  alter  our 
opinion.  In  fact,  the  scholars  of  the  lower  classes  acquired  Latin 
words  for  every  possible  object  that  was  about  them  in  life,  whether, 
in  the  kitchen  or  cellar,  the  garden  or  stable,  the  school-room  or 
church.  And  they  were  thus  taught  almost  according  to  the  manner 
of  Comenius  in  the  "  Orbis  pictus,"  only  that  they  learned  the  world 
in  the  original  instead  of  in  pictures.  But,  with  what  view  were 
boys  taught  these  Latin  names  ?  Was  it  that  they  might  obtain  a 
knowledge  of  things  likewise  ?  Certainly  not.  They  were  only 
placed  thereby  in  a  condition  to  express  themselves  in  Latin  upon 
common  and  familiar  topics,  just  as  a  German  who  designs  to  travel 
in  Italy  will  furnish  himself  beforehand  with  a  stock  of  every-day 
words  and  phrases. 

But,  some  one  will  say,  "  Sturm  also  demands  that  boys  should 
project  a  sort  of  encyclopaedia,  in  which  they  should  enter  the  names 
of  various  objects  under  certain  pre-arranged  heads ;  as,  for  example, 
under  the  head  of  'birds'  the  ostrich  and  the  wry-neck;  or,  under 
the  head  of  *  mammalia,'  the  lion  and  the  elephant.  And,  is  not  this 
to  be  regarded  as  a  knowledge  of  things  ?  "  I  think  not.  I  think 
that  it  is  at  best  only  a  method  of  fixing  names  in  the  mind,  which, 
however,  are  the  shadows  of  things  to  come ;  for,  it  is  very  unlikely 
that  those  boys  who  placed  the  ostrich  and  the  wry-neck  under  the 
head  of  "  birds  "  had  ever  seen  either  the  one  or  the  other.  Comenius, 


STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION.  215 

by  means  of  his  pictorial  representations,  here  affords  a  far  better 
knowledge  of  the  actual  world. 

If  we  now  compare  the  course  of  study  in  a  modern  gymnasium 
with  that  in  Sturm's  school,  we  shall  perceive  at  once  that  there  are 
many  subjects  of  instruction  not  provided  for  in  the  latter.  But, 
many  will  say,  "  This  is  the  advantage  of  the  Sturmian  method,  that 
it  restricts  itself  to  a  very  few  branches,  while  we,  on  the  other  hand, 
teach  almost  every  thing.  The  greater  surface  the  less  the  depth," 
etc. 

All  such  persons  I  now  ask  to  suspend  their  judgment  until  they 
have  accompanied  me  in  a  critical  survey  of  Sturm's  system  of  teach- 
ing. Boys  were  received  into  the  gymnasium  in  their  sixth  year,  and 
yet  I  find  not  one  word  of  any  special  instruction  in  reading  and 
writing  German  correctly.  I  would  not  ask  for  that  instruction  in  the 
German  grammar,  which  is  now  so  popular,  but  only  for  an  elementary 
drilling  in  German,  which  is  indispensable.  When  and  where  they 
receive  this,  it  certainly  does  not  appear;  nor  have  we  any  more  light 
on  the  question  whether  the  older  boys  wrote  German  compositions, 
except  what  we  derive  from  the  fact  that  they  made  translations  of  the 
Latin  classics  into  German. 

And,  as  it  was  with  elementary  instruction  in  German,  so,  likewise, 
in  his  original  plan,  Sturm  has  not  a  syllable  of  any  instruction  in 
arithmetic  for  the  first  eight  classes.  And,  when  he  comes  to  treat 
of  the  upper  classes,  he  dismisses  the  subject  thus  briefly:  "Arithme- 
tic must  be  introduced,  Mela  examined,  Proclus  laid  before  the 
scholar,  and  the  elements  of  astrology  taught."  And  yet,  in  the  letters 
to  the  teachers  of  the  ten  classes,  I  find  not  a  word  said  of  arithme- 
tic ;  nor,  from  the  two  letters  to  Conrad  Dasypodius,  is  any  thing 
decisive  to  be  gathered  on  this  point.  The  second  of  these  last 
mentioned  letters,  written  in  the  year  1569,  thirty-one  years  after  the 
establishment  of  the  gymnasium,  speaks  of  instruction  in  mathematics, 
yet  in  a  way  from  which  we  infer  that  it  had  not  been  long  introduced. 
Later,  in  the  course  of  instruction  dating  in  15*78,  as  well  as  by  the 
examination  held  during  the  same  year,  we  see  that  arithmetic  was 
taught  in  the  second  class,  and  a  few  problems  from  the  first  book  of 
Euclid,  together  with  the  elements  of  astronomy,  in  the  highest. 
Also,  in  the  school-plan  projected  by  Sturm  for  the  gymnasium  at 
Lauingen,  mathematics  is  not  placed  among  the  school  studies,  but 
rather  classed  among  those  branches  which  are  to  be  learned  after- 
ward, through  attendance  on  college  lectures. 

All  things  now  considered,  there  appears  to  have  been  at  least  a 
gross  neglect  of  mathematical  instruction.  If  the  scholar  has 


216  STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

learned  in  the  second  class  but  the  rudiments  of  arithmetic,  and  in  the 
highest  only  a  few  problems  in  Euclid,  how  can  he  comprehend  even 
the  few  first  elements  of  astronomy,  taught  also  in  the  same  highest 
class?  To  judge  by  the  astronomical  examination  communicated 
herewith,  the  knowledge  that  was  imparted  of  the  science  would  seem 
to  have  been  almost  entirely  limited  to  the  exhibition  and  the 
explanation  of  an  armillary  sphere ;  as  the  teacher,  in  the  year  15*78, 
made  no  allusion  to  the  Copernican  system  which  had  appeared  in 
1543,  but  taught  the  doctrine  of  the  annual  revolution  of  the  sun 
around  the  earth.  On  the  other  hand,  as  we  have  seen,  Sturm  assigns 
to  astrology  a  place  among  the  subjects  of  study. 

Never  will  our  present  teachers  of  elementary  schools,  to  say 
nothing  of  gymnasiums,  look  with  favor  upon  such  a  neglect  of  mathe- 
matics, even  though  they  may  advocate  the  very  simplest  methods  of 
instruction.  And,  so  much  the  less,  as  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that 
very  many  scholars  did  not  take  the  full  course,  but  only  passed 
through  the  lowest  classes  in  this  Strasburg  gymnasium,  and,  conse- 
quently, could  learn  nothing  at  all  of  arithmetic.  For,  as  we  have 
before  shown,  this  branch  during  the  first  years  after  the  establish- 
ment of  the  gymnasium  probably  received  no  attention  at  all,  and, 
when  introduced  later,  was  assigned  to  the  second  and  highest  classes 
only. 

Likewise,  in  regard  to  geography,  we  have  no  reason  to  conclude 
that  it  was  studied.  For  the  above  cited  expression  of  Sturm,  '*  Mela 
is  to  be  examined,"  was  scarcely  called  for,  if  Mela  was  really  read  in 
the  gymnasium.  But,  even  Mela,  meagre  as  he  is,  received  no  atten- 
tion there,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  schedule  and  the  examination 
of  1578.  Nor  among  the  college  lectures  either,  was  any  place 
assigned  to  geography. 

And  history,  too,  was  quite  as  much  neglected ;  even  in  the  col- 
lege, Beuter,  whose  name  appears  on  the  catalogue  as  historical 
lecturer,  confines  himself  to  the  interpretation  of  Tacitus. 

Of  natural  history  and  natural  philosophy  there  was  not  a  single 
line  taught  in  the  gymnasium. 

Since,  then,  all  instruction  in  the  German  language,  mathematics, 
geography,  history,  natural  history,  and  natural  philosophy,  was 
entirely  omitted,  to  which  we  may  add  instruction  in  Hebrew,  in  the 
modern  languages,  French  especially,  and  perhaps  also  in  drawing, 
we  must  conclude  that  nearly  all  the  time  and  energies  of  the  scholar 
were  concentrated  upon  the  acquisition  of  Greek  and  Latin. 

Was  now  the  knowledge  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  which  Sturm's 
scholars  possessed,  any  the  greater,  on  this  account,  than  that  mastered 


STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION.  217 

by  the  scholars  of  our  gymnasium  ?  or,  we  should  rather  inquire,  was 
their  readiness,  both  in  speaking  and  in  writing  Latin,  greater,  and 
did  they  apply  the  whole -force  that  was  in  them  principally  to  acquire 
these  two  facilities  ? 

The  reply  to  the  first  question  should  be  favorable  to  the  scholars  of 
the  present  day :  the  reply  to  the  second,  perhaps,  to  Sturm's  scholars. 

And  truly  it  would  have  been  a  wonder  if  Sturm's  scholars  had 
not  learned  to  speak  and  write  Latin,  since  he  himself  looked  upon 
the  art  of  writing  and  reading  in  classical  Ciceronian  Latin  as  the 
noblest  aim  of  culture ;  and  he  deemed  no  sacrifice  too  dear  so  that 
he  might  reach  it.  The  first  sacrifice,  (which  we  have  already  alluded 
to,)  was  an  entire  neglect  of  our  mother  tongue,  and  even  an  absolute 
alienation  from  it.  We  have  seen  from  Sturm's  letter  to  Schirner, 
the  teacher  of  the  ninth  class,  that  he  considered  the  Roman  children 
highly  privileged,  in  that,  from  their  infancy  up,  they  spoke  Latin 
themselves  and  heard  nothing  but  Latin  spoken  by  others ;  whereas, 
with  German  children,  the  case  was  far  different.  This  evil,  he  said, 
must  be  removed  by  the  diligence  of  the  teacher,  and  through  the 
application  of  his  (Sturm's)  system.  There  was  only  need  of  a  cor- 
rect method,  (and  that  because  Latin  was  not  our  mother  tongue,)  to 
insure  the  production,  at  the  present  day,  of  speeches  which  should 
compare  favorably  with  those  of  Cicero.  Every  effort  must  be  put 
forth  in  order  to  restore  again  the  long  lost  skill  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  in  teaching,  haranguing,  disputing,  and  writing.  The  first 
point,  therefore,  upon  which  Sturm,  as  well  as  most  of  his  contempo- 
raries, both  literary  men  and  teachers,  insisted,  was  the  completest 
removal  possible  of  the  German  mother  tongue,  that  so  the  Latin 
might  wholly  occupy  its  place.  To  teachers  and  to  scholars  alike,  all 
conversation  in  German  was  forbidden ;  and  games  were  only  allowed 
on  the  condition  that  Latin  alone  should  be  spoken  therein.  Had  the 
old  Romans  still  ruled  over  Alsace  in  Sturm's  time,  they  could  have 
adopted  no  more  effectual  measures  to  denationalize  its  inhabitants,  to 
make  them  forget  their  country,  and  to  change  them  wholly  into 
Romans. 

Sturm  indirectly  boasts  of  this  exclusion  of  the  German  language 
from  his  gymnasium.  "  He  has  introduced  a  mine  of  choice  Latin 
words  and  of  familiar  Latin  phrases,  and  has  called  up  Plautus, 
Terence,  and  Cicero  from  the  shades,  to  speak  Latin  with  the 
boys." 

Plautus  and  Terence  he  here  mentions  in  preference,  on  account 
of  the  representations  of  their  plays  by  the  scholars ;  which  repre- 
sentations, as  we  have  seen,  he  strongly  recommended  to  the  teachers 


218  STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

of  the  three  upper  classes.  In  this  connection,  his  letter  to  Golius,  the 
teacher  of  the  highest  class,  deserves  our  special  attention.  "  I  could 
wish,"  said  he,  "  that  the  actors  of  comedy  as  well  as  those  of  tragedy 
in  your  class  should  all  be  equal  to  Roscius ;  and,  therefore,  far  more 
accomplished  than  those  in  the  lower  classes  can  be.  I  desire  you 
never  to  suffer  the  week  to  go  by  without  a  performance,  so  that  an 
assiduous  and  habitual  attendance  at  the  theatre  may  be  encouraged." 

If  we  are  to  regard  this  disuse  of  our  mother  tongue  as  one  sacri- 
fice to  the  ideal, — nay,  let  me  call  it  the  idol  rather, — of  Latin  elo- 
quence, then  surely  these  theatrical  exercises  should  be  considered  as 
a  second  sacrifice  to  this  ideal.  It  appears  incredible  to  us  that  the 
committing  to  memory  and  acting  such  licentious  plays  as  are  those 
of  Terence  could  have  exerted  no  evil  influence  upon  the  morals  of 
the  young.  And  we  are  equally  at  a  loss  to  understand,  how  it  was 
that  so  pious  a  man  as  Sturm  did  not  object  to  the  pernicious  senti- 
ments inculcated  by  Terence.  Could  the  enthusiastic  rector  have 
been  blinded  by  the  hope,  that  his  scholars  would  be  moulded,  as  it 
were,  into  expert  Latinists  by  these  theatrical  performances,  and  by 
acting  comedy  ?  If  the  bare  reading  of  an  author,  like  Terence,  is 
dangerous  to  the  scholar,  how  much  more  dangerous  is  it,  when,  from 
the  necessities  of  acting,  he  is  obliged  to  assume  the  characters  and 
imagine  himself  in  the  situations  of  the  drama. 

Sturm's  endeavor  to  make  boys  adepts  in  Latin  eloquence  had, 
moreover,  a  very  great,  and  in  my  judgment,  a  very  injurious  influence 
upon  his  manner  of  reading  and  of  treating  the  classics.  It  is  true 
that  he  aimed,  first  of  all,  as  every  intelligent  school-teacher  should 
do,  at  a  correct  understanding  of  the  language  of  authors;  for  he 
insists  that  the  teacher  should  dwell  upon  the  grammatical  construction 
of  the  text  long  enough  to  arrive  at  such  understanding. 

But  why  is  it, — if  I  may  ask  so  simple  a  question, — that  we  trouble 
ourselves  to  understand  the  language  of  a  classical  author  as  thoroughly 
as  we  do  our  own,  so  that  we  can  read  him  with  as  great  ease  as  if 
he  had  written  in  our  own  tongue  ?  Doubtless  it  is,  that,  having 
arrived  at  an  appropriate  understanding  of  the  language,  we  may 
penetrate  through  the  language  to  the  sentiment,  and  so  at  last  may 
educe  the  intellectual  individuality  of  the  author  from  his  works,  and 
at  the  same  time  recognize  in  the  author  the  characteristics  of  the 
nation,  to  which  he  belonged.  But  such  an  aim  of  classical  studies 
is  nowhere  visible  in  Sturm's  method ;  to  him,  to  use  a  Kantian  ex- 
pression, the  author  himself  is  not  an  end,  only  a  means  to  an  end  ; 
that  is,  every  author  must  be  used  for  the  cultivation  of  this  deified 
Roman  eloquence  in  boys.  And  how  ?  Precisely  as  the  peacock  was 


STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION.  219 

used  by  the  jackdaw.  They  borrow  the  author's  words  and  phrases, 
group  them  together,  and  learn  them  by  heart,  perhaps,  in  order  to 
apply  them  again  in  speech  or  in  writing.  Borrow,  is  too  feeble  an 
expression  ;  the  jackdaw  designed  not  merely  to  borrow  the  peacock's 
feathers,  but  to  represent  them  as  his  own.  The  doctrine  of  imitation 
as  we  find  it  set  forth  by  Sturm  and  others,  is,  after  all,  a  mere  jack- 
daw theory.  The  scholar  is  taught  how,  by  a  slight  alteration,  to 
disguise  phrases  from  Cicero  and  others,  and  then  to  use  them  in 
writing  or  in  speech,  exactly  as  if  they  were  his  own  production ;  so 
adroitly  smuggling  them  in,  as  it  were,  that  the  reader  or  hearer  may 
not  suspect  whence  they  were  taken.  "Is  the  teacher,"  says  Sturm, 
"  to  give  out  themes  for  composition, — he  will  draw  attention  to  those 
points  where  imitation  is  desirable,  and  will  show  how  similarity  can 
be  concealed  by  a  superadded  variation."  "We  must,  in  the  first 
place,  take  care,  that  the  similarity  shall  not  be  manifest ;  but  its 
concealment  may  be  accomplished  in  three  ways ;  by  adding,  by 
taking  away,  or  by  alteration." 

"The  objection,  perhaps,  will  be  made,"  says  Sturm  in  another 
place,  "  that,  if  we  appropriate  entire  passages  from  Cicero,  we  shall 
be  guilty  of  plagiarism."  This  would  be  so,  if  we  should  make  ex- 
tracts from  Cicero  and  call  them  our  own ;  but  our  memory  is  our 
own,  so  is  the  use  to  which  we  put  our  memory,  so  is  our  style,  so  is 
the  caution  and  the  moderation  which  we  exercise  in  making  use  of 
the  classics,  and  so  likewise  is  our  method  of  imitation,  as  well  as  of 
borrowing,  provided  that  we  do  borrow.  And  truly,  in  such  case,  we 
shall  borrow  of  one,  who  no  longer  is  here  to  begrudge  it ;  of  one, 
who  wrote  for  others,  yea,  for  all  time.  Thus  Sturm  justifies  this  ex- 
tremely censurable  practice, — a  practice  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
Erasmus  had  already  condemned.  Thus  his  effort  to  restore  Roman 
eloquence,  had  a  great  influence  upon  the  choice  of  authors  to  be  read 
in  his  gymnasium ;  for  hardly  any  were  introduced  but  such  as  were 
the  most  faultless  models  of  this  eloquence.  Cicero  was  placed  at  the 
head.  Even  the  boy  of  eight  read  the  "  select  epistles  "  of  Cicero, 
and  there  was  no  class  from  the  eighth  up  to  the  highest,  in  which  he 
was  not  read.  Terence,  Sturm  commends  most  highly,  next  to 
Cicero.  Every  Roman  author  who,  measured  by  the  Ciceronian 
standard,  did  not  vindicate  his  claim  to  be  considered  a  pure  classic, 
Sturm  appears  to  have  rejected.  Livy,  as  we  have  before  mentioned, 
was  not  one  of  the  Strasburg  school  text-books,  probably  on  account  of 
his  provincialism,  (Patavinity ;)  we  are  less  surprised  at  the  absence  of 
Tacitus,  and  in  short,  of  every  author,  who  hindered  or  at  least  did  not 
further  the  main  object  of  learning  to  write  and  to  speak  like  Cicero. 


220  STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

In  the  eighth  class,  in  the  eight  year  of  the  pupil,  a  beginning  was 
made  in  exercises  in  Latin  style.  Sturm  commends  them  to  the 
teachers  in  the  most  urgent  manner ;  but  they  appear,  when  closely 
examined,  to  have  been  almost  wholly  composed  of  attempts  at  that 
spiritless  imitation,  above  alluded  to ;  the  preparation  for  them  con- 
sisted in  singling  out  and  committing  to  memory,  phrases,  which  they 
had  noted  in  their  lessons,  as  suitable  to  be  used  in  Latin  discourse  or 
in  these  exercises.  Do  I  now  need  to  declare  emphatically,  that  those 
youth,  who,  in  reading  the  classics,  have  been  engaged  merely  in  a 
hunt  after  phrases  for  future  use,  or  rather  misuse,  never  arrive  at  a 
true  understanding  of  these  classics,  and,  what  is  more,  that  this  meth- 
od renders  such  an  understanding  wholly  impossible  ?  Do  I  need  to 
observe,  that  youth  thus  trained  will  not  learn  either  to  admire  or  to 
understand  even,  very  many  writers,  who,  like  Tacitus,  are  essentially 
different  from  Cicero  ?  And  as  little  will  they  attain  to  an  under- 
standing of  the  poets,  if  it  is  made  their  chief  aim  in  reading  to  com- 
pose Latin  verses  themselves,  and  if  for  this  purpose  they  are  instructed 
to  gather  poetical  flowerets  from  the  .^Eneid,  as  they  have  before 
culled  prose  gems  from  Cicero ;  or  if,  again,  with  a  view  to  their 
exercises  in  prose,  they  are  constantly  directed  to  those  peculiarities 
which  the  oratorical  style,  mutatis  mutandis,  may  borrow  from  the 
poets. 

I  have  put  the  question  "  shall  I  bestow  unqualified  praise  on 
Sturm's  ideal  ?"  and  have  answered  it  in  the  negative.  I  have  now 
given  the  reasons  for  my  opinion.  I  have  shown  how,  in  the  undi- 
vided pursuit  of  Roman  eloquence  in  speaking  and  in  writing,  the 
German  language  was  not  only  neglected,  but  crushed  under  foot ; 
how,  in  order  to  gain  ease  and  readiness  in  Latin  expression,  the  most 
licentious  of  the  plays  of  Terence  were  acted  by  the  scholars ;  and 
how,  further,  since  the  requisitions  of  this  eloquence  absorbed  all  the 
energies  and  all  the  time  of  the  young,  there  was  no  opportunity  left 
for  any  thorough  mathematical  training;  neither  was  any  instruction 
given  in  geography,  history,  Hebrew,  or  the  modern  languages,  and  I 
might  add,  in  natural  philosophy  and  drawing,  but  for  the  little  atten- 
tion that  was  generally  paid  to  these  two  branches,  at  that  period. 
And  finally  I  have  indicated  how  it  was,  that  this  unlucky  reaching  out 
after  Roman  eloquence  was  a  decided  hindrance  to  a  correct  exegesis, 
and  a  full  appreciation,  of  the  classics.  And  now  the  question  natur- 
ally arises  in  our  minds,  "  if  Sturm  and  so  many  of  his  contempora- 
ries in  this  chase  after  Roman  eloquence,  made  great  sacrifices,  and 
neglected  almost  every  thing  else. — did  they  see  their  desires  realized 
in  the  end?" 


STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION.  221 

But  I  have  already  answered  this  question  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
intelligent  reader,  where  I  spoke  of  this  wretched  method  of  reading 
the  classics,  only  to  cull  out  phrases  and  piece  them  together  anew,  to 
be  used  in  exercises  in  style,  in  order,  haply,  to  equal  the  ancients. 
For  all  their  imitation  of  classical  authors  resolved  itself  at  last  into  a 
mere  paltry  connoisseurship  ;  since  they  attained,  at  the  furthest,  only 
to 'a  philological  pharisaism,  which,  after  a  repulsive,  pseudo-classic 
fashion,  composed  works  that  disclosed  not  a  particle  of  the  classi- 
cal spirit.  When  we  peruse  their  "  Examples  of  Roman  eloquence," 
we  imagine  ourselves  walking  amongst  the  ghastly  spectres  of  the 
ancients,  and  Cicero  stalks  to  and  fro  before  our  eyes,  an  indistinct 
phantom. 

Sturm  however,  as  was  natural,  regarded  the  fruits  of  his  labors  in 
a  far  different  light.  He  believed  that  he  really  had  called  the  an- 
cients to  life  again,  and  he  fancied,  that  if  we  but  laid  the  foundations 
aright,  there  was  no  reason  why  we  should  not  produce  Latin  works 
as  full  of  the  fire  of  genius  as  were  the  originals.  In  one  place 
he  says :  "  the  Romans  had  two  advantages  over  us  ;  the  one  con- 
sisted in  learning  Latin  without  going  to  school,  and  the  other,  in  fre- 
quently seeing  Latin  comedies  and  tragedies  acted,  and  hearing  Latin 
orators  speak.  Could  we,"  he  continues,  "  recall  these  advantages  in 
our  schools,  why  could  we  not  then,  by  persevering  diligence, 
gain  that,  which  they  possessed  only  by  accident  and  habit ;  namely, 
the  power  of  speaking  Latin  to  perfection."  In  another  passage  he 
uses  a  still  stronger  expression,  where  he  says,  "  I  hope  to  see  the 
men  of  the  present  age,  in  their  writing,  commenting,  haranguing  and 
speaking,  not  merely  followers  of  the  old  masters,  but  equal  to  those 
who  flourished  in  the  noblest  age  of  Athens  or  of  Rome."  What 
pedantic  narrow-mindedness,  to  indulge  the  delusive  notion,  that  an 
ever  so  judiciously-managed  Strasburg  school  could  effect  the  produc- 
tion of  works  of  genius,  equal  to  those  that  bloomed  amid  the 
splendor  of  the  age  of  Pericles  or  the  grandeur  of  Imperial  Rome  ! 

This  notion  of  Sturm's,  as  erroneous  as  it  was  presumptuous,  if  we 
might  not  rather  call  it  extravagant,  stands  in  quite  a  surprising  con- 
trast with  the  following  feeble  and  spiritless  sentiment,  which  we  find 
in  another  place.  "  It  is  astonishing,"  he  here  says,  "  that  while  there 
are  in  our  day  many  as  good' intellects  as  the  ancients  could  boast  of, 
while  we  possess  the  same  philosophical  sources  to  draw  from  as  did 
they,  while  our  advantages  for  the  attainment  of  eloquence  and  our 
opportunities  for  displaying  it  are  no  fewer  than  with  them,  and  while, 
moreover,  all  our  gifted  men  have  striven  to  distinguish  themselves  by 
eloquence,  yet  almost  all  have  shrunk  back  in  terror  from  the  course 


222  STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

of  training  that  it  demands,  and  so  few  have  accomplished  any  thing 
by  means  of  it." 

"  We  can  not,"  continues  Sturm,  "  lay  the  entire  blame  of  this 
result  upon  the  scholars.  Year  after  year  there  have  been  many  at 
the  Strasburg  Gymnasium,  who  have  united  to  superior  talents  a 
strong  desire  to  excel  and  great  diligence.  It  has  been  so  likewise  at 
Louvain  and  at  Paris.  Now  how  is  it,  that  among  so  many  thousand, 
there  have  been  so  very  few,  who  have  applied  the  requisite  diligence 
to  Latin  writing  and  declamation  ? "  On  a  careful  consideration,  he 
concludes  that  the  fault  lies  with  the  teachers,  and  with  himself,  and 
is  partly  inherent  in  the  fact,  that  Latin  is  not  the  native  tongue  of 
the  scholar. 

If  we  examine  this  admission  of  Sturm  carefully,  we  shall  be  at  no 
loss  to  discover  where  the  truth  lies.  Men  of  the  very  highest  capaci- 
ties, he  says,  were  exceedingly  desirous  to  become  eloquent,  but  have 
been  appalled  before  the  style  of  eloquence  taught  in  his  school.  Had 
Latin  only  been  their  native  tongue,  then  they  would  have  succeeded. 
But  German  was  their  native  tongue,  and  in  this,  according  to  Sturm's 
own  theory,  they  would  have  succeeded  to  perfection.  And  he  asserts 
this  in  so  many  words,  but  a  few  lines  further  back.  "  Eloquence," 
he  here  remarks,  "  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  Latin  tongue.  Can 
not  Italians,  Spaniards,  French  and  Germans  be  eloquent  in  their  own 
language  ?  The  prose  of  Boccaccio  is  a  model  of  purity  and  elegance 
to  the  Italians,  and  so  is  the  sweet- sounding  poetry  of  Petrarch. 
Comines  charms  the  French  as  truly  as  ever  Thucydides  did  the 
Greeks.  And  as  for  Luther,"  he  continues,  "  has  he  not  stood  forth, 
a  perfect  master  of  our  language,  whether  we  look  to  purity  of  idiom 
or  to  opulence  of  expression  ?  Princes,  counselors,  magistrates,  em- 
bassadors,  and  jurists,  all  concede  to  him,  the  theologian,  this  praise. 
Luther  truly  vindicated  a  righteous  cause,  which  in  itself  deserved  the 
victory ;  but  it  was  with  the  sinews  of  an  orator  that  he  wielded  the 
weapons  of  controversy.  Had  there  been  no  Reformation,  had  no 
sermons  of  Luther  ever  appeared,  and  had  he  written  nothing  at  all 
save  his  translation  of  the  Bible,  this  alone  would  have  insured  him 
an  immortality  of  fame.  For,  if  we  compare  with  this  German  trans- 
lation either  the  Greek,  the  Latin,  or  any  other,  we  shall  find  them 
all  far  behind  it,  both  in  perspicuity,  purity,  choice  of  expression,  and 
resemblance  to  the  Hebrew  original.  I  believe  that,  as  no  painter  has 
ever  been  able  to  surpass  Apelles,  so  no  scholar  will  ever  be  able  to 
produce  a  translation  of  the  Bible  that  shall  excel  Luther's." 

If  we  were  compelled  on  other  grounds  to  conclude  that  Sturm  had 
become  altogether  denationalized,  and  a  Roman  to  the  core,  this 


STURM'S  SYSTEM  OF  INSTRUCTION.  223 

passage  just  cited  proves  to  us  that  it  was  not  altogether  so.  But  why, 
in  view  of  his  deep  and  heart-felt  recognition  of  the  great  German 
master-piece  of  Luther,  and  why  especially  in  view  of  his  acknowledg- 
ment that  Italians,  French  and  Germans,  had  written  classical  works, 
each  in  their  own  language, — why,  I  repeat  the  question,  did  he  con- 
tinue, like  a  second  Sisyphus,  his  fruitless  endeavors  to  metamorphose 
German  into  Roman  youths,  and  to  impart  to  them,  in  defiance  of  the 
laws  of  human  nature,  another  native  tongue  ?  The  entire  age  in 
which  he  lived  was  in  fault,  not  he :  it  was  only  at  a -later  period,  that 
the  claims  of  our  own  country  and  our  own  language  came  to  be 
properly  regarded. 


MICHAEL  NEANDER.* 

[Translated  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education,  from  the  German  of  Karl  von  Raumer.l 


MICHAEL  NEANDER  was  the  son  of  a  tradesman,  of  the  town  of 
Sorau,  Hans  Neumann  by  name,  and  was  born  in  1525.  His  father 
had  destined  him  for  a  tradesman  also ;  and,  as  the  occupation  called 
for  long  journeys  on  horseback,  he  determined  to  lose  no  time  in 
making  his  son  a  good  horseman.  He,  therefore,  placed  him  upon  a 
gaunt  and  restive  horse,  without  a  saddle,  and  bade  him  ride  him  to 
water.  On  his  reaching  the  pond  the  horse  threw  him  into  it,  and 
he  was  only  saved  from  drowning  by  the  efforts  of  some  chance  by- 
standers, who  lifted  him  again  to  his  seat.  As  he  rode  in  at  the 
gate,  a  stone  was  thrown  at  him,  which  cut  his  head  and  covered  his 
face  with  blood.  Thus,  wet  and  bleeding,  he  returned  home.  But 
his  father,  instead  of  showing  pity  for  his  sufferings,  ordered  him  to 
mount,  upon  the  spot,  a  still  wilder  horse,  which  he  did.  But  he  was 
again  thrown  off  and  his  arm  broken.  And  when  his  mother  and  his 
relatives  gathered  around  him  in  tears,  his  father  upbraided  him 
harshly  with  these  words:  "To  a  cloister  with  you;  you  are  of  no 
use  to  any  body."  Thus  was  his  whole  course  of  life  shaped  by  this 
one  day  of  mishaps. 

The  rector,  Heinrich  Theodore,  of  Sorau,  was  his  first  teacher.  In 
his  seventeenth  year,  in  1542,  he  went  to  the  University  of  Witten- 
berg. "Although  at  that  time  I  was  quite  young,"  says  Neander, 
of  himself,  "  I  yet  listened  attentively  for  three  years  to  Luther's  lec- 
tures and  sermons,  and  many  of  his  excellent  thoughts.  I  wrote 
down  with  care,  nor  shall  I  ever  forget  them  so  long  as  my  life  lasts ; 

*  Sources.  1  "  Events  in  the  Life  of  Michael  Neander.  A  contribution  to  the  religious 
and  social  history  of  the  16th  century.  By  W.  Havemann.  professor  of  history  at  Gb'ttingen." 

2.  Neander's  works,  as  follows,  viz: — (a )  Two  Latin  Grammars.    (b)  l'De  re  poetica 
Graecorum,  libri  quatuor.    E  notationibus  M.  Neandri  praeceptoris  sui  collecti  Opera  J. 
VoUandi."    Editio  secunda.    1592.     (e.)  "Catechesis  M.  Lutheri  Graeco-Latina."     "Pal- 
rum  Theologurum  Graecorum  sententiae."    '"Apocrypha;  hoc  est.  nnrrationes  de   Chrinto, 
etc.,  extra  Biblia."    Basileae,   per  Joh.  Oporinum.     1563.     (d.)  "Compendium  Dialecticae 
ac    Rhetoricae."     1581.     (e.)  "OrWs    Terrae  partium    succincta   explicatio."    1586.      (f.) 
"Orbift  Terrae  divisio  compendaria,  in  usum  studiosae  juventutis  in  schola  Iffeldensi."    1586. 
Nova   editio.      (g-.)  "Compendium   Chronicorum,  conscripta    in    schola  flfeldensi."    1586. 
Havemann  cites  the  following  in  addition:— (A.)  "Mankind's  Mirror."    Nuremburg.  1620. 
(i  )  "Theologia    megalandri    Lutheri"    Eisleben,  1587.    (k.)  •'•Advice  to  a  good  nobleman 
and  friend;  or,  how  to  guide  and  instruct  a,  boy."    Eisleben,  1590.    Says  Havemann,  "this 
is  an  incomparable  little  book." 

3.  (a.)  "Funeral  Sermon  at  the  burial  of  the  venerable  M.  Neander.    Delivered  by  Val- 
entine. Mylius."    Leipzig,  1595.    (6.)  Vollborth's  "Panegyric  upon  M.  Neander."    1777. 

15 


226  MICHAEL  NEANDER. 

for  I  often  recall  them  with  delight,  in  sorrow  and  affliction  they  are 
my  consolation,  and  they  aid  me,  moreover,  in  my  labors  both  with 
old  and  young." 

In  the  year  1547,  when,  after  the  battle  of  Muhlberg,  Neander,  in 
common  with  all  the  professors  and  students  at  Wittenberg,  deserted 
the  place,  he  obtained,  through  the  recommendation  of  Melancthon, 
the  post  of  (colleague)  assistant  in  the  school  of  Nordhausen.  Short- 
ly after,  he  was  chosen  conrector  and  was  employed  also  as  tutor  to 
the  children  of  Herr  Schmied,  the  Mayor.  The  rector  of  the  school, 
whose  name  was  Basilius  Faber,  imposed  upon  the  youthful  Neander, 
then  fresh  from  the  conceited  air  of  Wittenberg,  and  regarding  "gram- 
mar and  syntax"  as  "insignificant  trifles,"  the  humiliating  task  of 
teaching  the  older  boys  the  "Advanced  Syntax"  (majorem  Syntaxin 
majoribus)  a  work  which  he  had  "  never  even  seen,  much  less  hearc1 
of  or  studied." 

In  the  year  1550,  Neander  was  called  to  the  rectorship  of  the 
cloister-school  at  Ilfeld,  in  the  Harz.  Here,  in  1544,  Thomas  Stanga 
had  been  chosen  abbot  of  the  monastery.  But  he  afterward  joined 
the  Protestants,  and  then,  under  the  patronage  of  the  noble  Count  of 
Stolberg,  founded  the  school,  to  which,  at  the  .recommendation  of 
Melancthon  and  Schmied,  he  now  called  Neander.  When,  in  the 
year  1559,  the  devout,  conscientious  abbot  lay  upon  his  death -bed,  ho 
commended  the  school  most  urgently  to  Count  Stolberg's  care,  and  to 
the  faithfulness  of  its  rector,  Neander. 

This  dying  injunction  Neander  kept  in  view  even  to  the  close  of 
his  own  life.  The  amount  of  labor  that  he  accomplished  would  appear 
well-nigh  incredible.  When  he  entered  upon  his  office,  he  found 
but  twelve  scholars  in  attendance ;  nine  years  later,  in  1559,  this 
number  had  increased  to  forty.  And  until  within  a  few  days  before 
his  death,  or  during  the  space  of  forty-five  years,  he  took  the  charge 
of  the  whole  school  entirely  upon  himself,  never  employing  a  col- 
league.* He  was,  moreover,  compelled  to  defend  the  very  existence 
of  the  school  itself  against  many  who  endeavored  to  wrest  the  cloistral 
domains  into  their  own  possession.  At  the  same  time  he  acomplished 
much  literary  labor — giving  to  the  press,  during  his  life- time,  thirty- 
nine  books,  and  leaving  behind  him,  in  manuscript,  fourteen  more. 

Many  of  his  contemporaries,  Melancthon  in  particular,  have  borne 
testimony  to  the  excellent  results  with  which  his  teachings  were  at- 
tended. Melancthon  deemed  the  school  at  Ilfeld,  "by  reason  of  the 
faithful  labors  of  Neander,"  to  be  the  best  seminary  in  the  country. 

*  "Tantum  praestitit  unus  vir,  qui  nuttum  in  administratione  scholae  usque  ad  ultimum 
fere  senii  limen  collegam  haberet." 

Thus  that  eminent  man,  Laurentius  Rhodomannus,  a  pupil  of  his,  and  later  a  professor  at 
Wittenberg,  writes  of  Neander. 


MICHAEL    NEANDER.  227 

Said  Rhodomannus:  "Neander  has  proved  himself  an  exceedingly 
skillful  and  successful  teacher.  He  has  carried  scholars  forward,  within 
the  space  of  three  or  four  years,  so  far  in  the  languages  and  the  arts, 
and  grounded  them  so  thoroughly  in  catechetics,  that,  when  he  had 
done  with  them,  they  were  fitted  to  enter  at  once  upon  important  posts, 
whether  in  the  school  or  in  the  church.  Especially  have  they  been  so 
thoroughly  drilled  in  the  three  languages,  that  they  have  not  inele- 
gantly imitated  the  Greek  classics."  And  the  learned  Caselius,  a 
scholar  of  Neander's,  in  Nordhausen,  said :  "  Neander's  boys,  on  en- 
tering the  university,  have  at  once  taken  precedence  of  most  others." 

Of  his  text-books,  so  far  as  I  am  acquainted  with  them,  I  have 
already,  in  part,  spoken  elsewhere.  In  his  grammars,  he  constantly 
dwelt  more  upon  the  elementary  than  the  abstruse,  and  placed  general 
principles  and  rules,  that  were  universally  binding,  before  unimportant 
particulars  and  anomalous  exceptions.  Hence  his  text-books  were 
brief;  but,  whatever  he  undertook,  he  intended  should  be  fully  and 
entirely  comprehended  by  the  learner. 

His  instructor,  Melancthon,  whom  he  highly  esteemed,  undoubtedly 
urged  him  to  give  his  attention  to  the  physical  sciences.  It  was  said 
of  Neander,  that  "  he  was  such  an  adept  in  medicine  and  chemistry, 
that  he  was  enabled,  by  means  of  serviceable  remedies,  to  extend  a 
helping  hand  to  his  scholars  when  sick."  *  His  "Hand-Book  of 
Natural  Philosophy '"  was  in  much  repute. 

His  "Compendium  Chronicorum"  gives,  in  the  compass  of  forty 
pages,  a  survey  of  the  history  of  the  world,  from  Adam  to  the  year 
1575.  The  subjects  of  the  various  chapters  are,  "Jews,"  "^Egyptians," 
"Persians,"  "Greeks,"  and  "Romans;"  then  "The  Period  of  the  Mi- 
gration of  Races,  ending  with  Charlemagne,"  "Mohammed  and  the 
Saracens,"  and  "  Argonautae,  or  the  Crusades,  Tartars,  and  Turks." 
And  it  ends  with  a  glance  at  the  prophecies  of  Daniel. 

In  geography,  he  wrote  a  somewhat  extended  text-book,  called 
"Orbis  terrae  partium  succincta  explicatio ;  "  and  a  second,  much 
shorter,  with  the  title,  " Orbis  terrae  divisio" 

The  first  mentioned  compend  is  a  singular  book ;  now  proceeding 
methodically,  and  again  branching  off  into  the  strangest  of  digressions. 
It  begins  by  giving  a  list  of  the  various  authorities  made  use  of.  Then 
there  follows  a  concise  and  clear  treatise  on  the  mathematics  of 
geography,  (in  which  the  sun  moves  around  the  earth,)  and  a  history 
of  the  science.  Next  are  described  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  and  the 
oceans ;  and  lastly  the  islands,  among  which  America  is  enumerated. 
Some  of  the  stories  interspersed  in  this  book  we  have  already  cited. 

*  A  favorite  scholar  of  his,  Thalius,  afterward  a  physician  at  Nordhausen,  "  gathered  72 
species  of  grasses  in  the  neighborhood  of  llfeld,  and  carefully  pressed  and  dried  them  between 
the  leaves  of  an  old  and  huffe  monkish  missal  " — fOrbis  p.xvlicatin.  article.  Nordhau»en.l 


228  MICHAEL    NEANDER. 

In  his  description  of  Goldberg,  Neander  not  only  communicates  much 
upon  Trotzendorf,  but  also  narrates  that  unsuccessful,  first,  and  last 
attempt  of  his  own  to  learn  to  ride.  Under  the  article  "  Sagan,"  he 
gives  a  long  story;  how,  after  a  fourteen  years  absence  from  his  native 
land,  he  returned  thither,  and  how  he  was  every  where  received  like 
a  prince.  Every  where  they  made  feasts  in  his  honor,  at  which,  too, 
vocal  and  instrumental  music  were  heard,  and  often  the  wine  flowed 
till  midnight.  The  like,  also,  befell  him  in  his  native  town,  where  he 
found  his  aged  and  honored  mother  still  living ;  though,  alas !  his 
father  had  died  but  a  short  time  before.  In  describing  Nordhausen, 
he  takes  occasion  to  speak  of  a  favorite  scholar  of  his,  who  died  there, 
the  physician  Thalius,  tells  of  his  botanical  studies,  and  of  his  death, 
caused  by  being  thrown  from  a  carnage.  Nor  does  he  stop  here,  but 
gives  a  letter  of  Thalius's,  and  cites  Latin  and  Greek  poems  composed 
upon  his  death.  And  still  further — he  adds  a  list,  many  pages  long 
of  the  good  scholars  shaped  in  Ilfeld,  but  remarks  that  nevertheless 
he  had  some  very  bad  ones,  and  gives  the  history  of  one  of  these,  who 
was  beheaded.  He  communicates  this,  that  teachers  may  learn,  from 
his  example,  not  to  be  dispirited  on  account  of  some  untoward  ex- 
periences, but  rather  to  keep  up  a  courageous  heart.  Thus  much  in 
characterization  of  the  larger  geography.  The  lesser,  but  thirty 
pages  long,  is  far  more  concise. 

Let  us  now  turn  back  to  his  life.  In  the  year  1562,  he  married 
Anna  Winkler,  of  Nordhausen,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons  and  two 
daughters.  The  daughter  Maria  married  Valentin  Mylius,  the  pastor 
at  Ilfeld,  who  in  after  years  pronounced  the  eulogy  upon  Neander. 

In  this  eulogy  we  find  an  exceedingly  edifying  sketch  of  the  last 
days  of  the  venerable  man.  His  sickness  began  a  few  days  previous  to 
Easter,  in  the  year  1595.  But,  before  he  took  to  his  bed,  he  celebrated 
the  Lord's  supper  at  church,  after  full  confession.  Upon  his  death- 
bed he  testified  his  hearty  adhesion  to  the  Lutheran  confession  of 
faith.  When  his  pastor  read  to  him  from  the  73d  Psalm,  he  repeat- 
ed, with  joyful  emphasis,  the  words,  "  The  strength  of  my  heart,  and 
my  portion  forever,"  and  said,  "  I  will  give  praise  to  God  forever ; 
for  he  is  the  strength  of  my  heart,  and  I  shall  not  be  afraid  ;  he  is  my 
portion  and  I  am  his,  and  all  the  powers  of  darkness  can  not  sunder 
us  forever."  His  last  words  were,  "  Ah,  how  long  shall  I  linger  here 
before  I  go  to  that  blessed  place  ?  There  shall  I  meet  and  welcome 
my  dear  grand-parents,  my  parents,  and  so  many  dear,  pious  chris- 
tians,  so  many  good  and  glorious  friends ;  God  grant  me  a  speedy 
entrance  into  that  happy  land  !  Amen."  Then,  after  waving  a  last 
farewell  to  all,  he  fell  asleep  in  the  Lord  without  a  groan  or  a  mur- 
mur. It  was  four  in  the  afternoon  of  the  26th  of  April,  1595. 


THE    JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS. 


I.   HISTORICAL     DEVELOPMENT. 

IT  is  impossible  to  estimate  rightly  the  schools  of  this  famous  Or- 
der without  some  knowledge  of  its  history.  All  its  institution  both 
ecclesiastical  and  educational,  are  pervaded  by  one  spirit,  and  have 
reference  to  a  single  and  clearly  defined  end,  the  **  conversion  of 
heretics,"  and  elevation  of  the  church  of  Rome.  We  must,  there- 
fore, begin  our  inquiries  with  a  brief  historical  survey  of  the  circum- 
stances, that  called  the  Order  or  Society  of  Jesus  into  being,  and 
determined  the  character  of  its  development. 

Its  founder  was  Don  Inigo  Lopez  de  Recalde,  usually  known  as 
IGNATIUS  VON  LOYOLA,  the  youngest  son  of  a  noble  Spanish  family, 
and  born  in  1491.  His  youth  was  spent  at  the  court  of  Ferdinand 
the  Catholic,  and  he  was  early  distinguished  for  the  chivalric  tone  of 
his  character,  and  his  reverence  for  holy  things,  as  well  as  for  his 
proficiency  in  martial  exercises,  and  for  his  courage.  Being  wounded 
at  the  seige  of  Pampelona  in  1521,  a  wound  which  made  him  lame 
for  life,  he  was  taken  to  his  father's  castle,  where  he  amused  the 
weary  hours  of  his  confinement  by  reading  tales  of  knightly  adven- 
tures. But  his  attention  was  soon  turned  to  the  Lives  of  the  Saints, 
and  the  records  of  their  holy  devotion,  and  heroic  self-sacrifice, 
awakened  in  him  a  passionate  desire  to  walk  in  their  steps.  With 
all  the  energy  of  his  fiery  nature,  he  consecrated  himself  to  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  to  go  forth  as  her  champion  and  subdue 
the  heathen  to  the  obedience  of  the  faith.  At  this  time,  and  for 
many  years  later,  he  seems  to  have  looked  upon  Jerusalem  as  the 
fitting  field  for  his  activity.  So  soon  as  he  recovered  from  his  wound, 
he  clothed  himself  in  a  beggar's  garb,  and  wandered  over  Spain,  till 
reaching  Barcelona,  he  embarked  for  Jerusalem.  Here  he  was  not 
permitted  long  to  remain  ;  and  we  soon  find  him  again  in  Spain,  en- 
deavoring to  supply  the  defects  of  his  education  by  the  study  of 
grammar  and  philosophy.  He  was  supported  by  alms,  and  devoted 
his  time  to  the  care  of  the  sick.  At  this  time  his  enthusiastic  char- 
acter, and  the  ecstacies  and  dreams  and  visions,  of  which  he  was 


230  THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS. 

the  subject,  and  his  zeal  in  teaching,  awakened  the  suspicions  of  the 
Inquisition  that  he  was  a  member  of  some  heretical  sect,  and  he  was 
imprisoned  for  forty  days,  and  ordered  to  give  up  all  discourse  upon 
spiritual  matters,  for  four  years.  This  he  would  not  do,  and  leaving 
Spain  in  1 52  8,  fled  to  Paris.  Here  in  the  college  of  St.  Barbara,  he  re- 
newed his  studies ;  and  here  he  gathered  around  him  those  disciples, 
whose  names  afterward  became  so  famous ;  Xavier.  Faber,  Lainez, 
Salmeron,  Bobadillaand  Rodriguez.  These  he  bound  together  into  a 
little  society,  and  in  August  1534,  at  the  church  of  Montmartre,  they 
took  upon  themselves  the  oaths  of  poverty  and  celibacy,  and 
solemnly  bound  themselves  to  go,  after  the  expiration  of  tbe:r  studies, 
to  Jerusalem,  or  if  they  could  not  do  this,  to  put  themselves  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Pope,  to  go  where  he  might  choose  to  send  them. 
The  next  year,  (1535,)  Ignatius  returned  to  Spain. 

In  January  1537  the  new  society  reassembled  at  Venice,  strength- 
ened by  three  new  members.  A  war  between  Venice  and  the  Turks 
making  it  impossible  for  them  to  go  to  Jerusalem,  they  employed 
themselves  in  the  hospitals  of  the  city,  showing  wonderful  self-denial 
and  patience,  and  in  vigorous  attempts  to  awaken  a  higher  religi- 
ous life  in  the  hearts  of  the  clergy.  Here  they  received  admission 
to  the  office  of  priests.  After  a  time,  leaving  Venice,  they  came  by 
different  routes  to  Rome.  Here  they  devoted  themselves  by  day 
to  the  same  labors  among  the  sick  and  poor  as  at  Venice,  and  at 
night  they  consulted  together  respecting  the  constitution  and  form 
of  the  new  order.  But  it  was  some  time  ere  the  Pope  was  willing  to 
give  them  the  needed  permission,  it  being  then  a  question  in  the 
papal  councils  whether  the  number  of  monkish  institutions  should 
not  rather  be  diminished  than  increased.  It  was  not  till  August, 
1540,  that  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  formally  authorized  and  estab- 
lished by  a  papal  bull.  The  number  of  members  was  at  first  limited 
to  sixty,  but  this  restriction  was,  three  years  later,  removed.  'The 
first  step  of  the  new  order  was  the  choice  of  a  General  or  Chief,  and 
all  votes  were  given  to  Ignatius.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  he  im- 
mediately after  devoted  himself,  for  several  weeks,  with  all  the  ardor 
of  his  nature,  to  the  personal  instruction  of  children  of  the  church. 
The  office  of  General,  Ignatius  held  to  his  death  in  1556. 

Before  examining  the  internal  organization  of  this  society,  let  us 
follow  a  little  way  its  external  history.  The  labors  of  the  Jesuits 
embraced  three  departments,  preaching,  confession,  and  education. 
Of  the  latter,  Ranke  remarks ;  "  To  this  they  thought  of  bind 
ing  themselves  from  the  first  by  a  special  clause  in  their  vows,  and 
although  that  was  not  done,  they  made  the  practice  of  this  duty  im- 


THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS.  231 

perative  by  the  most  cogent  rules.  Their  most  earnest  desire  was 
to  gain  the  rising  generation."  So  small  in  its  beginnings,  the  order 
very  rapidly  increased  in  numbers  and  influence.  At  the  time  of 
Loyola's  death  it  had  established  itself  in  thirteen  Provinces,  of  which 
seven  were  in  Spain  and  her  colonies,  and  three  in  Italy.  Their 
schools  and  colleges  were  very  soon  found  in  most  of  the  chief  cities 
of  Catholic  Christendom.  The  Collegium  Romanum  was  estab- 
lished at  Rome  in  1550,  and  the  Collegium  Germanicum  for  the 
education  of  German  youth,  in  1552.  Other  national  colleges  of  the 
same  general  character  soon  followed, — one  for  the  English,  one  for 
the  Greeks,  one  for  the  Hungarians,  <fec.  In  1551,  Ferdinand  estab- 
lished a  college  at  Vienna;  in  1554,  one  was  founded  at  Coimbra 
in  Portugal;  in  1556,  one  in  Bavaria;  in  1559,  one  in  Munich. 
Pope  Gregory  XIII,  (1572 — 1585,)  was  very  active  in  this  way, 
and  it  is  said  that  twenty-two  Jesuit  colleges  owed  their  origin  to 
him.  In  a  very  few  years  the  education  of  the  higher  classes,  and 
of  the  leading  minds  in  all  the  parts  of  Furope  that  yielded  allegi- 
ance to  the  Roman  pontiff,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

But  this  activity  was  not  confined  to  education.  Their  members 
were  busy  in  every  part  of  Protestant  Christendom  to  which  they 
could  get  access,  striving  to  bring  back  the  people  to  the  old  faith. 
And  their  missionaries  went  forth  into  all  parts  of  the  heathen  world, 
converting  idolaters,  and  establishing  churches.  In  every  depart- 
ment of  religious  enterprise,  they  were  conspicuous  among  their 
brethren,  and  in  most,  the  recognized  leaders. 

The  rapid  increase  of  the  Order  in  numbers,  and  in  educational 
influence,  may  be  seen  from  the  fact,  that,  beginning  with  a  mem- 
bership limited  to  sixty,  in  the  year  1626  they  numbered  more  than 
fifteen  thousand,  divided  into  thirty-nine  Provinces,  and  possessing 
803  houses,  467  colleges,  and  thirty-six  seminaries.  In  1710,  they 
had  612  colleges,  and  twenty-four  universities,  besides  a  multitude 
of  lower  schools.  In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  their 
number  amounted  to  more  than  22,000,  with  669  colleges,  and  176 
seminaries,  and  in  France  alone,  they  had  almost  700  schools. 

But,  Chough  thus  successful,  the  Society  of  Jesus  met,  from  the 
first,  strong  Catholic  opposition  in  many  quarters.  Several  of  the 
other  orders,  especially  the  Dominicans  and  Franciscans,  looked 
upon  it  with  great  jealousy  and  dislike.  Many  of  the  universities 
regarded  their  colleges  as  rival  institutions,  and  were  angry  at  the 
great  favor  showed  them  by  the  Pope,  and  princes,  and  nobility. 
And  some  of  the  Popes,  even,  feared  its  growing  power  and  popu- 
larity. Very  early,  Paul  IV,  demanded  that  the  General  should  hold 


232  THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS 

his  office  only  for  three  years,  and  not  for  life  as  the  constitution 
appointed,  but  the  Jesuits  resisted,  and  his  successors  yielded  the 
point.  Still  it  was  felt  by  the  papal  councils  that  the  power  in  his 
hands  was  excessive,  and  it  was  feared  that  it  might  be  wielded  to 
dangerous  ends,  a  fear  that  time  showed  to  be  just. 

To  trace  in  detail  the  history  of  the  Order  would  be  foreign  to 
our  present  purpose.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  as  it  became  numerous, 
rich  and  powerful,  it  lost  in  some  measure  its  early  religious  char- 
acter, and  became  ambitious  and  worldly.  Its  members  drew  upon 
themselves  the  hatred  of  kings  and  statesmen  by  their  continual 
intermedling  in  political  affairs,  and  by  their  attempts  to  make  the 
authority  of  the  church  dominant  over  that  of  the  state.  For  this 
cause  they  were  banished  from  the  territories  of  the  Republic  of 
Venice,  as  early  as  1606.  With  increasing  wealth  came  luxury, 
and  many  of  the  lay  members  engaged  in  traffic  and  commerce  ;  the 
extensive  ramifications  of  the  order  giving  them  great  facilities  for 
the  successful  prosecution  of  commercial  enterprises.  The  Society 
thus  became  the  owner  of  large  factories  in  many  parts  of  the  world, 
from  which  rich  revenues  were  derived.  The  richly  endowed  col- 
leges became  often  banks  of  exchange.  As  the  interests  of  the  Or- 
der were  held  paramount  to  all  other  interests,  they  did  not  hesitate, 
notwithstanding  the  vows  of  obedience,  to  array  themselves  against 
the  Pope,  when  they  found  it  for  their  advantage.  Thus  gradually 
they  lost  the  favor  of  all  parties,  and  toward  the  close  of  the  eight- 
eenth century,  the  Society  was  driven  out  of  all  the  Catholic  king- 
doms of  Europe.  Russia  alone,  moved  by  considerations  of  the  ed- 
ucational advantages  derived  from  them,  offered  them  an  asylum.  In 
1773,  Pope  Clement  XIV,  suppressed  the  Order.  But  though  thus 
formally  dissolved,  the  Society  still  kept  up  its  organization  in  secret, 
and  its  members,  though  under  other  names,  labored  incessantly  to  re- 
gain their  former  position.  It  was  not,  however,  till  1814,  under  Pope 
Gregory,  that  the  decree  of  dissolution  was  repealed.  Its  history  from 
that  time  has  been  varied,  but  it  seems  to  have  been  slowly  but  stead- 
ily gaining  in  numbers  and  influence.  In  1844,  the  number  of  mem- 
bers was  estimated  at  4,133,  in  1855,  at  5,510,  in  1860,  at  7,144.  This 
latter  number  was  thus  divided  ;  in  France  2,181,  in  Belgium  531,  in 
Holland  205,  in  Spain  680,  in  Austria  455,  in  Prussia  527,  in  Eng- 
land 379,  in  America  444,  in  Italy  1,742,  and  more  than  1,000  at 
different  missionary  stations. 

II.    INTERNAL   ORGANIZATION   OP   THE   SOCIETY. 

We  turn  now  to  the  internal  organization  of  the  Society.  This  is 
simple  and  admirably  adapted  to  the  ends  it  had  in  view.  All 


THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS.  233 

power  is  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  the  head  or  General,  (Prae- 
positus  Generalis^)  who  holds  his  office  for  life.  He  is  elected  by  the 
members  of  the  order,  represented  by  delegates  in  General  Congre- 
gation. This  body  can  give  him  advice  in  particular  cases,  but  can 
not  control  him  in  his  actions.  He  is  to  the  Order,  what  the  Pope 
is  to  the  church,  the  representative  of  God.  "  In  him  should  Christ 
be  honored  as  present  in  his  person."  The  ultimate  decision  rests 
with  him  alone,  and  only  in  case  of  some  very  flagrant  and  gross 
abuse  of  his  authority,  can  the  General  Congregation  interfere  to 
depose  him.  It  should  be  said  that  hitherto  no  such  deposition 
has  ever  taken  place.  This  possession  for  life  of  almost  absolute 
power,  lifts  the  General  above  all  fear  of  those  under  him,  and  makes 
it  unnecessary  to  seek,  by  favoritism,  or  weak  concessions  to  faction, 
a  transient  popularity.  In  the  hands  of  a  strong,  sagacious  man,  it 
gives  a  stable  character  to  the  policy  of  the  Order,  and  a  unity  and 
energy  of  action  attainable  in  no  other  way.  But  his  knowledge 
of  the  characters  and  capacities  of  its  members  must  be  commen- 
surate with  his  power  over  them,  to  enable  him  to  employ  them  with 
wisdom,  and  to  this  end  he  is  the  ultimate  depository  of  all  the  se- 
crets of  the  confessional.  Thus  he  knows  what  is  passing  in  the 
hearts  of  all  under  him,  and  can  wisely  choose  his  instruments,  and 
adapt  his  measures  to  the  end  to  be  attained. 

Under  the  head  of  the  Order  stand  the  chiefs  of  various  pro- 
vinces, or  the  Provincials,  (Praepositus  Provincialis,}  who  in  their 
several  jurisdictions  represent  him,  and  are  responsible  only  to  him. 
These  hold  their  offices  for  three  years.  After  them  come  the 
heads  of  Houses,  the  rectors  of  Colleges,  and  the  superiors  of  the 
Residences,  who  also  all  hold  their  offices  for  three  years. 

Aside  from  these  official  distinctions,  the  members  of  the  society 
are  divided  into  four  classes,  the  Professed,  Coadjutors,  Scholastics, 
and  Novices.  The  latter  are  those  who  have  sought  admission  to 
the  order,  and  been  accepted,  and  placed  in  one  of  the  houses  estab- 
lished for  them,  there  to  spend  the  two  years  of  their  novitiate  in 
meditation  and  prayer,  and  in  the  performance  of  various  specified 
labors,  under  the  care  of  the  master  of  the  novices,  (magister  novi- 
tiorum.)  Having  successfully  passed  this  period  of  probation,  the 
novice  enters  into  one  of  the  colleges  of  the  society,  and  becomes  a 
scholastic.  Here  he  gives  five  or  six  years  to  the  study  of  grammar, 
and  rhetoric,  and  philosophy,  &c ;  and  having  completed  the  course, 
enters  upon  the  work  of  teaching.  As  a  teacher,  he  begins  with  the 
lower  class,  and  teaches  it  in  the  same  order  of  studies  through  which 
he  himself  has  just  passed.  After  five  or  six  years  thus  spent,  he 


234  THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS. 

enters  upon  the  study  of  theology,  to  which  four  or  six  years  are 
given.  Then  a  year  is  spent  in  the  repetition  of  the  spiritual  exer- 
cises, and  the  probation  of  the  novitiate ;  and  at  length  at  the  age 
of  30 — 32,  he  is  admitted  into  the  priesthood. 

Becoming  a  priest,  the  scholastic  takes  the  oath  either  as  a  coad- 
jutor spirituali^  or  as  a  professed.  The  distinction  between  these 
two  classes  is  this,  that  the  former  promises  to  devote  himself  with 
all  zeal  to  the  work  of  education,  while  the  latter  binds  himself  to 
execute  any  mission  the  Pope  may  intrust  to  him.  Ranke  in  his 
History  of  the  JPopes,  thus  explains  the  way  in  which  the  distinction 
arose.  "  As  the  professed  members  had  bound  themselves  by  the 
fourth  vow  to  continual  travel  on  the  service  of  the  Pope,  it  was 
inconsistent  to  assign  to  them  so  many  colleges  as  were  now  required, 
establishments  that  could  only  flourish  through  their  constant  pres- 
ence. Ignatius  soon  found  it  necessary  to  constitute  a  third  class, 
between  the  professed  and  the  novices,  spiritual  coadjutors,  priests 
like  the  others,  possessed  of  requisite  learning,  and  who  expressly 
engaged  themselves  to  the  duty  of  instructing  youth.  These  coad- 
jutors were  allowed  to  settle  themselves  in  the  several  localities,  be- 
come residents,  gain  influence,  and  control  education."  The  pro- 
fessed constitute  the  smaller  class,  and  are  really  the  aristocracy  of  the 
order,  since  from  their  ranks  only,  can  the  General  and  the  provin- 
cials be  taken,  and  they  are  the  authorized  members  of  the  General 
Congregation.  Thus  under  the  General,  the  law  making  power,  and 
the  chief  offices,  are  in  their  power.  When  not  employed  in  the 
service  of  the  Pope,  they  reside  in  houses  especially  appropriated 
to  their  use. 

The  coadjutors,  who  are  divided  into  several  classes,  some  engaged 
in  preaching  and  teaching,  coadjutores  spirituales,  some  in  secular  pur- 
suits, coadjutores  tcmporales,  constitute,  with  the  scholastics,  the  largest 
and  most  laborious  part  of  the  order.  The  care  of  the  colleges,  and 
of  the  schools,  is  almost  wholly  in  the  hands  of  the  spiritual  coadju- 
tors, the  lay  coadjutors  fulfilling  other  duties.  By  bull  of  Paul  III, 
•the  society  was  authorized  to  elect  lay  members,  to  be  employed  in 
various  kinds  of  secular  labor,  but  who  were  not  permanent  members, 
the  relation  ceasing  when  their  work  was  done. 

There  are  two  or  three  features  in  the  constitution  of  this  Order 
which  at  once  arrest  our  attention,  and  which  we  must  take  into 
account  if  we  would  explain  its  success,  or  understand  the  character 
and  working  of  its  institutions.  The  first  of  these  is  the  principle 
of  implicit  obedience.  In  none  of  the  monkish  orders  is  the  prin- 
ciple carried  so  far  as  here.  Each  member  must  obey  his  superior 


THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHUOLS.  235 

as  he  would  oboy  God.  So  long  as  a  command  does  not  involve 
manifest  sin,  it  is  binding  upon  the  conscience.  Superioris  vocem  ac 
jussu  non  secus  ac  Christi  vocem.  The  members  must  be  in  the  hands 
of  the  chiefs  as  passive  as  if  dead,  (ac  si  essent  cadaver,)  or  as  a  stick 
that  yields  without  resistance  to  every  motion  of  the  hand  that  bears  it. 
Not  only  the  will,  but  the  understanding  was  so  to  be  brought  into 
subjection,  that  the  obedience  should  be  both  instantaneous  and 
unquestioning.  To  obey,  and  not  to  reason,  was  a  fundamental 
principle.  By  thus  making  one  will  to  pervade  the  body,  it  was  be- 
lieved that  there  might  be  perfect  unity  in  purpose  and  action,  and 
the  result  showed  the  correctness  of  this  belief.  The  boast  of  Ca3sar 
that  he  had  no  soldier  who  would  not  leap  into  the  sea  at  his  bid- 
ding, might  be  truly  made  by  the  Generals  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus,  but  with  this  essential  distinction,  that  the  former  obeyed  from 
personal  love  to  his  chief,  the  latter  because  the  command  came 
clothed  with  divine  authority. 

The  second  feature  to  be  noticed,  is  that  each  member  was  made 
to  feel  that  the  interests  of  the  Order  were  paramount  to  every  other 
interest.  This  had  claims  upon  him  superior  to  those  of  kindred, 
and  friends,  and  country.  He  was  taught  to  say,  not  "I  have  par- 
ents, and  brothers,  and  sisters,"  but,  "  I  had  parents,  and  brothers, 
and  sisters,  now  I  have  them  no  more."  It  is  said  of  Faber,  one  of 
Ignatius'  early  converts,  that  on  reaching  his  native  town  after  an  ab- 
sence of  some  years,  he  would  not  stop  to  visit  his  kindred  and 
friends,  but  passed  on.  This  was  deemed  a  highly  meritorious  act. 
He  was  to  be  dead  to  all  other  relationships  of  life,  and  alive  only 
to  those  which  bound  him  to  the  Society,  He  must  be  a  true  cosmo- 
politan, a  sojourner,  as  he  might  be  sent  in  any  country,  but  a  citi- 
zen of  none.  To  the  prosperity  of  the  Order  he  consecrated  all  his 
energies,  to  it  all  things  were  made  subordinate.  It  stood  to  him 
instead  of  all  other  objects  of  affection,  of  family,  of  kindred,  of 
country.  Of  course  this  entire  devotion  pre-supposed  that  in  serving 
the  Order  he  believed  himself  to  be  serving  the  church,  and  God. 
Only  thus  believing,  was  it  possible  that  such  complete  self-abnega- 
tion could  so  have  gained  the  mastery. 

It  needs  no  observation  to  show  that  a  body  of  men  so  wholly 
under  the  will  of  their  chiefs,  so  dead  to  all  considerations  but  that 
of  the  success  of  their  Order,  must  have  been  potent  allies,  and  dan- 
gerous enemies.  All  historians  agree  that  their  efforts  stayed  the 
progress  of  the  Reformation,  and  rolled  back  the  tide  of  conquest 
that  threatened  to  sweep  over  all  the  Catholic  countries  of  Europe. 


236  11IE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS. 

III.   EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTES. 

We  turn  now  to  the  subject  which  especially  interests  us,  the  ed- 
ucational institutions  of  the  Jesuits.  As  we  have  seen,  from  the 
very  first  existence  of  the  Order,  the  instruction  of  the  young  had 
been  made  a  cardinal  point.  Wherever  its  members  went,  schools 
and  colleges,  and  universities,  were  rapidly  established.  In  a  short 
time  the  number  of  pupils  under  their  care,  in  all  parts  of  Europe, 
was  very  large.  This  rapid  and  great  popularity  was  doubtless  in 
considerable  measure,  owing  to  their  zeal  and  energy,  and  to  the  fact 
that  the  existing  schools  were  very  imperfect,  and  far  below  the  exi- 
gences of  the  times ;  but  something  is  also  to  be  ascribed  to  the 
intrinsic  excellence  of  the  system  of  education  they  adopted.  This 
system  received  its  definite  and  permanent  form,  under  *  Acquaviva, 
the  fifth  General  of  the  order,  who  held  office  from  1581  to  1615,  and 
a  man  highly  distinguished  for  his  administrative  ability.  The 
Congregation  that  elected  him,  recommended  that  a  commission 
should  be  appointed  of  six  fathers  from  the  various  Catholic  kino-- 
doms,  who  should  draw  up  a  plan  of  study,  based  in  part,  upon  that 
followed  in  the  Collegium  Romanum.  This  commission  was  sub- 
sequently enlarged,  and  in  1599,  made  its  report.  The  order  of 
studies  as  then  adopted,  continued,  with  a  few  additions,  to  be  the 
order  till  the  dissolution  of  the  society,  in  1773.  After  its  restora- 
tion in  1814,  a  new  commission  was  appointed  to  revise  it;  but  it 
was  determined  in  General  Congregation  in  1820,  that  the  former 

'Claudius  Acquaviva,  the  fifth  General  of  the  order,  was  born  in  the  province  of  Bari,  in 
southern  Italy,  on  Sept.  14th,  1543.  He  was  of  a  noble  family,  several  members  of  which  had 
highly  distinguished  themselves  both  in  the  service  of  the  state,  and  of  the  church.  A  bright 
career  was  open  before  him,  but  he  preferred,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  to  enter  into  the  Order 
of  Jesus  Here  he  soon  distinguished  himself  by  his  talents  and  learning,  and  was  early  made 
a  Provincial,  first  at  Naples,  and  then  at  Rome.  He  was  elected  General  in  1581,  at  the  age 
of  thirty-seven.  It  is  said  that  the  selection  of  so  young  a  man,  excited  the  surpr  se  of  the  Pope, 
but  it  was  justified  by  the  great  abilities  of  Acquaviva,  and  the  skill  with  which  he  managed  at- 
fairs.  His  first  care  was  to  secure  to  the  Order  good  leaders,  not  onfy  virtuous  men.  but  such 
as  understood  their  position,  and  avoided  extremes.  The  times  were  stormy,  and  he  had  to 
reconcile  internal  dissensions,  and  ward  off  attacks  from  without  His  relations  to  Pope 
Sextus  V.  wore  often  delicate,  and  he  had  need  of  the  utmost  caution  not  to  bring  about  an 
open  rupture.  Sextus  wished  to  change  the  constitution  of  the  order,  and  make  it  more  demo- 
cratic, and  less  under  the  direction  of  the  General,  and  also  to  withdraw  the  promised  sub- 
sidies. By  adroit  managment.  Acquaviva  pacified  the  Pope,  till  his  death  freed  the  Order  from 
the  impending  danger.  He  had  also  much  difficulty  in  making  the  Spanish  members  of  the 
Order  obedient  to  his  authority. 

It  is.  however,  as  the  author  of  the  famed. ratio  studiorum,th&t  Acquaviva  is  best  known. 
He  named  in  1584,  a  commission  of  seven  persons  of  various  nations,  the  result  of  whose 
labors,  is  that  course  of  study  which  remains  in  substance,  in  use  to  day  in  all  the  Jesuit 
schools. 

Acquaviva  died  on  the  31st.  January,  1615.  after  a  Generalship  of  thirty-four  years.  Accord- 
ing to  d'  Alembert  the  Society  of  Jesus  owes  more  to  him  than  to  any  of  its  chiefs  for  its 
success  in  after  times.  The  work  which  he  did  seems  to  have  been  this — that  he  harmonized 
the  religious  and  political  elements,  and  made  the  Order  what  it  has  continued  to  be. 


THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS.  00>. 

£iO  I 

order  should  not  be  essentially  changed.  Little,  however,  seems  to 
have  been  done  in  the  matter  down  to  1830,  when  *  Roothaan,  the 
General  at  that  time,  appointed  a  new  commission.  The  changes 
made  by  this  commission  had  reference  mainly  to  the  higher  depart- 
ments of  study  ,theology,  philosophy,  mathematics  and  physics.  The 
ancient  course  of  instruction  in  the  lower  departments  was  left  un- 
changed, except  in  regard  to  modern  languages  and  history.  The 
reasons  given  for  thus  retaining  a  system  which  had  seemingly  be- 
come antiquated,  will  appear  in  the  sequel. 

So  far  as  regards  the  external  organization  of  the  Jesuit  schools, 
we  find  them  to  partake  of  the  general  character  of  all  the  institu- 
tions of  the  Order.  No  one  not  a  member  was  permitted  to  teach, 
unless  in  some  cases  in  the  lowest  schools.  As  has  been  already 
stated,  every  member  after  spending  five  or  six  years  in  study,  was 
required  to  devote  a  like  period  to  teaching.  Thus  all  the  teachers 
were  not  only  members  of  the  society,  but  had  been  educated  by  it, 
and  were  familiar  with  its  methods  of  instruction.  And  in  the 
giving  of  instruction,  nothing  was  left  to  the  choice  or  will  of  the 
individual  teacher.  Every  thing,  even  to  the  details,  was  prescribed 
by  the  laws,  and  from  these  there  could  be  no  departure.  And  the 
same  principle  of  implicit  obedience  ruled  here  as  elsewhere.  As  it 
was  a  rule  of  the  Order  that  it  would  not  accept  any  college  which 
did  not,  in  addition  to  a  dwelling,  a  school  edifice,  and  a  church,  possess 
an  endowment  in  money  or  lands  sufficient  for  the  support  of  at 
least  fourteen  persons,  it  was  thus  raised  above  the  necessity  of  adapt- 
ing its  methods  of  instruction  to  popular  tastes,  or  of  imitating 
the  schools  around  them.  This  enabled  them  also  to  make  their  in- 
structions gratuitous,  a  circumstance  that  naturally  tended  much  to 
their  popularity.  The  care  of  these  endowments,  as  of  all  merely 
business  matters,  belonged  to  the  lay  brethren. 

Colleges. 

The  colleges  were  of  three  classes,  according  to  the  number  of 
teachers.  The  first  must,  as  a  rule,  have  twenty,  the  second,  thirty  ? 
the  third,  which  ranked  as  a  university,  seventy.  The  general 
supervision  of  each  college  was  given  to  an  officer  called  a  rector, 
usually  taken  from  the  ranks  of  the  older  teachers,  but  who  himself 
took  no  part  in  the  work  of  instruction.  To  him  it  belonged  to 
appoint  the  teachers  under  him,  to  note  the  progress  of  the  pupils, 

*  Roothaan  was  born  at  Amsterdam,  Nov.  23d,  1785,  elected  General  of  the  Order,  1829, 
and  died  8th  May,  1853.  His  activity  was  especially  directed  to  three  points  ;  1,  Foreign  Mis- 
sions; 2,  the  promotion  of  scientific  studies;  3,  the  more  strict  practice  of  the  exercises 
of  Tgra'.'uB. 


238  THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS. 

and  to  watch  over  all  that  concerned  the  prosperity  and  usefulness  of 
the  institution.  He  was  appointed  by  the  General,  or  his  plenopoten- 
tiary,  and  held  his  office  for  three  years,  and  all  must  render  obedience 
to  him  as  to  the  representative  of  Christ.  Under  him  were  several 
officers  who  had  special  charge  of  the  studies,  and  discipline  of  the 
pupils,  and  who  were  like  himself,  taken  from  the  ranks  of  the 
spiritual  coadjutors.  With  the  colleges  were  generally  united  pen- 
sions, or  boarding  schools,  in  which  pupils,  especially  those  of  rich 
and  noble  families,  were  received  for  a  moderate  compensation ;  and 
sometimes  also  seminaries  for  the  education  of  priests.  There  were 
also  in  some  cases  day  schools  attended  by  youth,  who  boarded  at 
home,  and  these  were  open  to  the  children  of  Protestants  under 
certain  restrictions. 

The  course  of  study  in  these  institutions  divided  itself  into  higher 
and  lower ;  studia  superiora  et  inferiora. .  The  smaller  colleges  lim- 
ited themselves  to  the  latter,  and  to  these  we  shall  mainly  here  con- 
fine ourselves.  The  lower  course  of  study  occupies  six  years,  which 
are  thus  divided :  the  first  year  is  occupied  with  the  school  Latin, 
or  the  rudiments;  the  second,  with  grammar  in  its  first  elements; 
the  third  with  syntax ;  all  these  are  called  the  grammatical  classes, 
The  fourth  year  is  occupied  with  philology  and  poetry,  and  the  fifth 
and  sixth  years  with  rhetoric  ;  the  latter  two  are  called  the  humanity 
classes.  The  subjects  of  study,  the  books  to  be  used,  the  amount 
of  time  to  be  daily  spent,  and  the  methods  of  instruction,  are  all 
accurately  prescribed,  and  can  not  be  departed  from. 

The  character  of  this  course  of  study  can  be  understood  only  by 
keeping  in  view  the  fact,  that  the  knowledge  of  the  Latin  tongue 
was  regarded  by  the  Jesuits  as  of  the  first  importance,  and  that  all 
other  knowledge  was  made  subordinate  to  this.  The  ability  to  speak 
it  and  write  it  with  correctness  and  fluency,  is  constantly  held  up 
before  the  pupils  as  the  chief  end  of  their  efforts.  The  Latin  has 
always  been  greatly  honored  in  the  Romish  church,  as  the  language 
of  the  ritual,  and  of  the  larger -part  of  her  theological  literature,  but 
to  the  members  of  the  Order  the  mastery  of  the  language  had  a 
special  value,  since  it  enabled  the  natives  of  different  countries  to 
converse  freely  with  each  other  whenever  they  met,  and  served  them 
us  a  secret  tongue,  when  they  wished  their  conversation  to  be  un- 
known. And  the  prominent  place  given  it  under  Acquaviva,  it 
retains  even  to  our  own  day.  The  present  General  of  the  Order, 
(Peter  Beck,  chosen  1853,)  writing  to  the  minister  of  education 
of  Austria,  says,  "  Since  the  Latin  tongue  is  the  tongue  of  the  church, 
the  tongue  of  Christian  tradition,  and  since  in  this  tongue  the  scientific 


THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS.  239 

treasures  of  all  ages  and  of  all  nations  are  preserved,  and  n  other 
has  so  developed  itself  for  the  expression  of  faith  and  science,  the 
Society  of  Jesus  has  for  this  tongue  a  special  love,  and  makes  use  of 
it  for  the  purpose  of  giving  instruction  in  its  schools." 

As  the  chief  object  in  this  study  of  the  Latin  language  is  to  get 
the  mastery  of  it  as  of  a  living  language,  and  to  make  it  available 
for  practical  ends,  it  follows  that  the  classics  are  read  more  for  their 
style  than  for  their  ideas,  and  for  this  reason  considerable  portions 
of  them  are  committed  to  memory  in  order  to  give  the  pupils  com- 
mand of  words  and  phrases.  The  lowest  class  begins  with  the  rudi- 
ments of  the  language,  and  learns,  during  the  first  year  the  declen- 
sions and  conjugations,  with  some  of  the  simplest  rules  of  syntax; 
gradus  hujus  scholce  est  rudimentorum  perfecta,  syntaxis  inchoata, 
cognitio.  Easy  passages  are  selected  for  reading,  attention  being 
paid  chiefly  to  the  construction  of  the  sentences.  A  beginning  is 
also  made  in  the  practice  of  composition,  and  in  committing  to 
memory  short  sentences,  as  a  foundation  for  speaking,  for  the  latter 
purpose  use  being  made  of  the  so  called  "  Amalthea,"  of  Pomey,  a 
curious  miscellany  of  odds  and  ends.  The  age  of  members  of  this 
class  was  from  nine  to  twelve. 

The  second  class  continued  the  study  of  grammar,  following  the 
method  already  indicated.  The  object  aimed  at  being  a  general 
knowledge  of  its  rules  and  principles,  special  attention  was  given  to 
the  syntax.  Of  the  authors  read,  Cicero  and  Ovid  were  the  chief, — 
some  of  the  epistles  of  the  former,  some  of  the  simplest  poems  of 
the  latter.  Sometimes  also  some  of  the  Eclogues  and  Georgics  of 
Virgil  were  studied. 

T/ie  third  class — the  age  of  the  pupils  being  from  thirteen  to  fif- 
teen years — completed  the  Latin  syntax,  and  the  grammar  generally, 
and  began  the  study  of  prosody.  Among  the  works  studied  were 
the  more  difficult  letters  of  Cicero,  and  some  of  his  didactic 
writings;  and  passages  of  the  poets,  of  Ovid,  Virgil,  Catullus,  and 
Tibullus.  The  latter,  however,  were  not  read  at  random,  but  only 
certain  selected  and  expurgated  portions ;  selectee  aliquce  et  purgatce. 
Parts  of  the  "  Amalthea,"  were  also  committed  to  memory. 

During  these  three  years  the  Greek  was  studied  with  the  Latin, 
and  the  same  general  method  of  instruction  pursued,  but  it  held  a 
very  subordinate  place,  as  appears  both  from  the  very  little  time 
daily  allotted  to  it,  and  from  the  few  authors  read.  In  Greek  the 
compendium  of  Gretser  was  used  ;  in  Latin  the  same  grammar  which 
was  adopted  in  1581, — the  Grammatica  Emmanuelis,  prepared  b) 
Emmanuel  Alvarus, — continues,  for  the  most  part  unaltered,  in  ust» 
to  the  present  day. 


V 


94O  TIIE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS. 

Besides  these  two  ancient  languages,  nothing  is  spoken  of  in  the 
early  plan  of  studies,  ratio  studiorum,  but  "  religion,"  by  which 
term  was  meant  the  learning  by  heart  the  little  catechism  of  Peter  Ca- 
anisius,  and  of  the  Latin  Gospel ;  and  "  Erudition,"  comprising  some 
facts  resppcting  sacred  history,  an  outline  of  the  four  great  mon- 
archies and  of  the  present  kingdoms  of  the  world.  Of  arithmetic, 
of  geography,  of  history,  as  distinct  departments  of  knowledge,  noth- 
ing is  said.  Nor  was  any  instruction  given  at  first,  in  these  institutions 
respecting  the  mother  tongue  of  the  pupils ;  but  this  omission 
causing  great  complaint,  it  was  determined  in  1703,  that  they  should 
be  taught  it,  although  the  teaching  seems  to  have  been  fragmentary 
and  imperfect.  Nor  was  any  attention  given  to  the  modern  lan- 
guages till  the  revision  of  the  studies  in  1832,  when  some  concessions 
were  made  in  this  point  to  the  spirit  of  the  age. 

The  two  higher  classes,  distinguished  as  the  "  poetical "  and  "  rhe- 
torical," quarto,  poetica,  quinta  rhetorica,  had  as  their  goal,  eloquence, 
or  the  art  of  writing  and  speaking  well.  The  foundation  of  this 
art  was  laid  in  the  studies  of  the  fourth  class,  prceparare  veluti  solum 
eloquentice — which  were  directed  to  the  knowledge  of  the  structure 
of  the  language,  and  of  the  rules  of  rhetoric,  and  to  the  acquisition 
of  general  information.  The  studies  of  the  fifth  class,  embracing 
two  years,  were  not  well  defined ;  gradus  hujus  scholice  non  facile 
certis  quibusdam  terminis  definiri  potest,  but  had  reference  more  or 
less  direct  to  oratory,  ihefacultas  oratoria.  The  methods  of  study 
followed  were  essentially  the  same  as  in  the  lower  classes.  Some 
selected  portions  of  an  author  are  read  in  the  morning,  such  as 
treat  of  eloquence,  tropes,  figures,  &c.,  and  in  the  afternoon,  such  as 
treat  of  the  art  of  poetry.  The  Latin  classics  are  used  mainly  with 
reference  to  style,  that  the  pupils  may  learn  to  express  themselves 
with  fluency  and  propriety.  The  favorite  author  is  Cicero,  whose 
works  are  studied  at  all  stages  of  the  course,  the  orations  being 
reserved  to  the  last.  Of  the  historians,  Caesar,  Sallust,  Livy,  are 
read ;  of  the  poets,  Virgil,  Horace,  Ovid,  Martial ;  care  being  taken 
in  all  cases  that  any  thing  immodest  is  first  expurgated. 

In  these  two  classes,  as  in  the  earlier,  the  Greek  is  taught  with  the 
Latin,  and  continues  to  hold  a  subordinate  place ;  but  while  the  other 
classes  devote  but  an  half  hour  to  it  each  day,  the  fifth  class  devotes 
an  hour.  The  scholars  study  some  of  the  easier  prose  writers,  and 
some  of  the  early  Christian  poets.  The  Rhetoric  of  Aristotle  ia 
studied,  not  in  the  original,  but  in  the  Latin.  In  both  languages, 
the  object  is,  throughout,  to  gain  such  knowledge  of  them  as  to 
enable  the  pupil  to  speak  and  write  them.  But  in  regard  to  the 
f»rcck,  this  Was  never,  or  at  least  very  rarely,  attained.  The  Latin, 


THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS. 


241 


however,  being  constantly  used  in  the  school  as  the  medium  of 
instruction,  and  by  the  pupils  of  the  higher  classes  in  their  conver- 
sation with  each  other,  became  by  degrees  very  familiar,  and  was 
spoken  and  written  with  great  fluency,  if  not  always  correctly,  or 
often  with  elegance.  How  many  Greek  authors  were  actually  read, 
it  is  difficult  to  say.  The  list  given  of  those  to  be  perused  in  the 
last  year,  embraces  Demosthenes,  Plato,  Thucydides,  Homer, 
Hesiod,  Pindar,  and  others  of  the  ancients,  together  with  Gregory 
of  Nazianzen,  Basil,  and  Chrysostom.  It  is  apparent,  however,  that 
only  very  small  portions  of  these  could  possibly  have  been  read.  It 
is  to  be  remembered  that  the  pupil  ended  the  course,  as  a  rule,  at  the 
age  of  fifteen  or  sixteen,  and  then  proceeded  to  the  higher  course, 
studiis  superioribus,  during  which  no  special  attention  was  given 
to  philology. 

Aside  from  the  Greek  and  Latin,  the  instruction  of  the  pupils  in 
other  departments  of  knowledge  was,  in  the  higher,  as  in  the  lower 
classes,  very  fragmentary  and  imperfect.  As  a  religious  text-book  the 
catechism  of  Canisius  was  used,  and  the  Gospels  in  Greek,  or  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  or  the  Panegyrics  of  Chrysostom,  read  and  ex- 
plained. Besides  this,  there  was  a  very  miscellaneous  and  undefined 
field  embraced  in  the  phrase  eruditio,  points  of  archaeology,  and 
history,  symbols,  proverbs,  inscriptions,  architecture,  remarkable 
facts,  and  the  like,  but  as  instruction  was  given  upon  these  multi- 
farious points  only  upon  the  weekly  holiday,  it  is  apparent  that  much 
real  knowledge  could  not  have  been  acquired.  It  is  not  a  little 
remarkable  that  arithmetic  is  mentioned  only  once,  and  incident- 
ally, and  that  the  only  time  given  to  it  was  in  the  last  week  of  each 
term,  when  the  severer  studies  were  ended.  To  the  physical  sciences 
no  time  was  devoted  except  in  the  brief  interval  between  the  exam- 
ination and  the  division  of  the  prizes,  and  that  mainly  to  amuse  the 
pupils  with  entertaining  experiments.  But  we  must  add  that  the 
Society,  yielding  to  the  demands  of  the  times,  does  now  give  much 
fuller  instruction  in  history,  geography,  mathematics,  and  the  mother 
tongue.  Still,  even  now  it  must  be  said  that  the  instruction  in  these 
branches  is  very  imperfect.  The  study  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  con- 
tinues to  be,  as  it  has  ever  been,  the  chief  object  of  attention,  and 
casts  all  else  into  the  shade. 

In  regard  to  text-books,  changes  are  permitted  very  slowly  and 
cautiously,  the  old  being  retained  as  long  as  possible,  and  great  care 
is  taken  that  none  of  them  contain  any  thing  contrary  to  the  Cath- 
olic faith  and  dogmas.  Only  expurgated  editions  of  the  classics  are 
used,  and  such  as  can  not  be  purged,  as  Terence,  are  not  read  at  all. 
16 


242  TIIE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS. 

The  pupils  are  permitted  to  read  no  books  in  private  which  have 
not  been  examined  and  approved  of  by  the  teachers,  nor  to  bring 
them  into  the  school,  or  have  them  in  their  possession.  The  time 
devoted  to  each  branch  of  study  was  very  precisely  marked  out,  and 
oould  not  be  departed  from.  The  whole  time  given  each  day  was 
five  hours,  two  and  a  half  in  the  morning,  and  the  same  in  the  after- 
noon, except  in  the  highest  class,  which  was  four,  making  for  the 
week  in  the  former  case,  twenty -seven  hours,  in  the  latter  from 
twenty-one  to  twenty-two ;  no  allowance  being  made  here  for  the 
feast  and  fast-days,  which  limited  the  school  time  still  more. 

The  order  of  exercises  each  day  is  substantially  as  follows :  At 
six  and  three  quarters  A.  M.,  the  bell  is  rung,  and  the  pupils  begin 
to  assemble ;  at  seven,  all  go  together  to  mass,  and  at  seven  and  a 
half  the  school  opens  with  a  short  prayer,  both  pupils  and  teacher? 
kneeling  with  uncovered  heads ;  and  closes  in  the  same  way.  Be- 
fore beginning  to  read,  the  teacher  makes  the  sign  of  the  cross ;  a 
half  hour  is  given  to  collecting  and  correcting  the  written  task?, 
hearing  recitations  from  memory,  &c.  From  eight  to  nine  the  les- 
sons of  the  preceding  day  are  repeated,  then  a  new  passage  is  read 
and  explained ;  at  nine,  matter  is  dictated  for  a  new  composition  in 
Latin  or  Greek,  which  is  always  so  brief  that  it  can  be  written  and 
corrected  within  an  hour ;  in  the  lower  classes  two  or  three  lines  suf- 
fice. Whilst  the  scholars  are  occupied  in  this  labor  the  master  gives 
help  to  the  more  backward  pupils.  In  the  afternoon  the  school  be- 
gins at  one  and  a  half  and  follows  the  same  general  order.  At  its  close 
the  teacher  gives  thanks  to  God.  On  Tuesdays  and  Thursdays  the 
order  is  somewhat  varied,  and  on  the  weekly  holiday  the  morn 
ing  school  is  shortened  half  an  hour,  and  the  afternoon  session 
omitted. 

The  prescriptions  which  are  very  minute,  respecting  the  studies 
not  only  of  each  day,  but  of  each  month,  and  for  the  discipline  of 
the  school  and  its  management,  we  here  pass  by. 

Characteristic  Features. 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  is  not  difficult  to  point  out  the  char- 
acteristic  features  of  the  Jesuit  schools.  They  may  be  summed  up 
in  these  points :  first,  the  limitation  of  the  course  of  study  to  a  few 
subjects ;  second,  the  culture  of  the  memory  by  the  practice  of  repeti- 
tion ;  and  third,  the  awakening  of  the  ambition  of  the  pupils  by 
constant  appeals  to  the  feeling  of  emulation. 

The  one  central  thing  in  the  course  of  study,  is  the  knowledge  of 
the  Latin  and  Greek  languages,  especially  of  the  former.  In  the 


THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS.  243 

original  plan,  ratio  studiorum,  scarce  any  tiling  else  was  mentioned ; 
and  although  within  a  few  years  the  course  has  been  enlarged,  still, 
these  languages  retain  their  high  position.  This  concentration  of 
the  time  and  labor  of  the  scholar  upon  a  single  point,  brings  with 
it  some  very  decided  advantages.  What  is  learned  is  usually  learned 
thoroughly,  and  the  mind  is  thus  made,  in  its  measure,  clear  and 
strong,  and  the  danger  of  great  superficiality,  of  knowing  a  little 
of  many  things  and  nothing  well,  is  guarded  against.  Yet  on  the 
other  hand,  the  Jesuits,  as  has  been  remarked,  attach  a  value  to  the 
Latin  tongue,  which  most  in  our  day  will  regard  as  exaggerated. 
To  speak  it  and  write  it  fluently,  is  an  acquisition  hardly  worth  its 
cost.  We  do  not  here  intend  to  enter  at  all  into  the  discussion 
respecting  the  comparative  value  of  the  study  of  language  and  of 
science  as  a  means  of  mental  discipline.  We  speak  only  of  the  fact 
that,  to  attain  this  mastery  over  the  Latin,  not  only  science  in  almost 
all  its  departments,  but  also  modern  languages  and  literature,  must 
be  neglected.  Six  years,  from  the  age  of  ten  to  sixteen  being  thus 
spent,  and  in  this  period  only  the  merest  smattering  of  mathematics, 
or  history,  or  geography,  having  been  acquired,  it  will,  we  think,  be 
rightly  judged  that  the  time  could  have  been  more  profitably 
employed. 

As  to  the  mode  in  which  the  Latin  is  studied,  there  may  be  an 
objection  taken,  and  we  think  a  just  one,  in  that  the  object  .is  not  to 
enable  the  pupil  to  enter  into  the  genius  of  the  language,  and  to  im- 
bibe its  spirit  as  the  deepest,  truest  expression  of  national  life,  but  to 
obtain  a  verbal,  external  command  over  it  as  a  vehicle  of  communica- 
tion. The  study,  therefore,  becomes  a  mechanical  one,  and  serves 
rather  to  discipline  the  memory,  than  to  develop  the  higher  facul- 
ties of  the  mind. 

A  second  characteristic  is  the  cultivation  of  the  memory  by  the 
frequent  repetition  of  the  lessons.  In  the  lower  classes,  besides 
words  and  grammatical  rules,  passages  from  Cicero  are  selected  and 
learned  by  heart,  and  care  is  taken  that  these  shall  be  short,*not  more 
than  four  to  seven  lines.  The  catechism  is  also  committed  to 
memory.  In  the  higher  classes,  and  especially  in  the  highest,  there 
are  frequent  declamations,  that  what  has  been  learned  may  be  fittingly 
expressed.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  teacher  to  explain  the  lesson,  and 
illustrate  it  by  examples,  and  the  next  day  the  pupil  must  repeat  the 
illustrations  in  substance,  or  verbatim.  Sometimes  the  remarks  of 
the  teacher  are  written  down  by  the  pupils  and  next  day  repeated 
from  reco'l lection.  That  the  lessons  may  not  be  beyond  the  grasp 


244  TIIE  JESUITS  AND  TIIEIK  SCHOOLS. 

of  an  ordinary  memory  they  are  made  very  short,  and  being  often 
repeated  can  not  be  easily  forgotten. 

That  complete  command  may  be  attained  over  the  Latin,  not 
only  is  it  used  by  the  teachers  of  the  higher  classes  in  their  instruc- 
tions, and  in  all  their  intercourse  with  the  scholars,  but  the  scholars 
themselves  are  required  to  use  it  in  their  private  intercourse  with 
one  another.  The  use  of  the  mother  tongue  is  visited  with  censure, 
and  some  mark  of  disgrace.  By  this  continual  practice  the  lan- 
guage soon  becomes  very  familiar,  at  least  in  its  colloquial  forms. 

The  third  characteristic  is  the  intense  emulation  which  is  aroused 
among  the  pupils.  The  teacher  is  directed  to  appeal  to  this  princi- 
ple in  every  possible  way.  "  He,  who  knows  how  skillfully  to  awaken 
emulation,  has  the  most  efficient  means  at  his  command,  and  in  it- 
self a  sufficient  means,  to  attain  success  in  his  office.  Let  him  there- 
fore value  this  weapon  highly,  and  diligently  inquire  how  he  can 
attain  with  it  the  greatest  results."  Among  the  means  to  this  end 
always  employed,  are  the  establishment  of  different  offices  with 
Latin  titles,  Praetors,  Censors,  Decurions,  among  the  pupils,  who 
are  chosen  according  to  the  results  of  the  monthly  studies — skill  in 
composition  being  most  highly  prized.  Those  who  have  written 
the  best,  receive  the  highest  dignity,  and  others  according  to  their 
merits.  Frequently  the  school  is  divided  into  two  parties,  called 
now,  Romans  and  Carthagenians,  now,  Greek  and  Trojans,  under 
like  officers,  who  contend  with  each  other  which  shall  best  answer 
the  questions  put  by  the  master ;  or  they  put  questions  to  one  an- 
other. Sometimes  an  officer  challenges  another  to  a  trial  of  knowl- 
edge and  skill,  or  a  private  may  challenge  an  officer,  and  if  he  over- 
comes him,  takes  himself  the  office,  or  receives  some  badge  of  his 
triumph.  The  highest  in  rank,  called  a  dictator,  wears  upon  his 
breast  a  gilded  key  upon  a  rich  ribbon,  and  a  costly  bound  register,  in 
which  are  inscribed  the  names  of  the  dictators.  These  contests 
take  place  regularly  at  fixed  times.  Besides  these  contests  various 
artifices  are  used  to  awaken  the  ambition  of  the  scholars,  as  the 
writing  down  the  name  of  one  who  has  distinguished  himself  upon 
a  public  table,  or  the  public  mention  of  his  name  each  month  ;  as 
on  the  other  hand,  a  great  offense  is  entered  in  the  censor's  book, 
and  the  name  of  the  offender  publicly  proclaimed. 

But  in  addition  to  these  ordinary  means,  great  importance  is 
given  to  the  yearly  examination  and  the  distributions  of  prizes.  After 
the  feast  of  the  Assumption  of  Mary,  the  pupils  begin  their  prepa- 
rations for  examination,  which  occupies  nearly  a  month.  The  cere- 
mony of  distributing  the  prizes  at  the  end  of  the  school  }ear  ID 


THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS.  245 

September,  is  publicly  commemorated  and  numerously  attended. 
The  names  of  the  victors  are  announced  to  the  audience,  and  com- 
ing forward  they  receive  their  premiums  before  the  assembly.  Often 
a  comedy,  prepared  by  one  of  the  teachers,  is  acted,  and  poems  re- 
peated. Each  teacher  also  gives  little  presents,  images,  and  books, 
or  posts  of  honor,  to  such  as  have  in  any  way  distinguished  them- 
selves. 

From  these  characteristic  features  of  the  mode  of  instruction  in 
the  Jesuit  schools,  let  us  consider  the  principles  that  lie  at  the  basis 
of  their  whole  educational  system ;  and  the  first  and  fundamental 
one  is  that  education  must  be  religious.  The  pupils  must  be  edu- 
cated for  God  and  the  church,  and  every  thing  must  be  adapted  to 
this  end  and  subordinate  to  it.  But  religion  and  morality  are  not 
matters  of  the  intellect  merely ;  they  can  not  be  so  much  learned  as 
practiced.  Hence  great  stress  is  laid  upon  pious  practices,  as  pil- 
grimages, hearing  of  mass,  adoration  of  images,  saying  of  prayers, 
and  the  like.  It  does  not  appear  that  very  much  instruction  was 
early  given  to  the  pupils  about  religious  dogmas.  The  catechism  of 
Canisius,  summa  doctrines  christiance,  was  committed  to  memory, 
but  this  seems  to  have  been  as  much  to  teach  them  Latin  as  theo- 
logy. So  the  Gospels  in  Greek  and  Latin  were  read  and  explained. 
Beyond  this  no  special  dogmatic  religious  instruction  was  given. 
But  the  pupils  were  made  daily  to  attend  mass,  and  accustomed  to 
offer  certain  prescribed  prayers  to  God  and  the  saints ;  sometimes 
from  a  book,  sometimes  from  memory.  They  were  to  pray,  not 
only  at  the  opening  and  close  of  the  school  but  at  other  times,  as 
whenever  the  clock  struck ;  and  at  the  beginning  of  his  written  ex- 
ercise, the  pupil  kneeling,  addressed  a  petition  to  the  Holy  Spirit. 
He,  who  distinguished  himself  by  the  strict  performance  of  these 
pious  practices,  was  praised  and  rewarded,  but  he  who  neglected 
them  was  punished  by  being  compelled  to  attend  more  masses,  or 
repeat  more  prayers. 

In  order  more  effectually  to  accomplish  the  end  and  stimulate  the 
scholars  to  outward  acts  of  devotion,  special  means  were  resorted 
to.  The  pupils,  who  distinguished  themselves  by  their  piety,  were 
received  into  the  Congregation  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  a  society  which 
had  its  origin  in  the  Collegium  Romanum,  but  had  extended  itself 
widely  in  most  Catholic  countries.  The  rite  of  confession  also 
played  a  most  important  part  in  promoting  these  external  observ- 
ances, since  in  this  way  it  was  easily  ascertained  who  of  the  pupils 
neglected  his  religious  duties.  It  deserves  to  be  noted  that  the  fa- 
ther-confessor of  the  pupil?  is  not  one  of  the  teachers,  or  one  having 


246  TIIE  JESU1TS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS. 

any  direct  connection  with  the  school,  but  a  priest  of  the  Order, 
specially  commissioned  to  this  duty.  It  need  scarcely  be  said  that 
the  original  abhorrence  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  against  all  heresy 
was  implanted,  so  far  as  possible,  in  the  hearts  of  their  pupils,  and 
it  is  a  curious  fact,  and  not  a  little  suggestive,  that  while  they  were 
forbidden  to  attend  public  executions,  there  was  an  express  exception 
with  regard  to  the  execution  of  heretics.  That  they  almost  univer- 
sally became  most  zealous  defenders  of  the  Roman  church  and  op- 
ponents of  the  Reformation,  followed,  of  course. 

As  religion  constituted  a  prominent  part  of  education  in  the 
Jesuit  schools,  so  also  did  morality.  How  far  the  accusations 
brought  against  the  moral  teachings  of  the  Order  by  Pascal,  and  so 
often  repeated  since,  are  true,  we  can  not  here  inquire.  That  they 
have  had  general  credence  is  sufficiently  shown  by  the  current  use 
of  the  term  Jesuitical.  That,  however,  they  watched  over  the 
morals  of  their  pupils  with  care,  and  trained  them  to  virtuous  habits, 
we  see  no  good  reason  to  doubt.  But  some  of  the  principles  adopted 
by  them  and  applied  in  their  schools  seem  justly  open  to  exception. 
Among  them  is  that  of  implicit  obedience,  an  obedience  which  em- 
braced not  only  the  act,  but  the  will ;  for  as  we  have  seen,  every  mem- 
ber of  the  Order  was  to  be  in  the  hands  of  his  superior,  as  a  corpse. 
He  was  to  obey  the  commands  given  him  without  hesitation  or  reflec- 
tion. Only  when  they  manifestly  involved  sin  could  they  refuse  ; 
guce  cum  peccato  manifesto  conjunctce  non  sint.  .  In  all  other  cases 
his  obedience  must  be  instantaneous  and  blind.  The  command  was 
binding  upon  his  conscience.  This  principle  of  the  Order  naturally 
ruled  in  the  schools.  The  instructions  of  the  teacher  were  in  no 
case  to  be  questioned,  but  received.  What  he  said  in  explanation 
or  interpretation  of  the  lessons  was  not  to  be  examined  or  reasoned 
upon,  but  to  be  remembered  and  repeated  and  believed.  In  this 
way  all  mental  independence  must  soon  cease,  and  the  pupil,  forbid- 
den to  exercise  his  own  judgment,  would  become  the  mere  passive 
recipient  of  the  ideas  of  others.  Men  so  trained  might  be  excellent 
members  of  the  Order,  but  could  scarcely  be  expected  to  be  pioneers 
in  yet  unexplored  realms  of  thought,  neither  acute  critics  of  old 
dogmas,  nor  propounders  of  new. 

In  its  moral,  as  well  as  in  its  intellectual  bearings,  this  principle 
of  implicit  obedience  is  fraught  with  danger.  If  it  be  true  that  the 
church  of  God,  rightly  constituted  and  guided  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
is  infallible,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  the  will  of  the  individual 
members  is  to  be  held  in  abeyance,  and  that  a  blind,  unquestioning 
obedience  is  to  be  paid  to  ecclesiastical  rulers.  All  service  rendered 


THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS.  247 

to  God  should  be  reasonable,  voluntary,  and  free,  and  while  there  is 
proper  submission  to  authority,  there  should  be  at  the  same  time 
no  coercion  of  the  conscience.  We  can  not  throw  the  responsibility 
of  our  moral  acts  upon  others,  and  to  do  this  destroys  the  sense  of 
right  and  wrong,  and  disorders  the  whole  spiritual  nature.  In  so 
far,  therefore,  as  the  Jesuits  taught  their  pupils  that  all  disobedience, 
except  when  the  command  is  flagrantly  immoral,  is  mortal  sin,  they 
undermined  that  sense  of  individual  responsibility  which  is  essential 
to  true  manhood,  and  without  which  human  actions  have  no  moral 
character,  and  morality  itself  no  real  existence.  To  obey  unques- 
tioningly  is  an  excellent  rule  for  the  soldier,  since  military  evolutions 
rarely  involve  points  of  ethics,  but  not  for  the  Christian  warrior 
whose  duty  it  is  to  have  always  a  conscience  void  of  offense  toward 
God  and  toward  men,  and  whose  first  question  respecting  every  act 
must  be,  is  it  right  ? 

But  while  we  must  protest  against  the  principle  of  implicit  obedi- 
ence, and  regard  its  application  to  education  as  highly  injurious  to 
the  nobler  forms  of  moral  character,  in  the  external  discipline  and 
government  of  the  Jesuit  schools  we  find  no  reason  to  believe  that 
there  was  over  much  rigor  and  severity.  Indeed,  at  their  first  insti- 
tution they  seem  to  have  favorably  contrasted  with  most  of  the 
schools  of  that  period,  in  this  respect.  There  was  comparatively 
little  of  corporal  punishment,  or  of  punishment  of  any  kind,  and 
complaints  were  sometimes  made  that  the  better  class  of  pupils  were 
allowed  too  great  liberty.  It  was  a  rule  that  the  teacher  should  get 
hold  of  the  pupil  rather  by  mildness  and  kindness  than  by  sternness, 
and  that  youth  is  better  led  by  the  excitements  of  honor  and  by  fear 
of  shame,  than  by  rough  punishments.  When  it  was  necessary  to 
inflict  bodily  chastisement,  a  "  corrector "  was  appointed  for  this 
purpose,  and  care  was  taken  that  he  should  not  be  a  member  of  the 
Order.  A  chief  means  of  preserving  good  conduct  at  all  times  was 
the  supervision  to  which  every  pupil  was  constantly  exposed.  At  all 
hours  and  in  every  place  a  teacher,  or  some  officer,  was  present,  at 
study  and  at  play,  by  day  and  by  night,  in  the  play-room  and  the 
sleeping-room,  and  upon  all  walks  and  excursions ;  and  more  than 
this ;  it  was  a  rule  that,  so  far  as  possible,  a  pupil  should  never  be 
left  alone.  Two  must  go  in  company,  both  to  school  and  to  church^ 
in  their  walks  and  amusements.  To  this,  in  itself,  although  an  ex- 
cess of  caution,  there  is  little  to  object;  but  it  merits  severest  repro- 
bation, if,  as  is  charged,  the  purpose  was  to  make  each  a  spy  upon 
the  other,  to  note  and  report  at  the  confessional,  or  to  the  superiors, 
every  offense.  Such  a  system  was  destructive,  not  merely  of  private 


24 cS  THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS. 

friendship,  which  indeed  the  society  never  favored,  teaching  that 
Christian  love  embraced  all  alike,  but  of  all  youthful  sincerity  and 
nobleness. 

To  manners  and  deportment  special  attention  was  paid  ;  the  pupils 
were  taught  to  speak  distinctly  and,  elegantly,  to  write  a  clear  and 
handsome  hand,  to  walk  with  an  erect  and  easy  carriage,  and  to  con- 
form to  all  those  external  forms  that  distinguished  the  gentleman. 
To  aid  them  in  gaining  ease  and  assurance  of  manner  and  readiness 
of  address,  much  was  made  of  dramatic  representation ;  both  trag- 
edies and  comedies  were  frequently  acted,  but  all  in  Latin.  At 
first  the  time  of  each  representation  was  limited  to  one  and  a 
half  hours,  and  much  expense  and  display  were  forbidden,  but  later 
much  more  time  was  given  them,  and  the  preparations  were  often 
on  a  magnificent  scale.  The  people  who  came  were  admitted  gratu- 
itously, and  great  crowds  often  assembled.  The  plays  were  not 
unfrequently  written  by  one  of  the  scholastics,  taking  as  the  ground- 
work a  legend  out  of  the  history  of  the  martyrs,  or  some  event  of 
contemporaneous  history.  Of  course  these  reflected  the  ruling  feel- 
ing of  the  day,  and  were  sometimes  both  gross  and  fantastic. 

Besides  the  acting  of  plays,  most  forms  of  amusement  were 
encouraged,  and  such  gymnastic  exercises  as  tended  to  promote 
bodily  strength  and  grace.  The  pupils  were  taught  to  ride,  to  dance, 
to  row,  to  fence,  and  to  divert  themselves  with  all  proper  games. 
Almost  every  college  had  a  spacious  farm-house  where  they  were 
taken  upon  holidays  in  the  summer.  Especial  care  was  taken  that 
the  site  of  the  school  should  be  healthy,  and  the  rooms  airy.  The 
food  was  wholesome  and  well  prepared,  and  beyond  the  watchings 
and  fastings  required  by  the  church,  there  was  no  undue  asceticism. 
In  short,  to  every  thing  that  pertained  to  the  physical  and  external 
prosperity  of  their  schools,  the  Jesuits  seem  to  have  given  much 
care,  and  to  have  been  very  successful. 

Before  attempting  to  estimate  the  comparative  merits  and  demer- 
its of  the  Jesuit  schools  from  the  data  before  us,  let  us  consider  the 
opinions  that  have  been  expressed  respecting  them  by  various  emi- 
nent scholars.  Among  their  commenders  is  that  very  able  man  and 
competent  judge,  Lord  Francis  Bacon.  In  his  work  "  De  augment. 
Scient."  he  writes ;  "As  to  psedagogy,  it  may  briefly  be  said,  con- 
sult the  schools  of  the  Jesuits,  for  there  is  nothing  better  than  these." 
Elsewhere,  also,  he  expresses  his  approbation  in  strong  terms,  praising 
the  practice  of  gathering  the  pupils  in  colleges,  as  giving  a  better 
field  to  dramatic  representations,  and  awakening  emulation,  and 


THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS.  249 

commending  the  short  lessons,  and  the  gradual  progress  from  the 
easier  to  the  harder  branches  of  study. 

Another  distinguished  philosopher,  Descartes,  gives  the  same 
commendation,  which  is  the  more  valuable  since  he  was  himself 
educated  at  one  of  these  schools.*  One  of  the  special  advantages 
of  which  he  speaks  is,  the  mingling  together  and  intercourse  of  so 
many  youth  taken  from  all  parts  of  the  land,  supplying  the  place  in 
a  good  degree  of  foreign  travel ;  and  the  equality  upon  which  all 
are  placed. 

One  of  the  warmest  encomiasts  is  Chateaubriand,  who  affirmed 
that  in  the  suppression  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  Europe  had  suffered 
an  irreparable  loss,  and  that  education  had  never  recovered  from  the 
blow  it  then  sustained.  He  praises  especially  the  skill  with  which 
the  teachers  knew  how  to  bind  the  pupils  to  themselves,  and  declares 
that  the  Jesuits  had  brilliantly  distinguished  themselves  in  every 
department  of  knowledge,  as  chemists,  botanists,  mathematicians, 
mechanicians,  astronomers,  poets,  historians,  translators,  archseolo 
gists,  and  journalists. 

In  the  praises  of  the  French  Catholics,  many  Protestant  writers  have 
joined,  though  not  without  some  qualification.  Macaulay  observes: 
"  No  religious  community  could  produce  a  list  of  men  so  variously 
distinguished.  There  was  no  region  of  the  globe,  no  walk  of  spec- 
ulation or  of  active  life,  in  which  Jesuits  were  not  to  be  found. 
They  guided  the  counsels  of  kings.  They  deciphered  Latin  in- 
scriptions. They  observed  the  motions  of  Jupiter's  satellites.  They 
published  whole  libraries,  controversy,  casuistry,  history,  treatises 
on  optics,  alcaic  odes,  editions  of  the  fathers,  madrigals,  cate- 
chisms, and  lampoons.  The  liberal  education  of  youth  passed  al- 
most entirely  into  their  hands,  and  was  conducted  by  them  with 
conspicuous  ability.  They  appear  to  have  discovered  the  precise 
point  to  which  intellectual  culture  can  be  carried  without  risk  of 
intellectual  emancipation.  Enmity  itself  was  compelled  to  own 
that  in  the  art  of  managing  and  forming  the  tender  mind,  they  had 
no  equals.  Meanwhile  they  assiduously  and  successfully  cultivated 
the  eloquence  of  the  pulpit.  With  still  greater  assiduity  and  still 
greater  success  they  applied  themselves  to  the  ministry  of  the  con- 
fessional. Throughout  Catholic  Europe  the  secrets  of  every  gov- 

*  According  to  Lewes;  "Biographical  History  of  Philosophy,"  Descartes,  on  leaving  the 
college  of  La  Fleche,  "  declared  that  he  had  derived  no  other  benefit  from  his  studies  than 
that  of  a  conviction  of  his  utter  ignorance,  and  a  profound  contempt  for  the  systems  of 
philosophy  in  vogue."  Still  it  is  beyond  doubt  that  he  highly  valued  the  education  he 
had  received  at  La  Fleche. 


250  TIIE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS. 

eminent,  and  of  almost  every  family  of  note  were  in  their  keeping." 
To  the  darker  shades  in  Macaulay's  picture  we  need  not  advert. 

Ranke  in  his  "  History  of  the  Popes,"  speaking  of  their  peda- 
gogical success,  thus  explains  it :  "  The  Jesuits  were  more  systematic 
than  the  earlier  teachers.  They  divided  the  pupils  into  classes,  and 
the  instruction  of  all  from  highest  to  lowest  was  carried  on  in  the 
same  spirit.  They  took  good  care  of  their  morals,  and  formed  well 
educated  people.  One  thing  they  had  which  especially  distinguished 
them ;  it  was  method.  Every  thing  was  designed,  every  thing  had 
its  end," 

In  the  same  strain  Hallam  remarks  in  his  "  Literature  of  Europe." 
"  It  was  one  of  the  first  great  services  which  the  Jesuits  performed 
to  get  possession  of  the  universities,  or  to  found  other  seminaries 
for  education.  In  these  they  discarded  the  barbarous  school-books 
then  in  use,  put  the  rudimentary  study  of  the  languages  on  a  better 
footing,  devoted  themselves,  for  the  sake  of  religion,  to  those  accom- 
plishments which  religion  had  hitherto  disdained ;  and  by  giving  a 
taste  for  elegant  literature,  with  as  much  solid  and  scientific  philos- 
ophy as  the  knowledge  of  the  times  and  the  prejudices  of  the  church 
would  allow,  both  wiped  away  the  reproach  of  ignorance,  and  drew 
forth  the  native  talents  of  their  novices  and  scholars.  They  taught 
gratuitously,  which  threw,  however  unreasonably,  a  sort  of  discredit 
upon  salaried  professors ;  it  was  found  that  boys  learned  more  from 
them  in  six  months  than  in  two  years  under  other  masters ;  and, 
probably  for  both  these  reasons,  even  Protestants  sometimes  with- 
drew their  children  from  the  ordinary  gymnasia  and  placed  them  in 
Jesuit  colleges.  No  one  will  deny  that,  in  their  classical  knowledge, 
particularly  of  the  Latin  language,  and  in  the  elegance  with  which 
they  wrote  it,  the  order  of  the  Jesuits  might  stand  in  competition 
with  any  scholars  in  Europe." 

Of  recent  German  writers  both  Stahl  and  Hahn  speak  of  tbe 
many  merits  of  these  schools.  Hahn  says :  "  It  is  customary  to 
represent  the  instruction  as  exceedingly  superficial  and  defective, 
and  as  injurious  to  the  intellect.  I  believe  that  in  this  we  do  the 
Jesuits  injustice,  at  any  rate  so  far  as  concerns  their  earlier  history, 
when  their  schools  were  inferior  to  the  universities  in  their  variety 
of  learning,  but  not  inferior  to  them  in  method  and  result.  The 
Jesuits  took  great  care  to  make  study  agreeable  to  their  pupils. 
This  has  caused  their  opponents  to  bring  many  charges  against  them, 
as  if  the  knowledge  thus  gained  was  necessarily  both  partial  and 
superficial.  It  is  however  to  be  remarked  that  the  pedagogical  efforts 
of  that  day  are  not  to  be  judged  of  by  the  principles  which  only 


THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS.  251 

within  a  few  years  have  found  currency.  That  the  Jesuits  with  their 
more  pleasing  modes  of  instruction  reached  as  high  results  as  the 
universities  with  their  drier  and  more  scholastic  methods,  is  satis- 
factorily shown  by  the  lists  of  their  scholars  whose  names  hold  hon- 
orable places  upon  the  pages  of  French  literature,  and  in  political  and 
ecclesiastical  history.  They  count  among  them  the  famous  warriors, 
Conde,  Bouillon,  Rohan,  Luxembourg,  Montmorency,  Villars,  Broglie ; 
the  prelates,  Flechier,  Bossuet,  Fleury,  Tericin ;  the  lawyers,  Lam- 
oignon,  Argenson,  Montesquieu ;  the  philosophers  and  poets, 
Descartes,  Corneille,  Cubillon,  Fontenelle,  Moliere  and  Voltaire. 
Not  all  of  these  pupils  have  remained  faithful  to  the  principles  of  the 
Order  that  educated  them,  but  the  very  enumeration  shows  both 
that  the  Jesuit  schools  had  a  wide  sphere  of  action,  and  that  they 
did  not  stupify  and  benumb  the  intellect." 

To  these  friendly  judgments  of  Protestant  writers  we  may  oppose 
the  severe  strictures  of  many  Catholics,  even  of  some  educated  in  the 
Jesuit  schools.  The  author  of  a  recent  treatise  entitled,  "The  Gym- 
nasia of  Austria  and  the  Jesuits,"  thus  sums  up  the  matter :  "  The 
method  of  Jesuit  instruction  appears  upon  impartial  consideration, 
only  as  a  melancholy  proof  of  pedagogical  error,  and  of  rigid  per- 
sistence in  antiquated  ways.  The  system  as  originally  devised  in 
the  ratio  studiorum,  answers  less  and  less  to  the  necessities  and  de- 
mands of  the  times.  We  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  if  great  and 
important  provinces  of  the  German  empire  have  presented  in  our 
days  the  image  of  intellectual  stagnation,  we  explain  this  fact  by  the 
defective  character  of  Jesuit  education.  We  do  by  no  means 
assert  that  single  members  of  this  Order  have  not  rendered  important 
services  to  science.  But  this  is  not  due  to  their  method  of  educa 
tion.  We  repeat,  what  was  said  in  the  last  century,  that  if  we  com- 
pute the  numbers  of  the  Order  from  its  institution  to  the  year  1774, 
at  150,000,  which  is  a  very  moderate  estimate,  one  need  not  wonder 
that  out  of  so  many,  some  fifteen  or  twenty  should  be  good  Latin 
scholars.  In  general  what  the  Jesuits  have  done  for  science  is  very 
small.  In  philosophy  scarcely  a  single  work  can  be  named  which 
has  had  any  decided  influence  upon  the  progress  of  thought.  Even 
in  historical  labors,  in  which  they  have  won  most  praise,  they  have 
been  greatly  surpassed  by  the  Benedictines  of  St.  Maur.  The  defi- 
ciency in  original  investigation,  which  is  so  conspicuous  in  their 
schools,  is  manifest  in  all  the  after  life  of  the  pupils.  There  is  often 
a  poverty  of  thought  in  their  writings  which  contrasts  strangely  with 
their  industry  in  compilation.  The  numerous  sources  of  informa- 
tion which  we  have  examined  respecting  the  educational  labors  of 


252  TIIE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS. 

the  Jesuits,  enable  us  confidently  to  affirm  that  their  whole  system 
is  not  only  antiquated,  but  wrong  in  character,  and  has  no  internal 
vitality.  Its  continuance,  whether  upheld  by  authority  or  artifice, 
endangers  both  the  church  and  the  state,  since  it  educates  men  who 
can  not  understand  their  age,  and  have  learned  nothing  which  ena- 
bles them  to  meet  its  needs." 

A  much  earlier  writer  (1 625,)  says :  "  Into  no  Order  enters  so 
many  good  minds,  and  none  study  more  industriously.  Neverthe- 
less only  few  members  of  it  become  really  learned  men.  It  can 
show  us  no  distinguished  preacher,  no  great  theologian,  or  humanist. 
That  in  Spain  so  great  barbarism  rules  is  especially  to  be  ascribed 
to  its  educational  system.  If  men  knew  to  what  these  evils  were 
owing,  they  would  chase  the  Jesuits  out  of  the  schools." 

It  is  apparent  from  this  brief  survey  of  opinions,  that  the  educational 
system  of  the  Jesuits  has  both  its  merits  and  defects,  and  that  it  can 
not  be  commanded  or  condemned  in  the  gross.  Here,  as  so  often 
elsewhere,  religious  prejudices  strongly  influence  our  judgments. 
No  Protestant  can  be  expected  to  look  with  favor  upon  the  schools  of 
an  Order  whose  vigorous  efforts  stayed  the  progress  of  the  Reform- 
ation, and  won  back  for  the  church  of  Rome  large  territories  that 
the  reformers  had  looked  upon  as  permanently  their  own.  Nor  can 
it  be  forgotten  that  the  Jesuits  owed  the  success  of  their  efforts  in 
good  measure  to  their  zeal  in  educating  the  young.  In  their  schools 
they  molded  the  minds  of  the  children,  and  reared  up  a  generation 
that  hated  heresy  with  a  double  hatred,  and  honored  the  Pope  with 
double  honor.  Looked  upon  as  a  chief  means  of  making  proselytes, 
and  of  training  defenders  of  the  Romish  church,  a  Protestant  would 
naturally  see  nothing  in  them  to  commend.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Catholic  would  find  a  system  that  produced  such  results,  both  ad- 
mirable in  its  character  and  excellent  in  its  details.  Let  us,  as  edu- 
cators, try  to  lay  aside  the  prejudices  of  both,  and  judge  the  system 
impartially  both  as  to  its  principles,  and  its  practical  working. 

There  are  two  points  of  view  from  which  we  may  examine  the 
Jesuit  school :  first,  as  compared  with  the  schools  of  their  times ; 
second,  as  tried  by  the  established  principles  of  education. 

The  schools  existing  when  the  Order  of  Jesus  was  founded,  had 
many  and  palpable  defects.  The  best  of  them  were  those  of  the 
Hieronymians,*  "  the  scholarly  fraternity,"  fratres  scholares.  But  the 
range  of  studies  was  very  narrow,  Gerard  the  founder  of  the  Fraternity, 
caring  little  for  any  learning  that  had  not  a  directly  religious  char- 
acter. "  Spend  no  time  "  he  said,  "  either  on  geometry,  arithmetic, 

*  For  an  account  of  this  Order  see  "  Barnard's  German  Teachers  and  Educators."  p.  65 


THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS.  253 

rhetoric,  logic,  grammar,  poetry,  or  judicial  astrology."  Yet  great 
importance  was  attached  by  him  to  the  Latin  tongue,  and  in  the 
houses  of  the  brethren  was  the  Latin  alone  used.  Still  they  were 
very  zealous  that  the  people  should  read  the  scriptures  in  their 
native  tongue. 

The  repeated  attempts  made  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies to  revive  the  cloister-schools,  had  resulted  in  little,  and  they 
had  fallen  very  low  in  public  estimation  ;  the  spirit  of  the  age  was 
not  favorable  to  monastic  isolation.  The  religious  impulses  which 
the  outbreak  of  the  Reformation  gave  to  all  institutions,  was  not 
unfelt  by  these  schools,  but  was  not  lasting.  Indeed  it  was  impos- 
sible that  they  could  give  such  culture  as  should  meet  the  wants  of 
the  time.  Nor  were  these  wants  met  by  the  town  or  city  schools. 
Doubtless  here  and  there  were  many  excellent  teachers,  who  were 
very  useful,  but  the  course  of  study  was  very  meager,  and  poorly  cal- 
culated to  rouse  into  internal  activity  the  youthful  mind.  Skill  in  ver- 
bal disputation  was  the  end  of  education.  The  classics  were  stud- 
ied not  that  they  might  be  understood,  but  for  the  words  and  phrases 
they  supplied,  and  therefore  the  orators  and  rhetoricians  were  stud- 
ied, and  the  poets  and  historians  neglected.  Homer  was  little  read, 
or  Livy,  or  Tacitus,  or  Sallust.  Luther  referring  to  his  early  studies, 
says :  "  How  often  do  I  lament  my  own  case,  in  that  I  read  so  few 
of  the  poets  and  historians  when  I  was  young,  and  that  there  was 
no  one  to  direct  me  to  them.  But  in  this  place  I  was  compelled  to 
flounder  in  all  manner  of  vain  philosophic  and  scholastic  trash,  true 
Serbonian  bogs  of  the  devil,  and  with  much  cost  and  care,  and  vast 
detriment  besides,  so  that  I  have  had  enough  to  do  ever  since  in 
undoing  the  harm  they  did  me."  In  all  schools  a  knowledge  of  the 
Latin  was  the  Alpha  and  Omega.  In  this  respect  the  system  of 
Acquaviva  had  nothing  peculiar.  It  was  the  scholastic  feature  of 
that  day.  In  the  famous  school  of  the  Lutheran,  Sturm,  at  Stras- 
bourg, where  many  thousand  scholars  were  gathered  of  all  ranks, 
including  princes,  of  the  nine  years  spent  in  the  gymnasium,  seven 
were  given  to  the  acquisition  of  Latin  words,  idioms,  <fcc,  and  two 
to  the  acquisition  of  an  elegant  style ;  and  the  five  subsequent  colle- 
giate years  were  spent  in  learning  to  speak  and  write  with  fluency 
and  elegance.  A  certain  mastery  was  thus  gained  over  Latin  words, 
but  the  language  itself  was  not  learned. 

So  far  as  regards  the  methods  of  study,  the  early  Jesuit  schools 
do  not  seem  to  have  differed  much  from  the  best  schools  of  the  day. 
In  both  was  the  same  careful  cultivation  of  the  memory  by  the  prac- 
tice of  continual  repetition ;  in  both,  instruction  was  confined  to  very 


254  THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS. 

few  branches,  and  thus  made  thorough ;  in  both,  mathematics  were 
greatly  neglected,  and  the  students'  native  tongue.  In  one  respect 
the  Jesuit  schools  seem  to  have  had  the  advantage ;  they  resorted  but 
little  to  corporeal  punishment.  Luther  speaks  of  the  schools  of  his 
day,  as  "  being  no  longer  hells  and  purgatories  as  they  once  were, 
where  a  boy  learned  nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  by  reason  of  cease- 
less flogging,  trembling,  woe,  and  anguish."  The  Jesuit  teacher 
made  great  use,  as  did  Sturm,  of  the  principles  of  emulation,  and 
resorted  only  in  extreme  cases  to  bodily  chastisement. 

In  general,  comparing  the  schools  of  the  Jesuits,  soon  after  the 
establishment  of  the  Order,  with  the  schools  of  their  day,  we  may  say 
that  if  there  was  nothing  distinctively  new  in  their  method  of  in- 
struction, still  they  were  ready  to  use  all  the  information  they  could 
gain  from  any  quarter,  and  were  not  bound  to  old  ways.  But  the 
secret  of  their  success  and  popularity  was  in  the  zeal  and  energy 
with  which  all  the  institutions  of  the  new  Order  were  inspired.  In 
the  hands  of  men  burning  with  religious  ardor,  any  system  would 
have  been,  at  least  for  the  time,  successful.  The  society  had  a 
specific  work  before  it,  and  it  addressed  itself  to  the  education  of 
the  young,  to  make  them  its  own,  to  fill  them  with  its  ideas,  with  an 
earnestness  and  resolution  without  parallel  in  the  history  of  teaching. 
Of  course,  in  the  lapse  of  time,  this  intensity  of  zeal  passed  away, 
and  the  schools  were  left,  in  good  part,  to  stand  or  fall  according  to 
their  intrinsic  merits. 

If  we  try  these  schools  by  those  principles  of  education  now  gen- 
erally recognized  among  us,  we  find  both  marked  advantages  and 
defects.  1.  By  limiting  the  studies  to  a  few  branches,  what  was 
learned  was  learned  well.  It  was  wrought  into  the  mental  being  of 
the  pupil,  and  made,  so  to  speak,  a  part  of  him  ;  and  in  this  way  the 
memory  was  greatly  strengthened.  2.  The  scholars  were  not  men- 
tally overtasked  ;  the  terms  of  study  were  brief.  3.  Much  attention 
was  given  to  physical  culture,  to  bodily  health,  and  to  exercise  and 
amusement.  Perhaps  an  undue  importance  was  attached  to  gentle- 
manly accomplishments,  to  a  graceful  carriage,  and  easy  address.  4. 
The  uniform  working  of  the  system,  giving  completeness  to  the 
training  of  the  pupil.  Nothing  was  left  to  the  caprice  of  teachers, 
but  he  was  led  on.  step  by  step,  in  a  fixe  1  order,  till  the  course  was 
mastered.  Thus  was  there  a  unity  in  the  process  in  itself  favorable 
to  mental  discipline. 

On  the  other  hand  we  find  some  palpable  defects.  1.  The  course 
of  study  was  too  narrow.  It  was  chiefly  confined  to  Latin  and 
Greek.  History,  geography,  mathematics,  and  the  vernacular 


THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS.  255 

tongue,  were  almost  wholly  omitted.  How  far  this  omission  is  now 
rectified,  we  can  not  say,  but  it  is  certain  that  the  study  of  the  two 
languages,  especially  of  the  Latin,  continues  to  be  the  chief  thing,  to 
which  all  else  is  made  subordinate.  2.  The  method  of  studying  the 
Latin  and  Greek  is  defective.  The  great  end  is  to  get  control  of  them 
as  spoken  languages,  or  at  least  the  former,  and  to  make  it  the  vehi- 
cle of  verbal  communication.  This,  under  certain  circumstances, 
may  be  a  desirable  acquisition,  but  to  most  is  not  worth  the  cost. 
It  may  be  done,  and  yet  one  not  penetrate  into  the  spirit  of  a 
language,  or  even  be  able  to  understand  its  authors.  Many  more 
things  are  necessary  to  make  a  classical  scholar  than  mere  knowledge 
of  words.  Besides,  sufficient  time  was  not  given.  The  pupils  fin- 
ished, for  the  most  part,  their  studies  when  sixteen  years  of  age,  be- 
fore the  judgment  was  sufficiently  matured  to  appreciate  the  authors 
they  had  read.  3.  The  attention  was  too  much  directed  to  exter- 
nals, to  fluency  and  grace  of  speech,  and  an  elegant  style.  Elo- 
quence was  placed  in  manner  rather  than  in  matter.  The  pupil 
was  not  taught  to  think  profoundly,  but  to  express  himself  hand- 
somely. 4.  To  awaken  diligence,  the  principle  of  emulation,  was 
unduly  appealed  to.  The  pupils  were  converted  into  rivals,  and 
made  jealous  and  unsocial ;  eavesdropping  and  tale-bearing  were  its 
natural  fruits.  5.  As  the  object  of  the  Order  was  to  restore  the  past, 
and  to  resist  all  innovating  tendencies  in  religion  and  theology,  this 
feeling  gave  character  to  their  educational  system.  It  aimed  to  re- 
produce the  old.  In  style,  Cicero  was  the  model ;  in  theology, 
Thomas  Aquinas.  Hence  the  pupil  was  taught  to  imitate,  to 
copy,  to  repeat.  He  was  to  receive  what  he  was  taught,  not  to  think 
any  thing  new.  Hence  it  is  that  of  the  distinguished  members  of 
the  Order  of  Jesus,  few  have  been  prominent  in  any  department  of 
knowledge  where  investigation  is  demanded.  The  training  of  the 
school  does  not  prepare  them  for  original  inquiry.  6.  The  final 
end  of  all  school  instruction  was  to  make  the  pupil  a  faithful 
son  of  the  Church.  -  Its  whole  bearing  is  ecclesiastical.  It  is  assumed 
that  the  church  is  in  possession  of  the  truth,  and  that  it  is  infallible, 
and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  all  her  children  not  to  investigate  or  ques- 
tion, but  to  believe  and  obey.  In  upholding  unity,  individuality  is 
destroyed.  The  Christian  is  swallowed  up  in  the  church,  the  man 
in  the  order,  the  boy  in  the  school.  Through  the  confessional,  the 
superior  becomes  possessed  of  the  inmost  secrets  of  the  scholar's 
heart.  Hence  there  results  an  obliteration  of  what  is  peculiar,  or 
distinctive  in  character ;  all  appear  stamped  with  a  common  stamp  • 


256  THE  JESUITS  AND  THEIR  SCHOOLS. 

obedience  has  in  it  a  tinge  of  servility  ;  and  the  young  student  is 
changed  into  an  unquestioning  zealot. 

Such  in  few  words  are  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  the 
Jesuit  schools  regarded  simply  from  an  educational  point  of  view. 
As  ecclesiastical  missions  of  the  church,  each  one  will  approve  or 
condemn,  according  to  his  religious  opinions.  From  this  point  of 
view  it  is  not  our  place  to  consider  them. 

NOTE. 

Tn  the  preparation  of  the  foregoing  article,  use  has  been  made  of 
the  Ratio  atgue  Institutio  Studiorum  Societatis  Jesu.  Paris.  1850. 
Of  the  articles,  "Jesuiten"  and  "  Jesuitenschulen"  in  Schmidt's 
"Encyklopadie"  "  Jesuitenorden"  in  Herzog's " Real Encyklopadie" 
and  "Jesuiten "  in  the  "  Kirchen  Lexicon "  of  Wetzer  and  Welte. 
Some  use  has  been  made  of  Ravignan  "  De  L  Institut  des  Jesuits" 
of  Ranke's  "History  of  the  Popes"  and  of  Mayn\rd  "  On  the 
Studies  and  Teaching  of  the  Jesuits"  The  writer's  a)  -  is  historical 
not  controversial. 


IGNATIUS   LOYOLA   AND   THE   SOCIETY  OF   JESUS.  257 

THE  CONSTITUTIONS  RESPECTING  INSTRUCTION— 1558*. 
INTRODUCTION. 

Since  the  object  at  which  the  Society  directly  aims  is  to  aid  their  own  souls 
and  those  of  their  fellow-creatures  in  attaining  that  ultimate  end  for  which 
they  were  created;  and  since  learning  and  the  method  of  propounding  it,  as 
well  as  the  example  of  life  are  necessary  to  this  object;  as  soon  as  a  good 
foundation  of  self-denial,  and  the  needful  advancement  in  virtue  has  been  laid 
in  those  admitted  to  probation;  the  next  care  will  be  the  edifice  of  literature, 
and  the  manner  of  employing  it,  by  which  they  may  promote  the  better 
knowledge  and  the  better  service  of  God  our  Creator  and  Lord. 

For  this  the  Society  comprehends  Colleges,  and  also  Universities,  or  general 
studios;  in  which  those  who  have  given  satisfactory  evidence  of  themselves  in 
the  Houses  of  probation,  but  have  entered  without  adequate  instruction  in  the 
learning  indispensable  for  our  Institute,  may  be  taught  that  and  other  things 
which  conduce  to  the  salvation  of  souls.  First,  then,  let  the  discourse  turn  on 
those  things  which  pertain  to  Colleges;  afterwards  of  what  relates  to  General 
Studies,  with  that  favor  which  the  divine  Wisdom  shall  vouchsafe  to  grant  us 
to  His  own  greater  honor  and  glory. 

I.      COMMEMORATION  OF  FOUNDERS  AND  BENEFACTORS. 

1.  Since  it  appears  most  agreeable  to  reason  that  a  due  return  be  made,  as 
far  as  in  us  lies,  to  the  piety  and  beneficence  of  those  whom  the  divine  bounty 
has  used  as  instruments  for  the  foundation  and  endowment  of  our  Colleges; 
first,  in  every  College  of  our  Society  let  Masses  be  celebrated  once  a  week  for- 
ever for  its  founder  and  benefactors,  whether  alive  or  dead. 

2.  At  the  banning  of  every  month  all  the  priests  who  are  in  the  College 
ou~ht  to  offer  the  same  sacrifice  for  them  forever.    On  that  day,  moreover,  in 
every  year,  on  which  possession  of  each  College  was  given  to  the  Society,  let 
it  be  solemnized  with  a  Mass  for  the  founder  and  benefactors  ;  and  whatever 
Priests  are  present  in  the  College  at  that  time,  let  them  all  celebrate  their 
sacrifices  there. 

3.  On  that  day  let  a  wax  candle  be  offered  to  the  founder,  or  to  one  nearest 
allied  to  him  in  family,  or  to  him  whom  the  founder  himself  appoints,  in 
which  candle  there  shall  be  the  arms  of  the  founder,  or  the  emblems  of  devo- 
tion.   In  that  shall  the  Society  testify  the  gratitude  which  it  owes  to  its 
founder  in  the  Lord. 

4.  As  soon  as  the  Society  shall  come  into  possession  of  any  College,  let  the 
General  see  that  it  be  communicated  to  the  whole  Society,  that  every  Priest 
may  thrice  say  Mass  for  the  living  founder  of  the  College  and  its  benefactors; 
that  the  Lord  may  guide  them  with  His  benignity  in  all  things,  and  enrich 
them  ever  with  His  gifts.    Again,  when  they  shall  nave  departed  this  life,  the 
General  will  take  care,  as  soon  as  he  hears  of  it,  that  throughout  the  Society 
every  Priest  say  three  Masses  for  their  souls.    And  as  often  as  it  is  said,  Masses 
are  to  be  solemnized  by  the  Priests;  all  the  rest  who  live  in  Colleges,  and  are  not 
Priests,  ou^ht  to  pray  to  the  same  purpose;  since  they  are  all  bound  in  the 
Lord  to  the  same  gratitude. 

5.  The  founders,  moreover,  and  the  benefactors  of  Colleges  are  made  par- 
takers of  all  the  good  works  which  are  done,  by  the  grace  of  God,  not  only  in 
the  Colleges,  but  in  the  whole  Society. 

6.  In  general,  however,  the  Society  should  understand  that  it  is  peculiarly 
bound  in  charity,  as  well  to  founders  as  to  their  connections,  as  long  as  they 
live,  and  after  their  decease,  to  do  them  every  service  which  can  be  rendered 
by  us  according  to  our  humble  profession  to  the  glory  of  God\ 

IL      ADMISSION  AND  RELINQUISHMENT  OF  INSTITUTIONS. 

1.  The  General  shall  have  full  power,  in  the  name  of  the  whole  Society  to 
admit  those  Colleges  which  are  freely  offered  to  the  Society,  to  use  them  in 
full  accordance  with  its  Constitutions. 

2.  If  the  founder  should  exact  any  conditions  at  all  contrary  to  the  order 
and  manner  of  proceeding  usual  with  the  Society,  it  may  be  left  to  the  consid- 
eration of  the  General  (after  hearing  the  opinions  of  those  whom  he  shall  think 
most  capable  of  judging  in  such  matters)  whether  it  will  be  useful  to  the 
Society,  all  things  being  considered,  with  a  view  to  God's  service,  which  it  has 
proposed  to  itself,  to  adrn't  this  College,  or  not.     But  if  in  the  course  of  time 
the  Society  finds  itself  burdened  with  the  load,  it  may  propose  and  determine, 

*  This  translation  of  PAF.T  Fotm  of  the  Constitutiones  Societatis  Jesu  was  made  from 
a  copy  printed  by  the  College  of  the  Society  in  Rome,  in  1558. 
17 


258  IGNATIUS  LOYOLA  AND  THE  SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

in  a  general  Congregation,  that  such  Colleges  be  relinquished;  or  see  that 
the  burden  be  lightened,  or  at  least  that  ampler  means  be  providod  to  bear  it. 
This  is  meant  however,  if  before  a  Congregation  of  this  sort,  the  General  have 
not  remedied  the  evil,  as  is  proper  in  the  Lord. 

3.  la  conjunction  with  the  whole  Society,  the  General  shall  have  the  power 
of  relinquishing  or  alienating  Colleges  or  Houses  already  admitted.     But  as 
this  is  as  it  were  to  remove  a  limb  from  the  body,  and  is  altogether  a  matter 
of  perpetual  and  serious  moment,  it  is  better  that  the  whole  be  consulted. 

4.  T7ithln  the  Colleges  of  the  Society,  let  no  care  of  souls,  nor  obligations 
to  say  Mass  nor  other  things  of  this  sort  be  allowed  which  are  very  apt  to 
divert  their  inmates  from  their  studies,  and  interfere  with  the  benefits  which 
are  sought  from  them  to  the  service  of  God;  in   the  same  way  also,  they 
shall  not  be  allowed  in  the  other  Houses,  nor  the  Churches  of  the  Professed 
Society,  which,  as  far  as  possible,  ought  to  be  left  at  liberty  to  undertake  the 
missions  of  tho  Apostolic  Chair,  and  other  works  of  piety  to  the  service  of 
God,  and  the  salvation  of  souls. 

5.  The  Society  shall   take  possession  of  the  Colleges   with  the  temporal 
property  which  belongs  to  them,  and  shall  appoint  rectors  duly  qualified  for 
the  office,  who  shall  undertake  the  care  of  maintaining  and  managing  their 
temporal  concerns,  and  provide  for  the  wants  as  well  of  the  building,  as  of  the 
scholars  (who  reside  in  the  Colleges)  and  of  those  who  are  under  probation  for 
admission,  and  those  also  who  without  the  Colleges  conduct  their  affairs.      The 
conduct  of  tho  entire  administration  shall  remain  in  the  rectors:  so  as  to  enable 
them  to  render  an  account,  whenever  and  to  whom  the  General  shall  appoint; 
and  since  tho  General  can  neither  convert  the  temporal  goods  of  the  Colleges 
to  his  own  use,  nor  that  of  his  relations,  nor  of  the  Professed  Society;  he  may 
therefore  conduct  himself  the  more  completely  above  all  suspicion  in  their 
superintendence,  to  the  greater  glory  and  service  of  God. 

6.  In  those  Colleges  which,  besides  preceptors,  can  maintain  twelve  scholars 
out  of  their  own  incomes,  for  the  greater  edification  of  the  people  alms  should 
neither  be  required,  nor  received,  nor  any  other  gifts.    If  the  revenues  are 
less  than  sufficient  to  maintain  this  number,  alms  may  be  received  but  not 
solicited;  unless  the  College  be  laboring  under  so  great  poverty  that  it  be 
necessary  to  ask,  at  least  from  some.    Then  indeed  (keeping  ever  before  then- 
eyes  the  service  of  God  and  the  general  good)  not  only  may  alms  be  solicited, 
but  they  may  beg  from  door  to  door  for  a  season,  whenever  necessity  re- 
quires it. 

III.       SCHOLARS  DESTINED  FOR  MEMBERS— CONDITIONS  OF  ADMISSIONS. 

1.  As  regards  the  scholars,  for  whose  instruction  the  Colleges  are  appointed, 
it  will  first  be  necessary  to  consider  in  the  Lord  what  kind  of  persons  they 
ought  to  be  who  are  sent,  or  admitted  to  them. 

2.  First  of  all,  no  one  shall  be  placed  in  any  College  of  the  Society  amongst 
the  Scholars  with  any  of  the  five  impediments  mentioned  in  the  second  part.* 
And  besides  the  coadjutors  necessary  to  the  service  or  assistance  of  the  College, 
the  rest  ought  to  be  such  that  it  may  reasonably  be  hoped  they  will  prove 
useful  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord  Christ  after  our  example,  and  in  the  culti- 
vation of  learning. 

These,  the  more  intellectual  they  are,  and  the  more  adorned  with  good 
morals,  and  the  more  healthy  to  sustain  the  labor  of  study,  the  more  proper 
will  they  be,  and  the  sooner  they  may  be  sent,  to  be  admitted  into  our  Colleges. 

3.  In  addition  to  this,  they  only  shall  be  admitted  among  the  approved 
scholars,  who  have  been  under  probation  in  our  Houses  and  Colleges,  and  at 
the  end  of  two  years  spent  in  various  trials  and  proofs,  and  after  taking  the 
vows,  with  a  promise  to  enter  the  Society,  they  shall  be  admitted  to  spend 
their  lives  within  it  forever  to  the  glory  of  God. 

4.  Besides  these,  some  may  be  admitted  to  study,  who,  before  the  two  veal's, 
and  the  probation  above-mentioned,  are  sent  to  the  Colleges  from  the  Houses 
(because  such  a  course  seems  expedient  in  the  Lord)  or  are  admitted  into  them; 
but  they  shall  not  be  deemed  approved  scholars,  until  at  the  expiration  of  the 
two  years,  and  after  their  vows  and  promise  have  been  made,  they  are  placed 
among  the  number  of  the  approved. 

IV.      SUPERINTENDENCE  OF  SCHOLARS. 

1.  Let  that  suffice,  which  is  set  forth  in  the  third  part,  of  the  superintend- 
ence of  temporal  and  external  affairs  of  the  Colleges,  in  all  that  relates  to  the 

*  The  impediments  specified  in  Part  Second  of  the  Constitutions  are  (1)  incorrigibility 
in  any  depraved  ejections  or  vices;  (2)  individual  traits  injurious  or  prejudicial  to  the 
place  and  good  estate  of  the  society;  (3)  incapacity'  of  adaptation  to  a  life  of  obedience 
and  salf -negation;  (4)  discovery  of  relations  concealed  upon  lirst  examinations. 


IGNATIUS  LOYOLA  AND   THE   SOCIETY  OF   JESUS.  239 

body.  This  however  m list  be  noted  with  peculiar  care,  that  the  Scholars  study 
not  at  seasons  unfavorable  to  bodily  health;  that  they  devote  sufficient  time  to 
sleep,  and  observe  moderation  in  their  mental  labors.  So  will  it  coma  to  pass 
that  they  will  be  able  longer  to  persevere  both  in  the  acquisition  of  learning 
and  in  employing  it  to  the  glory  of  God. 

2.  In  what  relates  to  spirituals;  the  ordering  of  those  who  are  admitted  into 
the  Colleges,  and  of  those  admitted  into  the  Houses  will  be  the  same,  so  long 
as  they  are  under  probation.    After  probation,  when  they  are  at  leisure  to 
acquire  teaming,  as  on  the  one  hand  care  must  be  taken  lest  in  the  eagerness 
of  study  the  love  of  the  solid  virtues  and  a  religious  life  grow  cold;  so,  on  the 
other,  too   much  time  must  not  be   given  to   mortifications,  prayers,  and 
lengthened  meditations.    Since  to  labor  in  learning  which  is  acquired  with  the 
sincere  purpose  of  serving  God,  and  in  a  certain  sense  requires  the  whole  man, 
will  not  be  less  pleasing  to  God,  and  our  Lord,  but  even  more  so,  than  to  be 
occupied  in  religious  exercises  during  the  time  of  study. 

3.  Therefore,  besides  the  Sacraments  of  Confession  and  Communion  (in 
which  they  must  participate  once  a  week)  and  the  Mass  which  they  muct  hear 
daily,  let  them  employ  one  hour  in  reciting  the  Office  of  the  most  blessed 
Virgin  Mary,  and  in  examining  their  consciences  twice  a  day,  with  other 
prayers  according  to  their  particular  devotion  to  fill  up  the  nour,  if  not 
already  occupied.    All  which  they  shall  do  at  the  appointment  and  judgment 
of  their  superiors  to  whom  as  in  ine  place  of  Christ  they  owe  obedience. 

4.  Others,  such  as  those  coadjutors  who  have  not  learned  to  read,  besides 
Mass,  may  spend  an  hour  also  in  reciting  their  Rosary,  or  Crown  of  the  most 
blessed  Virgin  Mary,   with  a  double  examination  daily,  or  other  prayers, 
according  to  their  particular  devotion,  as  was  set  forth  for  the  scholars. 

5.  As  an  increase  of  devotion,  and  to  raise  the  sense  of  obligation  with 
which  they  are  bound  to  God,  and  for  a  greater  confirmation  of  the  students 
in  their  calling,  it  will  be  expedient  to  renew  twice  a  year,  viz.,  at  the  feasts 
of  the  Resurrection  and  the  Nativity,  the  simple  vows  which  they  have  taken 
according  to  the  formulary  in  the  Fifth  Part,  Chapter  IV.    And  let  him  who 
did  not  take  them  at  the  conclusion  of  the  two  years,  as  is  set  forth  in  the 
Examen,  take  them  now.* 

6.  In  their  way  to  the  public  schools  (and  let  them  go  nowhere  else  without 
permission  of  the  Superiors)  let  them  go  and  return  together  with  that  exterior 
and  interior  modesty  which  is  suitable  to  the  edification  of  themselves  and 
others;  and  let  their  conversation  with  the  exterior  scholars  be  limited  to  liter- 
ature or  spiritual  advancement ;  as  shall  be  thought  more  profitable  to  all  to 
the  greater  glory  of  God. 

v.    STUDIES. 

1.  As  the  object  of  the  learning  to  be  acquired  in  this  Society  is  by  the 
divine  favor  to  benefit  their  own  and  their  neighbors'  souls;  this  will  be  the 
measure  in  general  and  in  particular  cases,  by  which  it  shall  be  determined  to 
what  studies  our  scholars  should  apply,  and  how  far  they  should  proceed  in 
them.    And  since,  generally  speaking,  the   acquisition  of  divers  languages, 
Logic,  Natural  and  Moral  Philosophy,   Metaphysics,  and  Theology,  as  well 
Scholastic,  as  that  which  is  termed  Positive,  and  the  Sacred  Scriptures  assist 
that  object;  they  who  are  sent  to  our  Colleges  shall  give  their  attention  to  the 
study  of  these  faculties;  and  they  shall  bestow  greater  diligence  upon  those 
which  the  supreme  moderator  of  the  studies  shall  consider  most  expedient  in 
the  Lord  to  the  aforesaid  end,  the  circumstances  of  tune,  place,  and  person 
being  considered. 

2.  Descending  to  particular  persons;  what  each  individual  shall  study  must 
be  left  to  the  prudence  of  the  Superiors.    But  the  services  of  any  one  endowed 
with  good  natural  abilities  will  be  useful  in  proportion  to  his  attainment  of 
solid  learning  in  the  faculties  above-mentioned. 

3.  The  rector  shall  consider  and  determine  of  the  tune  to  be  spent  on  any 
of  these  sciences,  and  when  to  proceed  to  more  useful  things,  after  a  fitting 
examination. 

4.  Let  them  follow  in  each  faculty  the  safer  and  more  approved  doctrine, 
and  those  authors  who  teach  it;  the  care  of  this  shall  belong  to  the  rector, 
who  shall  follow  that  which  is  established  throughout  the  society  to  the 
greater  glory  of  God. 

VI.      AIDS  TO  INSTRUCTION. 

1.  That  the  scholars  may  make  the  greater  proficiency  in  learning,  let  them 
in  the  first  place  labor  to  watch  over  the  purity  of  their  souls,  and  to  maintain 

*  The  vow  binds  the  proposed  to  unqualified  obedience  to  the  General  and  Vice- 
General  of  the  Society,  and  special  obedience  to  the  Pope  and  Missions,  as  well  as  to 
perpetual  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience. 


260  IGNATIUS   LOYOLA  AND  THE   SOCIETY  OF  JESUS. 

th3  proper  object  of  their  studies,  aiming  at  nothing  else  in  their  literary  pur- 
suits than  the  divine  glory  and  the  advantage  of  souls;  and  in  their  prayers 
let  them  often  beg  for  grace,  that  they  may  improve  in  learning  to  this  end. 

2.  Let  them  besides  seriously  and  constantly  resolve  to  apply  their  thoughts 
to  study,  and  assure  themselves  that  they  can  do  nothing  more  acceptable  to 
God  in  the  Colleges,  than  if  with  the  intention  above  expressed,  they  give 
themselves  diligently  to  learning.      And  even  though  they  never  call  into 
exercise   what  they  have  leamod,  let  them   persuade  themselves  that    to 
have  undertaken  the  labors  of  study,  as  is  fitting,  out  of  mere  obedience  and 
charitv,  is  a  work  of  great  merit  in  the  sight  of  the  divine  and  supreme 
Majesty. 

3.  Let  all  impediments  which  distract  the  thoughts  from  study  be  removed, 
whether  of  devotion,  and  mortification,  which  are  undertaken  exorbitantly, 
or  without  due  order,  or  of  cares  and  occupations  which  arise  at  home  from 
domestic  duties,  or  abroad  in  conferences,  confessions,  and  other  duties  towards 
our  neighbors:  so  far  at  least  as  they  may  be  declined  in  the  Lord.    For  it  is 
praiseworthy  that  these  employments  be  deferred,  however  pious,  until  their 
studies  be  completed,  that    hereby  they  may  afterwards  render  themselves 
more  useful  to  others  with  that  learning  which  they  may  have  acquired.    And 
let  all  these  things  be  done  with  greater  zeal  for  God's  service  and  glory. 

4.  Order  must  be  observed  in  study,  that  they  lay  a  solid  foundation  in  the 
Latin  language  sooner  than  in  the  liberal  arts;  and  in  these  before  they  attend 
to  scholastic  theology;  and  in  this,  before  positive  theology.     The  Sacred 
Scriptures  may  be  taken  in  hand  either  at  the  same  time,  or  afterwards. 

5.  Those  languages  in  which  they  were  either  written  or  translated  may  be 
learned  sooner  or  later  as  the  superior  in  the  variety  of  concurring  causes  and 
the  difference  of  persons  may  think  best.    So  the  order  of  time  will  be  left  to 
his  prudence.    But  if  our  scholars  apply  to  the  study  of  languages,  among 
other  objects  to  which  their  attention  may  be  directed,  let  this  be  one,  namely, 
to  defend  the  version  sanctioned  by  the  Church. 

6.  Let  all  the  scholars  attend  the  lectures  of  the  public  professors  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  Rector  of  the  College;  which  professors,  whether  they  belong 
to  the  society  or  not,  it  is  to  be  wished,  should  be  learned,  dliigent,  assiduous, 
and  anxious  for  the  improvement  of  the  students  as  well  in  the  lectures  as  in 
their  other  literary  employments. 

7.  Let  there  be  a  common  library  in  the  colleges,  if  possible:  of  which  a 
key  should  be  given  to  those  who  in  the  Rector's  judgment  ought  to  have  it. 
Besides  these,  however,  every  one  shall  have  such  other  books  as  are  necessary. 

8.  Let  the  scholars  be  assiduous  in  attending  lectures,  and  diligent  in  pre- 
paring for  them;  and  when  they  have  heard  them,  in  repeating  them;  in 
places  which  they  have  not  understood,  making   inquiry;  in  others,  where 
needful,  taking  notes,  to  provide  for  any  future  defect  of  memory. 

9.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Rector  of  the  College  to  see  whether  masters 
and  scholars  do  their  duty  in  the  Lord,  or  not. 

10.  Since  the  habit  of  debating  is  useful,  especially  to  the  students  of  Arts 
and  Scholastic  Theology,  let  our  scholars  attend  the  ordinary  deputations  of 
the  schools  to  which  they  belong  (though  they  be  not  under  the  control  of  the 
society),  and  see  that  they  afford  a  distinct  specimen  of  their  learning,  but  with 
all  modesty.    It  is  proper  also  that  on  every  Sunday,  or  on  some  other  day  of 
the  week,  some  one  in  our  College  appointed  by  the  Rector  from  any  class  of 
students,  of  arts  or  theology,  after  dinner  should  undertake  some  positions  to 
be  maintained  (if  no  impediment  intervene  from  any  peculiar  cause),  to  be 
affixed  to  the  school  doors  the  previous  evening,  where  all  who  please  may 
assemble  to  dispute  or  listen;  which  being  briefly  stated  by  him  who  is  to 
reply,  it  shall  be  permitted  to  all  to  debate  whether  within  or  without  our 
College;  but  some  one  should  preside  to  moderate  the  debaters,  and  elicit  and 
demonstrate  to  the  benefit  of  the  audience  the  doctrine  which  ought  to  be 
held;  and  also  to  give  the  signal  to  those  who  dispute  to  conclude,  and  so  to 
divide  the  time  that  an  opportunity  of  speaking  be  allowed  to  ail  as  far  as 
possible. 

11.  Besides  these  two  sorts  of  disputations  above  mentioned,  let  a  time  be 
set  on  each  day  for  debating  in  the  colleges,  a  moderator  being  appointed,  as 
we  have  said;  so  that,  by  these  means,  their  talents  may  be  exercised,  and  the 
difficulties  which  occur  in  these  faculties  may  be  the  better  elucidated  to  the 
glory  of  God. 

12.  Those  who  are  studying  polite  literature  shall  have  their  appointed 
tunes  also  for  conferring  and  disputing  on  what  pertains  to  those  studies, 
before  some  one  who  shall  direct  them;  and  on  Sundays,  or  other  appointed 
days  after  dinner,  they  shall  alternately  either  maintain  positions  in  their  own 
studies,  or  exercise  themselves  in  writing  verse  or  prose;  whether  it  be  done 


IGNATIUS   LOYOLA   AND   THE   SOCIETY   OF    JESUS.  261 

extempore,  the  subject  being  then  proposed  to  discover  their  readiness;  or 
whether  they  read  in  public  what  they  have  composed  in  private  on  a  theme 
previously  given  them. 

13.  Let  all  speak  Latin  commonly,  but  especially  the  students  in  humanity, 
and  commit  tip  memory  whatever  shall  be  sot  by  their  masters,  and  diligently 
cultivate  their  style  in  composition;  and  let  some  one  take  the  trouble  to  cor- 
rect tliem.    It  shall  also  be  allowed  to  some,  at  the  Rector's  pleasure,  to  read 
certain  other  authors  in  private,  besides  those  which  are  publicly  studied;  and 
every  week  on  an  appointed  day,  after  dinner,  let  one  of  the  more  advanced 
pronounce  a  Latin  or  Greek  oration  on  a  subject  tending  to  the  edification  of 
the  inmates,  by  which  they  may  be  animated  to  greater  perfection  in  the  Lord. 

14.  Moreover,  the  students  of  arts  and  theology  especially,  and  all  the 
others  should  have  their  private  quiet  study,  where  they  may  learn  better  and 
more  exactly  what  has  been  treated  of. 

15.  As  the  over  earnestness  of  some  in  their  studies  ought  to  be  repressed, 
so  others  who  require  it  ought  to  be  stimulated,  incited,  and  animated  to  their 
duties;  and  that  the  Rector  may  more  effectually  do  this,  he  should  ascertain 
himself,  from  personal  observation  and  by  means  of  another  to  whom  he  shall 
have  entrusted  the  office  of  Syndic  or  Visitor  of  Studies,  in  what  way  the 
scholars  do  their  duty.    And  if  he  shall  perceive  that  any  one  during  his 
studies  wastes  his  time,  that  he  is  unwilling  or  unable  to  make  progress  in  lit- 
erature; it  will  be  proper  to  remove  him,  and  put  some  one  in  his  place,  who 
shall  make  more  proficiency  in  the  object  appointed  hi  the  Colleges  for  God's 
service. 

16.  The  study  of  any  faculty  being  completed,  it  will  be  well  to  go  over  it 
again  in  private,  reading  one  or  more  authors  than  before;  at  the  Rector's  dis- 
cretion.   He  may  moreover  reduce  to  writing,  if  the  Rector  thinks  proper, 
more  briefly,  distinctly,  and  accurately,  whatever  in  that  same  faculty  he  nad 
previously  written  during  the  course  of  lectures  when  he  had  less  skill  than 
now  at  the  conclusion  of  the  course. 

17.  At  the  appointed  times  let  them  prepare  themselves  for  the  public  exam- 
inations and  responses;  and  they  who  after  diligent  scrutiny  may  be  found 
worthy  shall  be  advanced  to  the  usual  degrees.     Let  them  not  however  assume 
any  particular  places,  although  such  as  are  generally  assigned  in  the  University 
wherein  they  take  tneir  degree,  that  they  may  avoid  every  appearance  of 
ambition  and  other  inordinate  passions;  but  let  them  all  arrange  themselves 
together  without  precedence,  and  incur  no  expense  unbecoming  paupers  in 
these  degrees,  to  which  they  should  be  advanced  without  detriment  to  their 
humility,  and  with  no  other  motive  than  to  render  themselves  more  useful  to 
their  neighbors  to  the  glory  of  God. 

18.  Whether  it  may  be  better  for  their  own  benefit  or  that  of  others  for 
those  who  have  accomplished  the  course  of  their  studies,  to  read  privately  or 
publicly,  shall  be  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  superior,  who  shall  determine 
whatever  he  may  think  most  expedient  in  the  Lord. 

VII.      SCHOOLS  FOB  PERSONS  NOT  DESIGNING  TO  BECOME   MEMBERS. 

1.  Regard  being  had  not  only  to  the  progress  of  our  own  scholars  in  litera- 
ture, but  to  the  progress  also  of  those  not  of  our  society  in  literature  and 
morals,  whom  we  have  admitted  into  our  Colleges  to  be  instructed,  let  public 
schools  be  opened,  wherever  it  may  conveniently  be  done,  at  least  for  polite 
learning.     In  the  more  important  studies,  they  may  be  opened  with  reference 
to  the  circumstances  of  the  places  where  our  Colleges  exist,  always  keeping 
before  our  eyes  what  shall  be  most  pleasing  to  God. 

2.  In  these  schools  let  that  method    be  pursued  by  which  the  external 
scholars  may  be  well  instructed  in  all  that  relates  to  Christian  learning;  and  let 
care  be  taken,  as  far  as  possible,  they  may  attend  the  Sacrament  of  Confession 
once  a  month,  frequently  hear  the  word  of  God,  and  hi  short  imbibe,  together 
with  learning,  morals  becoming  Christians.    And  because,  in  particular  sub- 
jects, there  must  needs  be  much  variety,  according  to  the  difference  of  places 
and  persons,  we  shall  not  here  insist  upon  them  severally;  but  this  may  be  de- 
clared that  rules  should  be  established  in  every  College  which  shall  embrace  all 
necessary  points.    And  we  may  in  this  place  recommend  that  the  correction 
which  the  external  scholars  require  shall  never  be  withheld  ;  only  let  it  be  ad- 
ministered by  some  one  who  is  not  of  our  society. 

3.  As  it  is  peculiar  to  our  profession  to  receive  no  temporal  remuneration 
for  spiritual  services,  in  which  according  to  our  Institute  we  are  engaged  for 
the  service  of  our  fellow-creatures;  it  is  not  expedient  to  receive  any  endov,*- 
rnent  of  a  College,  by  which  the  society  shall  be  bound  to  maintain  a  preacher, 
or  confessor,  or  lecturer  in  Theology.    For  although  a  regard  to  equity  an:  I 
gratitude  should  stir  us  to  attend  with  increased  diligence  to  the  said  ministra- 


262 


IGNATIUS  LOYOLA  AND  THE  SOCIETY  OP  JESUS. 


tions  which  belong  to  our  Institute;  yet  in  our  Colleges  which  have  been 
founded  with  greater  liberality  and  devotion,  no  obligations  or  conditions  shall 
be  admitted,  which  may  derogate  from  the  sincerity  of  our  manner  of  proceed- 
ing, namely  to  give  freely  what  we  have  freely  received;  still,  for  the  support 
of  those  who  labor  or  study  for  the  common  good  of  the  College,  that  endoiv- 
ment  may  be  accepted  which  the  charity  of  the  founders  assigns  to  the  glory 
of  God. 

VtEL      ADAPTATION  OF  INSTRUCTION  TO  FUTURE  WORK. 

1.  Looking  to  the  object  to  which  the  studies  of  our  society  are  directed,  it 
will  contribute  to  that  end,  that  they  begin  to  habituate  themselves  to  wield 
their  spiritual  weapons  for  the  benefit  of  their  neighbors.     For  although  this 
should  be  done  in  our  Houses  more  properly  and  continuously,  it  should  yet  be 
commenced  in  our  Colleges. 

2.  First  of  all,  those  who  in  the  judgment  of  the  superior  are  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  sacred  orders,  should  be  instructed  in  the  method  of  saying  Mass,  so 
that  besides  intelligence  and  internal  devotion,  they  may  exhibit  a  becoming 
external  mannsr  to  the  edification  of  the  hearers;  and  that  all  the  society,  as 
far  as  possible,  may  use  the  same  ceremonies;  in  which  so  far  as  the  variety  of 
countries  shall  allow,  it  shall  follow  the  Roman  practice  as  being  more  general, 
and  that  which  the  Apostolic  See  has  adopted  in  a  more  peculiar  manner. 

3.  Let  them  accustom  themselves  also  in  setting  forth  their  sermons  and 
sacred  lectures  to  the  way  best  adapted  for  the  edification  of  the  people,  which 
differs  from  the  scholastic  method;  and  to  discharge  this  duty  let  them  labor 
to  acquire  the  vernacular  tongue  of  the  country  thoroughly.    There  are  other 
things  which  they  should  have  studied,  and  have  at  their  fingers'  ends,  which 
will  be  useful  to  this  duty:  and  in  short,  they  should  employ  all  means  which 
may  assist  them  to  discharge  this  office  the  better,  and  with  greater  spiritual 
profit  to  others. 

4.  Let  them  be  accustomed  also  to  the  ministration  of  the  Sacraments  of 
Confession  and  Communion,  and  endeavor  to  comprehend  and  discharge  that 
duty  not  only  as  relates  to  themselves  but  also  to  the  penitents  and  communi- 
cants, that  they  may  understand  and  receive  the  same  duly  and  usefully  to  the 
glory  of  God. 

5.  Let  them  accustom  themselves  to  communicate  their  spiritual  exercises 
to  others,  when  each  has  experienced  them  in  himself;  and  let  all  be  diligent 
not  only  to  give  an  explanation  of  them,  but  also  to  acquire  a  readiness  in 
wielding  this  kind  of  spiritual  arms  which  by  the  grace  of  God  is  felt  to  con- 


tribute so  largely  to  His  service. 
6.    Let  due  dilk 


igence  be  employed  in  acquiring  the  proper  method  of  teach- 
ing the  Catechism,  accommodated  to  the  intelligence  of  children  and  ignorant 
persons. 

7.  As  in  the  foregoing,  our  neighbors  are  helped  forward  in  living  well;  so 
care  must  be  taken  that  they  be  instructed  hi  whatever  is  available  towards 
dying  well;  and  let  it  be  understood  what  method  oujht  to  be  observed  at  that 
hour  which  is  so  momentous  to  the  ultimate  attainment  or  loss  of  everlasting 
happiness. 

Generally  speaking,  they  should  be  taught  what  method  should  be  pursued 
by  the  laborers  of  this  society,  (who  must  be  engaged  in  such  various  quarters 
of  the  world,  and  with  such  different  classes  of  men),  in  preventing  the  incon- 
veniencies  which  may  arise,  and  in  securing  the  emoluments  which  contribute 
to  the  greater  glory  of  God,  by  employing  all  the  means  which  can  possibly  be 
employed.  And  although  that  unction  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that  wisdom 
which  God  is  wont  to  communicate  to  those  who  confide  in  His  divine  Majesty, 
can  only  teach  this;  a  way  may  still  be  opened  in  some  measure  by  those 
lessons  which  tend  and  dispose  to  the  furtherance  of  divine  Grace. 

IX.      REMOVAL  OF  SCHOLARS. 

1.  Some  are  removed  from  the  Colleges  for  the  reasons  set  forth  in  the 
Second  Part,  and  in  the  manner  there  explained;  that  others  may  succeed 
them  who  shall  make  more  progress  to  the  service  of  God.     The  method  is  the 
same  both  for  Houses  and  Colleges. 

2.  Sometimes  individuals  shall  be  removed,  because  to  be  sent  elsewhere 
tends  to  their  greater  improvement  in  religion  or  learning,  or  to  the  general 
advantage  of  the  society;  as  it  might  happen,  if  one  who  had  already  passed 
through  the  course  of  arts,  in  a  certain  College  should  repeat  it  elsewhere, 
before  the  study  of  theology  be  commenced.    And  the  same  may  be  said,  if 
they  are  to  be  occupied  in  any  other  thing  to  the  greater  service  and  glory  of 
God. 


IGNATIUS    LOYOLA   AXD    THE    SOCIETY   OF    JESUS.  263 

8.  The  ordinary  method  of  removing  scholars  from  any  College  where  all 
the  aforesaid  sciences  are  taught,  shall  be,  when  each,  shall  have  accomplished 
his  studies,  his  course  of  arts  being  completed,  and  four  years  spent  in  the 
study  of  theology.  Arid  towards  the  conclusion  of  this  period  the  Rector  shall 
understand  that  it  is  his  duty  to  inform  the  General  or  Provincial,  and  repre- 
sent what  proficiency  they  have  made;  and  then  he  shall  follow  whatever 
instructions  he  may  receive  to  the  glory  of  God. 

X.      GOVERNMENT  OF  THE   COLLEGES. 

1.  The  Professed  Society  shall  have  the  supreme  care  or  superintendence  of 
the  Colleges  according  to  the  letters  of  the  Apostolic  See.     For  since  the  pro- 
fessed cannot  apply  any  portion  of  those  revenues  to  their  private  advantage 
or  their  own  use;  it  is  most  consonant  to  reason  that  they  will  proceed  with 
greater  purity  and  religion  more  constantly  and  perseveringly  in  those  things 
which  are  necessary  to  the  good  government  of  the  Colleges  to  the  greater 
service  of  God  and  our  Lord. 

2.  Except  what  relates  to  the  Constitutions,  and  the  dissolution  or  aliena- 
tion of  our  Colleges,  the  whole  power  and  administration,   and  (generally 
speaking)  the  execution  of  this  superintendence  shall  belong  to  the  General, 
who  keeping  before  his  eyes  the  object  towards  which  the  Colleges  and  the 
Society  at  large  are  directed,  shall  best  perceive  what  is  beneficial  for  them. 

3.  The  General  h  Imself  therefore,  or  some  one  empowered  by  him  for  this 
duty,  shall  appoint  one  of  the  Coadjutors  of  the  Society  to  preside  over  each 
College;  who  shall  give  an  account  of  the  duty  assigned  to  him  to  the  Pro- 
vincial, or  whomsoever  the  General  shall  nominate.    And  the  General  also 
may  remove  the  Rector,  and  relieve  him  from  his  responsibility,   as  shall 
appear  to  him  most  desirable  in  the  Lord. 

4.  Care  should  be  taken  that  he  who  undertakes  the  office  of  Rector  should 
be  most  exemplary,  of  great  edification,  and  strict  mortification  in  all  de- 
praved inclinations,  and  tried  especially  in  obedience,  and  in  humility?  one 
endowed  with  discretion,  skilled  in  government,  versed  in  business,  and  ex- 
perienced in  spiritual  concerns;  knowing  how  to  interchange  severity  with 
mildness  in  due  time  and  place,  anxious,  laborious,  learned;  in  short  one  in 
whom  the  Superiors  may  confide,  and  to  whom  they  may  safely  communicate 
their  power;  since,  the  ampler  this  authority,  the  more  effectually  the  Colleges 
will  be  directed  to  the  greater  glory  of  God. 

5.  It  will  be  the  Rector's  duty,  in  the  first  place,  to  sustain,  as  it  were  upon 
his  shoulders,  the  whole  College  by  prayer  and  holy  desires;  in  the  next,  to  see 
that  the  Constitutions  be  observed,  to  watch  over  all  the  Collegians  with  all 
solicitude;  to  defend  them  from  all  that  may  hurt  them  at  home  and  abroad, 


as  well  by  prevention,  as  by  applying  a  remedy  when  mischief  occurs;  ac- 
cording both  to  the  general  interest  and  also  that  of  the  individual;  by  seeing 
that  they  improve  in  virtue  and  learning;  sscuring  their  health,  and  likewise 


cording  both  to  the  general  interest  and  also  that  of  the  individual;  b 
that  they  improve  in  virtue  and  learning;  sscuring  their  health,  and  l 
the  property  of  the  College  as  well  moveable  as  immoveable;  prudently  ap- 
pointing those  who  hold  dom3stic  employments,  and  observing  how  they  die- 
charge  their  duty;  and  as  he  shall  judge  moit  expedient  in  the  Lord,  keeping 
them  hi  their  places,  or  removing  them;  and  generally  speaking,  he  shall  see 
that  that  which  has  be^n  set  forth  in  the  previous  chapters  relating  to  the  Col- 
leges, be  observed.  L3t  him  be  mindful  also  of  the  subordination  to  be 
entirely  maintained  in  obedience,  not  only  to  the  General,  but  to  the  Provincial 
also,  informing  him  of  all  things  needful  to  be  communicated,  and  referring  to 
him  everything  of  moment;  obeying  all  his  injunctions  (seeing  he  also  has  a 
superior);  as  it  is  just  that  matters  be  referred  to  him,  and  obedience  be 
yielded  by  those  who  live  in  the  College;  who  should  greatly  revere  and  ven- 
erate their  Rector,  as  one  who  holds  the  place  of  Christ  our  Lord,  leaving  to 
him  the  free  disposition  of  themselves  and  their  concerns  with  unfeigned 
obedience;  keeping  nothing  concealed  from  him,  not  even  their  consciences, 
which  they  should  disclose  to  him,  as  is  set  forth  in  the  Examen,  at  the  ap- 
pointed seasons,  and  oftener  if  any  cause  require  it;  not  opposing,  not  con- 
tradicting, not  showing  an  opinion  in  any  case  opposed  to  his  opinion,  so  that 
by  the  union  of  the  same  sentiment  and  will,  ana  by  due  submission,  they  may 
the  better  be  maintained  and  forwarded  in  the  service  of  God. 

6.  Let  the  Rector  provide  not  only  the  necessary  number  of  officers  for  the 
good  management  of  the  House,  but  let  him  see  that  they  are  competent,  as 
far  as  possible,  to  their  employments;  to  every  one  let  him  give  his  regulations, 
containing  all  that  relates  to  their  several  duties,  and  see  that  no  one  inter- 
meddle with  ai.  other's  department.  Moreover,  as  whenever  it  is  necessary,  he 
should  provide  assistance  for  them,  so  whenever  they  have  time  to  spare,  he 
should  see  that  they  spend  it  profitably  to  the  service  of  God. 


264  IGNATIUS   LOYOLA   AND   THE   SOCIETY  OF   JESUS. 

7.  Among  the  officers  necessary  for  the  Rector,  in  the  first  place,  a  proper 
person  must  be  selected  to  be  Sub-rector,  or  Major  Com  5,  and  to  see  to  all 
things  which  appertain  to  the  general  good.     There  shculd  be  a  Syndic  also  to 
superintend  external  concerns;  one  to  see  to  spiritual  affairs,  and  two  or  more 
besides,  in  whose  probity  and  prudence  the  Rector  has  great  reliance;  and  with 
whom  he  may  consult  on  the  more  difficult  occasions,  and  such  as  seem  to  in- 
volve the  greater  glory  of  God.    Others  also  are  needful  for  particular  duties. 

8.  Let  the  Rector  see  that  the  Collegians  pay  to  every  man  in  the  discharge 
of  his  duty  an  entire  obedience;  that  the  other  officers  obey  the  Sub-rector, 
and  himself  also,  just  as  he  commands  them. 

It  may  be  well  to  state  this  in  general,  that  those  who  have  to  exact  obedience 
from  others  should  set  them  an  example  of  that  obedience  which  they  should 
pay  to  their  superiors  in  the  place  of  Christ. 

9.  The  maintenance  of  regularity  as  to  time  in  studies,  prayers,  masses, 
lectures,  food,  sleep,  and  other  things  will  be  useful  in  all  respects;  and  a  signal 
should  be  given  at  stated  hours;  at  the  sound  of  which,  let  all  forthwith  betake 
themselves  to  that  whereto  they  are  summoned,  not  stopping  to  complete  even 
a  single  letter.    It  will,  however,  pertain  to  the  Rector,  or  to  him  who  superin- 
tends, to  see  when  these  hours  are  to  be  changed  according  to  the  seasons  or 
other  sufficient  causes;  and  let  what  he  determines  be  observed. 

10.  The  Rector  should  himself  read  or  teach  the  Catechism  forty  days.    Let 
him  see  also  which  of  the  Collegians,  especially  towards  the  conclusion  of 
their  studies,  and  to  what  extent  at  home  and  abroad,  should  impart  instrue 
tion  to  others  in  conferences,  in  setting  spiritual  exercises,  in  hearing  confer 
sions,  in  sermons,  lectures,  or  explanations  of  the  Catechism,  partly  for  theiu 
own  improvement,  partly  for  the  benefit  of  others  as  well  within  as  without; 
and  all  things  duly  considered,  let  him  provide  for  whatever  he  shall  perceive 
most  pleasing  to  the  divine  and  supreme  Goodness,  and  His  greater  service  and 
glory. 

XI.      ADMISSION  OF    UNIVERSITIES. 

1.  The  same  reason  in  charity,  for  which  Colleges  are  admitted,  and  public 
schools  maintained  in  them  not  only  for  the  edification  of  our  own  scholars, 
in  learning  and  morals  but  still  more  of  those  that  are  without,  may  be  ex- 
tended to  the  undertaking  of  the  care  of  Universities;  that  in  them  this  ben- 
efit may  be  enlarged,  and  be  wider  spread  as  well  in  the  sciences  which  are 
taught  as  in  the  men  who  frequent  them,  and  the  degrees  to  which  they  attain; 
so  that  in  other  places  they  may  teach  with  authority,  what  they  have"  in  these 
thoroughly  learned  to  the  glory  of  God. 

2.  On  what  conditions  and  obligations,  and  in  what  places  these  Universities 
shall  be  admitted,  is  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  General  of  the  Society;  who 
having  heard  the  opinions  of  his  assistants,  and  of  others  whom  he  may 
choose  to  consult,  shall  determine  within  himself  whether  they  shall  be  ad- 
mitted.   But  when  they  have  been  once  admitted  he  shall  have  no  power  to 
dissolve  them  without  the  concurrence  of  a  General  Congregation. 

3.  Since  religious  peace  and  spiritual  occupations  allow  not  that  distraction 
of  mind  nor  other  annoyances  to  the  Society  which  attend  the  dutv  of  judging 
in  civil  or  criminal  proceedings,  no  jurisdiction  of  this  kind  shall  oe  permitted 
which  the  society  might  exercise  either  of  itself,  or  by  others  depending  on  it; 
although  it  is  proper  in  all  that  peculiarly  relates  to  the  welfare  of  the  Uni- 
versity that  the  ministers  of  ordinary  justice  whether  secular  or  ecclesiastical 
should  fulfil  the  pleasure  of  the  Rector  of  the  University  as  signified  to  them 
touching  the  punishment  of  its  scholars,  and  generally  promote  the  interests 
of  learning,  especially  when  recommended  to  them  by  the  Rector. 

XII.      SCIENCES  IN  THE  UNIVERSITIES. 

1.  As  the  object  of  the  society  and  its  studies  is  to  assist  their  neighbors  in 
the  knowledge  and  love  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  their  own  souls;  and  as  to 
this  end  the  most  proper  means  is  the  study  of  theology,  the  Universities  of 
the  society  shall  chiefly  labor  therein,  and  diligently  teach  by  sufficient  masters 
whatever  relates  to  the  Scholastic  doctrine  and  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  so 
much  of  the  positive  as  contributes  to  this  pur  appointed  end,  without  entering 
upon  the  portion  of  the  Canons  which  ministers  to  contentious  courts  of  law. 

2.  And  since  both  the  study  of  theology  and  its  practice  demand,  especially 
in  these  tunes,  a  knowledge  of  humanity,  and  the  Latin,  Greek  and  Hebrew 
languages,  competent  professors  of  these  shall  be  appointed  in  adequate  num- 
bers.   Professors  also  may  be  appointed  for  other   languages,  as  Chaldaic, 
Arabic,  and  Indian,  wherever  they  shall  appear  necessary  or  useful  to  the 
aforesaid  end,  regard  being  paid  to  the  various  regions,  and  the  motives  which 
lead  to  their  study. 


IGNATIUS   LOYOLA  AND  THE  SOCIETY  OF  JESUS.  2 05 

3.  And  since  the  arts  or  natural  sciences  dispose  the  mind  to  theology,  and 
contribute  to  its  perfect  study  and  practice,  and  of  themselves  assist  in  the 
same  object,  let  them  be  taught  by  learned  preceptors,  and  with  proper  dili- 
gence,sincerely  seeking  the  honor  and  glory  of  God  in  all  things. 

4.  The  study  of  medicine  and  of  the  law  shall  not  be  engaged  in  within  the 
Universities  of  our  society;  or  at  least,  the  society  shall  not  take  that  duty 
upon  itself,  as  being  remote  from  our  institute. 

XIII.     ARRANGEMENT  AND  ORDER  OF  STUDIES. 

1.  A  proper  arrangement  and  order  of  study  must  be  observed  both  morn- 
ing and  evening  for  the  subordinate  faculties  and  theology. 

2.  And  though  some  variety  may  occur  in  this  arrangement,  and  in  the 
hours  assigned  to  study  in  different  countries  and  seasons,  let  all  at  least  agree 
in  this  that  everywhere  that  only  be  done  which  shall  be  deemed  most  ex- 
pedient to  the  greatest  progress  in  learning. 

3.  The  lectures  which  are  read  in  public,  and  the  various  professors  shall  be 
appointed  with  reference  to  the  intelligence  and  number  of  the  audience;  they 
shall  particularly  inspect  the  progress  of  every  one  of  their  scholars,  and 
demand  an  account  of  the  lectures;  see  that  they  are  repeated,  and  that  the 
students  in  humanity  cultivate  their  conversational  powers,  speaking  Latin 
and  improving  their  style  by  writing;  enjoining  frequent  disputations,  and 
especially  on  the  superior  students,  for  which  certain  days  and  hours  shall  be 
appointed,  when  they  shall  debate,  not  only  with  their  equals,  but  the  inferior 
with  the  more  advanced  on  subjects  of  their  own  selection;  which  also  in  turn 
the  more  advanced  shall  do  with  the  less  forward,  descending  (in  their  turn)  to 
the  studies  in  which  these  are  engaged,  and  the  perceptors  with  one  another, 
due  moderation  being  maintained,  and  a  president  appointed,  to  break  off  the 
debate,  and  to  declare  what  doctrine  should  be  elicited  from  the  discussion. 

4.  It  will  be  the  duty  of  the  Rector  either  by  himself  or  the  ChanceDor  ever 
to  see  that  the  new-comers  be  examined,  and  placed  in  those  classes,  and  under 
those  preceptors  which  are  most  fitting;  and  it  shall  be  left  to  his  discretion, 
after  hearing  the  opinion  of  the  persons  appointed  to  that  duty,  whether  they 
should  remain  longer  in  the  same  class,  or  be  advanced  to  a  higher.    He  also 
shall  decide  respecting  the  study  of  languages,  except  Latin,  whether  they 
should  be  engaged  in  before  or  after  arts  and  theology,  and  how  long  each 
student  should  apply  to  them.    So  in  any  of  the  higher  sciences,  he  shall  settle 
with  due  regard  to  the  inequality  of  talents  and  age,  when  each  should  com- 
mence and  now  long  occupy  himself  in  them;  although  it  will  be  best  that 
they  who  are  in  the  vigor  of  life  and  intellect  should  endeavor  to  advance  in 
all,  and  become  conspicuous  to  the  glory  of  God. 

5.  As  assiduity  in  literary  pursuits  is  necessary,  so  is  somo  relaxation  also. 
Although  it  shall  be  left  to  the  Rector  to  consider  what  this  should  be,  and  at 
what  periods,  the  circumstances  of  persons  and  places  being  attended  to. 

XTV.     TEXT  BOOKS. 

1.  In  general,  as  was  observed  in  treating  of  the  Colleges,  those  books  shall 
be  read  which  are  esteemed  of  more  solid  and  safe  doctrine  in  any  faculty. 
Nor  shall  those  be  entered  on  whose  doctrine  or  authors  are  suspected.    In 
every  University  they  shall  be  particularly  specified;  in  theology,the  Old  and 
New  Testament  shall  be  read,  and  the  Scholastic  Divinity  of  St.  Thomas,  and 
in  that  branch  of  divinity  called  positive,  those  authors  shall  be  selected  which 
appear  best  adapted  to  our  object. 

2.  As  touching  Latin  and  Greek  books  of  humanity,  both  in  our  Universities 
and  Colleges,  as  far  as  possible,  those  shall  not  be  used  which  contain  anything 
prejudicial  to  good  morals;  except  they   have  been  previously  purified  of 
improper  things  or  words. 

3.  In  Logic  and  Natural  and  Moral  Philosophy  and  Metaphysics,  the  doc- 
trine of  Aristotle  should  be  professed;  and  in  other  liberal  arts,  and  in  com- 
mentaries as  well  of  these  authors  as  of  humanity,  a  choice  being  made  of 
them,  let  those  be  selected  which  the  scholars  ought  to  see,  and  the  teachers 
chiefly  to  follow  in  the  doctrine  which  they  deliver.     But  hi  all  his  determina- 
tions, let  the  Rector  proceed  in  the  way  which  he  shall  judge  most  conducive 
in  the  whole  society  to  the  glory  of  God. 

XV.      TERMS  AND  DEGREES. 

1.  In  humanity  and  the  languages  the  period  for  the  completion  of  the 
course  cannot  be  determined,  by  reason  of  the  difference  of  talent  and  infor- 
mation of  the  students,  and  many  other  causes,  which  admit  of  no  other  lim- 


266 


IGNATIUS   LOYOLA    AND    THE    SOCIETY    OF   JESUS. 


itation  of  time  than  that  which  shall  appear  suitable  in  every  case  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  discreet  Rector  or  Chancellor. 

2.  In  the  study  of  arts  the  terms  shall  be  arranged,  in  which  the  natural 
sciences  shall  be  read,  and  for  which  not  less  than  three  years  will  be  sufficient; 
besides  these  a  further  period  of  six  months  shall  be  reserved  for  repetitions, 
and  keeping  the  acts  of  the  schools,  and  taking  the  Master's  degree,  by  those 
who  shall  take  it.     There  will  elapse  a  period  therefore  of  three  years  and  a 
half  before  any  advancement  to  the  Master's  degree.    And  in  every  year  one 
such  course  shall  be  commenced,  and  another  by  God's  help  accomplished. 

3.  The  course  of  theology  shall  comprise  six  years.    In  the  first  four  all 
that  is  necessary  shall  be  read;  in  the  other  two,  besides  the  repetition,  the 
usual  acts  for  the  Doctor's  degree  shall  be  kept  by  those  who  are  to  be  raised  to 
it.    Every  fourth  year  the  course  shall  ordinarily  be  commenced,  the  books  to 
be  read  being  so  arranged  that  a  student  may  begin  on  any  one  of  the  four 
years;   and  through  the  remainder  of  the  four  years  commenced  and  of  so 
much  of  the  four  years  to  follow,  down  to  the  period  corresponding  to  the 
term  when  he  began,  he  may  complete  a  course  of  theology  in  four  years. 

4.  In  the  degrees  as  well  of  Masters  of  Arts  as  of  Doctors  of  Divinity,  let 
three  things  be  observed:  First,  let  no  one  be  advanced  until  he  be  diligently 
and  publicly  examined  by  persons  appointed,  who  shall  carefully  perform  this 
duty,  and  he  shall  be  found  qualified  for  that  science,  whether  he  belong  to  the 
society  or  not;  Secondly,  That  the  door  may  be  closed  against  ambition,  no 
fixed  places  shall  be  assigned  to  those  who  are  raised  to  degrees,  but  let  them 
rather  study  in  honor  to  prefer  one  another,  without  observing  any  difference 
of  places;  Thirdly,  As  the  society  instructs  gratuitously,  so  let  it  raise  to 
degrees  gratuitously;  and  to  those  without  the  society,  let  very  little  expense, 
although  voluntary,  be  permitted,  lest  custom  at  length  obtain  the  force  of 
law;  and  in  this  point  in  the  course  of  time  they  exceed  moderation.    Let  the 
Rector  take  care  also  not  to  permit  the  masters,  or  any  others  of  the  society,  to 
receive,  for  themselves  or  the  College,  money,  or  any  gift  from  any  one  for 
anything  done  for  his  service;  since  the  Lord  Christ  alone  is  to  be  our  reward, 
our  exceeding  great  reward,  according  to  our  Institute. 

XVI.      MORAL  TRAINING  —  THE  CORRECTOR. 

1.     Let  diligence  be  used  that  they  who  come  to  the  Universities  of  the  society 
to  study  literature,  acquire  also  good  morals  worthy  of  Christians;  to  which  it 


preached.    And  each  of  the  preceptors  will  take  care  that  this  be  done  by 
pupils. 

2.  The  Catechism  shall  be  rehearsed  in  College  on  a  certain  day  of  every 
week,  and  care  shall  be  taken  that  boys  shall  learn  and  repeat  it,  and  that  all 
of  more  advanced  age,  if  possible,  may  know  it. 

3.  Every  week  also  there  shall  be  a  declamation,  (as  was  said  in  treating  of 
the  Colleges,)  by  one  of  the  students  on  subjects  tending  to  the  edification  of 
the  hearers,  and  inciting  them  to  increase  in  all  purity  and  virtue;  that  thus 
their  style  may  nob  only  be  exercised,  but  their  morals  improved.    And  all 
those  who  understand  Latin  shall  attend  these  declamations. 

4.  Neither  oaths  nor  injuries  by  word  or  deed  shall  be  permitted  in  the 
schools,  nor  anything  indecorous  or  dissolute  in  such  persons  not  belonging  to 
the  society  as  frequent  them.     Let  the  special  attention  of   perceptors  be 
turned  to  this,  as  well  in  the  lessons,  when  occasion  offers,  as  at  other  times,  to 
incite  their  pupils  to  the  service  and  love  of  God  and  of  all  virtues,  by  which 
they  may  please  Him,  and  to  refer  all  their  studies  to  this  object.    To  keep 
this  in  mind,  at  the  commencement  of  every  lesson,  let  some  one  pronounce  a 
short  prayer  to  this  effect,  which  the  perceptor  and  all  the  students  shall  listen 
to  uncovered. 

5.  Let  a  Corrector  be  appointed,  who  shall  not  be  of  the  society,  for  those 
who  offend  as  well  in  what  concerns  diligence  in  their  studies,  as  against  good 
morals,  and  for  whom  kind  words  alone,  and  exhortation  are  not  sufficient, 
and  let  him  keep  the  boys  in  fear,  and  chastise  those  who  need  it,  and  are 
capable  of  this  sort  of  correction.    And  when  neither  words  nor  the  offlce  of 
the  Corrector  shall  suffice,  and  amendment  in  any  individual  is  quite  hopeless, 
whilst  he  seems  to  be  injurious  to  others,  it  is  better  to  remove  him  from  the 
schools,  than  to  retain  him  where  he  does  no  good  to  himself,  and  only  harm 
to  others. 

But  this  decision  shall  be  left  to  the  Rector  of  the  University,  that  all  things 
may  proceed,  as  is  meet,  to  the  glory  and  service  of  God. 


IGNATIUS   LOYOLA  AND   THE   SOCIETY   OF   JESUS.  267 

XVII.      RECTOR,   CHANCELLOR,   AND  OTHER  OFFICIALS. 

1.  The  whole  care  or  superintendence  and  government  of  the  University 
shall  be  in  the  Rector,  who  may  also  be  head  of  the  leading  College  of  the 
Society,  and  endowed  with  such   gifts  of  God,  of  which  mention  has  been 
made,  that  he  may  satisfy  the  whole  University  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  duty 
committed  to  him  in  learning  and  morals.     His  election  shall  belong  to  the 
General,  or  him  to  whom  he  shall  depute  it,  as  the  Provincial  or  Visitor;  but 
the  confirmation  shall  always  rest  with  the  General.     The  Rector  shall  have 
four  counsellors,  or  assistants,  to  help  him  in  whatever  relates  to  his  duty,  and 
with  whom  he  may  regulate  things  of  moment. 

2.  There  shall  be  a  Chancellor  also,  a  man  well  versed  in  literature,  abound- 
ing with  right  zeal  and  judgment  in  what  is  committed  to  him;  whose  office 
shall  be  to  be  the  general  instrument  of  the  Rector  in  the  due  arrangement  of 
studies,  and  in  conducting  the  debates  in  public  acts,  and  in  ascertaining  that 
the  learning  of  those  who  are  to  be  admitted  to  acts  and  degrees  (which  he 
shall  himself  confer)  be  sufficient. 

3.  Let  there  be  a  Secretary  of  the  society,  who  shall  keep  a  book  in  which 
the  names  of  all  the  students  diligently  attending  the  schools  shall  be  written; 
and  who  shall  receive  their  engagements  of  obedience  to  be  paid  to  the  Rector, 
and  of  submission  to  the  constitutions;  and  who  shall  keep  the  seal  of  the 
Rector  and  of  the  University;  all   which  shall  be  done  without  any  expense 
to  the  students. 

4.  There  shall  be  a  Notary  also  to  give  public  assurance  of  degrees  taken 
and  other  occurrences.     Let  there  be  also  two  or  three  Beadles,  one  appointed 
for  the  faculty  of  languages,  another  of  arts,  the  third  of  theology. 

5.  The  University  shall  be  divided  into  these  three  faculties;  and  in  each  of 
them  let  there  be  appointed  a  Dean,  and  two  more  selected  from  among  those 
most  learned  in  that  faculty;  who,  being  summoned  by  the  Rector,  may 
declare  what  they  think  most  expedient  to  the  good  of  their  faculty;  and  if 
anything  of  this  sort  occur  to  them  whilst  engaged  together  in  these  affairs, 
they  shall  communicate  it  to  the  Rector,  even  without  any  summons  from  him. 

6.  In  matters  which  concern  one  faculty  only,  the  Rector  shall  summon  not 
only  the  Chancellor  and  his  assistants,  but  the  Dean  also  and  his  assistants  of 
that  faculty;  in  matters  which  relate  to  all,  the  Deans  and  assistants  of  all 
shall  be  summoned.    And  if  the  Rector  should  think  proper  to  summon  others 
to  the  Convocation  whether  belonging  to  the  society  or  not,  he  may  do  so; 
that  when  he  has  heard  all  their  opinions,  he  may  better  determine  what  is 
most  expedient. 

7.  There  shall  be  one  general  Syndic,  to  advise  the  Rector  and  Provincial 
and  General  as  well  concerning  persons  as  things,  as  he  shall  see  fit;  which 
Syndic  should  be  a  man  of  great  fidelity  and  judgment.     Besides  him,  the 
Rector  shall  have  his  special  Syndics,  to  bring  before  him  occurrences  requir- 
ing his  inspection  in  every  class.    And  as  he  shall  write  once  a  year  to  the 
General,  and  twice  to  the  Provincial  (who  shall  inform  the  General  when 
necessary),  respecting  all  the  Preceptors,  and  others  of  the  society;  so  also  his 
College,  and  Syndic,  and  Counsellors  shall  write  respecting  him  and  others;  so 
that  in  all  things  they  may  proceed  with  greater  circumspection  and  diligence 
each  in  his  own  peculiar  duty. 

8.  It  shall  be  left  to  the  consideration  of  the  General  when  any  University 
is  admitted,  whether  the  Rector,  Chancellor,  Beadles,  Doctors,  and  Masters 
should  wear  any  distinctions  by  which  they  may  be  recognized  in  the  Uni- 
versitv,  or  in  the  Public  Acts,  or  not;  and  if  they  wear  them,  what  they  shall 
be.    And  he  shall  appoint,  either  by  himself  or  another,  whatever  he  shall 
judge,  after  duly  weighing  all  the  circumstances,  to  be  most  conducive  to  the 
greater  glory  and  service  of  God  and  the  general  good,  which  is  our  only  aim 
in  this  and  all  our  other  doings. 

Note  by  the  Editor.— The  words  italicised  in  the  early  sections  of  this  article  were 
copied  inadvertently  from  the  editio  ,  followed  by  the  compositor,  of  '  The  Constitu- 
tion '  of  1558  printed  by  R'vington,  and  which  were  there  so  marked  for  a  special  pur- 
pose. The  pr  •vision-*  of  these  Constitutions  of  Loyola,  although  generally  followed  in 
the  original  estobPshment  of  institution?,  were  efis«  ntially  modified  in  the  details  of 
organization,  stud'es,  and  methods,  by  the  comnrs  ion  appointed  in  1581  bv  Acqnaviva, 
and  which  reported  in  1599,  the  Ratio  atque  Institutio  Studiorum—the  rule  and  methods 
of  the  Schools  of  the  Order  to  this  day. 


SCHOOL  LIFE  IN  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY, 

IN    THE    AUTOBIOGRAPHY    OF   THOMAS    PLATTER.* 


TUOMAS  PLATTER  was  born  in  the  year  1499,  near  Vispach,  in  the 
Canton  Valais,  in  Switzerland,  while  the  bells  were  ringing  for  mass, 
and  his  kinsmen  hoped  from  the  augury  that  he  would  become  a 
priest.  In  his  boyhood  he  tended  goats  and  kine ;  at  the  age  of  nine 
years  he  was  sent  to  his  uncle,  who  was  a  clergyman. 

"Here,"  we  cite  from  the  narrative,  "it  fared  ill  with  me;  for  he 
was  a  passionate  man,  and  I  but  an  awkward  peasant  boy.  He  beat 
me  without  mercy,  and  took  me  by  the  ears  and  lifted  me  up  from 
the  ground,  until  I  cried  like  a  goat  when  pierced  by  the  knife  of  the 
butcher,  and  at  many  such  times  the  neighbors  in  their  alarm,  would 
run  in,  fearing  he  would  kill  me. 

"  I  was  not  long  with  him,  for  about  that  time  there  came  into  the 
place  a  cousin  of  mine,  a  Summermatter,  who  had  been  at  the  schools, 
[to  become  a  priest,]  at  Ulm  and  Munich,  in  Bavaria ;  his  name  was 
Paul  Summermatter.  My  friends  spoke  to  him  of  me,  and  he 
promised  them  he  would  take  me  with  him,  and  place  me  at  school 
in  Germany.  When  I  heard  this,  I  fell  on  my  knees  and  prayed  to 
God  the  Almighty  that  he  would  help  me  out  of  the  hands  of  .the 
parson,  who  taught  me  nothing  at  all,  and  beat  me  continually.  For 
I  had  learned  nothing  but  how  to  sing  the  "  Salve  "  and  "  Um  Eier," 
with  the  other  scholars  in  the  village  who  were  under  my  uncle. 

"  When  Paul  was  ready  to  go,  he  appointed  to  meet  me  at  Skalden. 
Simon  Summermatter,  my  mother's  brother,  who  was  also  my 
guardian,  lived  on  the  road  to  Skalden ;  he  gave  me  a  gold  gulden, 
[sixty-three  cents ;]  this  I  held  in  my  hand  till  I  reached  the  town, 
and  often  looked  at  it  on  the  way,  to  see  whether  I  had  it  still  with 
me.  I  gave  it  to  Paul,  and  then  we  started  on  our  travels.  I  was 
now  obliged  to  forage  for  myself  and  my  Bacchant  Paul  likewise ;  and 
because  of  my  odd  appearance  and  rustic  dialect  the  people  gave  me 
food  in  plenty.  Beyond  the  Grimsen  mountains  we  came  to  an  ale- 
house where  I  saw  a  Dutch  tile  stove.  I  had  never  seen  one  before, 
and  as  the  moon  shone  on  it,  I  thought  it  was  a  great  calf,  for  I  saw 
only  two  of  the  tiles  glimmer,  and  they  looked  to  me  like  two  great 

*  Extracts  from  the  "  autobiography  of  Thomas  Platter,  composed  in  the  73d  year  of  his 
age,  for  the  instruction  of  his  son  Felix." — Raumer's  History  of  Education 


270  THOMAS  PLATTER. 

eyes.  In  the  morning  I  saw  geese  for  the  first  time  in  my  life  ;  and 
when  they  hissed  at  me,  I  thought  the  devil  had  come  to  eat  me,  and 
[  screamed  and  ran.  At  Lucerne,  I  first  saw  tile  roofs,  and  was 
greatly  taken  with  their  bright  red  color.  'We  came  next  to  Zurich. 
There  Paul  waited  for  some  comrades  who  were  going  with  us  to 
Meissen,  [in  present  Kingdom  of  Saxony.]  Meanwhile  I  had  to  forage 
to  get  a  subsistence  for  Paul ;  and  whenever  I  entered  an  ale-house, 
the  people  gathered  around  me  to  hear  my  Valais  dialect,  and  were 
quite  willing  to  give  me  food. 

"After  waiting  eight  or  nine  weeks  for  our  companions,  we  went  to 
Meissen,  which  was  to  me  a  very  long  journey,  as  I  had  not  been 
used  to  such  things,  especially  as  I  had  to  stop  and  get  food  on  the 
way  ;  there  were  eight  or  nine  of  us, — three  little  fags,  the  rest,  great 
Bacchants*  as  they  were  called ;  of  the  fags  I  was  the  smallest  and 
the  youngest.  When  I  grew  tired,  and  did  not  want  to  go  farther, 
my  cousin  Paul  came  to  me  with  a  stick  and  lashed  me  on  my  bare 
legs,  for  I  had  no  stockings,  and  worn-out  shoes.  I  remember  scarce 
any  thing  that  befell  us  on  the  journey ;  but  here  is  one  incident. 
As  we  went  along,  saying  all  manner  of  things,  the  Bacchants  told  us 
how  it  was  the  custom  in  Meissen  and  Silesia,  that  the  scholars  stole 
geese  and  ducks,  and  other  such  game,  and  that  nothing  was  done  to 
them,  if  only  they  got  out  of  the  reach  of  the  man  who  might  happen 
to  own  them.  One  day  we  were  not  far  from  a  village  where  there 
was  a  great  flock  of  geese,  without  their  keeper ;  for  every  village  has 
its  goose-herd,  but  here  he  was  at  quite  a  distance  from  the  geese, 
with  the  cow-herd.  Then  I  asked  my  little  comrades,  *  when  will  we 
reach  Meissen,  that  I  may  steal  geese  ?'  They  replied,  *  we  are  there 
now.'  Then  I  picked  up  a  stone,  threw  it  at  one  of  the  geese,  and  hit 
him  on  the  leg ;  the  rest  flew  off,  but  the  wounded  one  could  not  keep  up 
with  them  for  limping.  Then  I  took  another  stone  and  hit  him  on  the 
head,  and  knocked  him  down  ;  for  when  among  my  goats,  I  had  had 
no  equal  in  throwing,  in  leaping  the  bar,  or  in  catching  the  sound  CH 
the  herdsman's  horn ;  in  all  such  arts  I  was  well  skilled.  Then  I  ran 
up,  caught  up  the  goose  by  the  neck,  whisked  him  under  my  coat, 
and  ran  down  the  street  through  the  village.  At  that  instant  the 
goose-herd  commenced  running  after  me,  and  cried  out  to  all  the 
villagers,  'the  boy  has  stolen  my  goose.'  Hearing  this  outcry,  we 
quickened  our  pace,  and  as  I  ran,  the  legs  of  the  goose  swung  back 
and  forth  in  front  of  me,  from  under  my  coat.  The  peasants  too 
came  out  with  clubs  and  gave  chase  to  throw  at  us.  When  I  saw 
that  they  were  gaining  upon  me,  I  let  the  goose  drop,  and  darted  to 

*  See  Njfr-.  page  90. 


THOMAS  PLATTER.  271 

one  side  of  the  village  amongst  the  thickets,  but  my  two  companions 
kept  to  the  street,  and  two  peasants  after  them.  Then  they  fell  down 
on  their  knees,  and  begged  for  mercy, — said  they  had  not  done  it ; 
so  when  the  peasants  found  that  they  were  not  the  ones  who  had  let 
the  goose  drop,  they  returned  and  picked  the  goose  up.  But  as  for 
me,  when  I  saw  my  companions  thus  pursued,  I  was  in  great  distress 
of  mind,  and  said  to  myself,  '  Alas !  thou  hast  not  prayed  to-day,  as 
thou  wert  taught  to  do  every  morning.'  When  the  peasants  went  back 
they  found  our  Bacchants  in  the  ale-house ;  for  they  had  gone  on 
before,  leaving  us  to  follow  them ;  and  they  asked  them  to  pay  for 
the  goose, — it  was  a  matter  of  two  batzen  or  so, — but  I  did  not  hear 
whether  they  did  or  no.  When  we  came  up,  they  laughed  and  asked 
what  we  had  been  doing ;  I  plead  in  excuse,  that  I  supposed  it  the 
custom  of  the  country.  They  said  it  was  not  yet  time  for  that. 

"At  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  Nuremberg,  our  Bacchants  remained 
behind  in  a  village ;  for  whenever  they  wished  to  carouse,  they  sent  us 
on  before.  We  staid  at  Nuremberg  several  weeks.  Here,  we  little  fags 
spent  our  time  in  singing  through  the  streets,  those  who  could  sing, 
but  I  in  foraging,  and  none  of  us  went  into  school.  This  the  other 
boys  would  not  endure,  but  threatened  to  drag  us  into  school.  The 
schoolmaster,  too,  bade  our  Bacchants  come  to  school,  or  they  should 
be  carried  there  by  force.  Antony,  as  their  spokesman,  refused  to  go 
There  were  some  Swiss  there  who  had  agreed  to  join  us  on  a  given 
day.  Then  we,  little  fags,  carried  stones  on  to  the  roof,  but  Antony 
and  the  others  made  a  demonstration  against  the  door.  On  this  the 
schoolmaster  came  out  with  all  his  boys,  large  and  small,  but  we  flung 
down  stones  upon  them,  so  that  they  were  glad  to  retreat.  The  next 
thing  we  heard  was,  that  we  were  summoned  before  the  magistrate  :  it  so 
happened  that  a  neighbor  of  ours  was  about  to  give  away  his  daughter 
in  marriage.  This  man  had  a  stall  full  of  fat  geese.  We  broke  into 
this  in  the  night  and  took  out  three  of  the  geese,  and  decamped  to 
the  farther  side  of  the  city.  Here  we  awaited  the  Swiss,  who  joined 
company  with  us,  and  we  all  went  together  to  Halle,  in  Saxony,  to 
tiie  school  of  St.  Ulrica.  But  our  Bacchants  dealt  so  roughly  by  us, 
that,  in  company  with  my  cousin  Paul,  we  ran  away  from  them  and 
came  to  Dresden.  Here  the  school  was  not  a  good  one,  and  the 
habitations  of  the  scholars  were  full  of  vermin,  so  that  we  heard  them  in 
the  night  crawling  about  in  the  straw  on  which  we  lay.  So  we  left 
the  place  and  set  out  for  Breslau ;  on  the  way  we  suffered  much  with 
hunger,  so  that  some  days  we  had  nothing  to  eat  but  raw  onions  with 
salt,  and  at  other  times  roasted  acorns,  crab-apples  or  pears,  and  many 
nights  lay  out  under  the  open  sky,  for  nowhere  would  they  give  us  a 


272  THOMAS  PLATTER. 

shelter,  much  as  we  besought  them ;  and  some  would  even  set  the 
dogs  on  us.  But  when  we  came  to  Breslau,  in  Silesia,  we  found  great 
abundance,  and  that  so  cheap,  that  the  starved  scholars  would  over- 
eat, and  many  of  them  were  very  sick  in  consequence.  Here  we  went 
first  to  the  school  of  the  Holy  Cross,  in  Thum.  But  when  we  heard 
that  in  the  upper  parish  of  St.  Elizabeth  there  were  Swiss,  we  went 
thither.  There  were  two  from  Bremgarten,  two  from  Meilingen,  and 
more,  besides  many  Swabians;  there  was  no  distinction  between 
Swabians  and  Swiss;  they  clanned  with  one  another  like  fellow- 
countrymen,  and  stood  up  for  one  another's  rights.  The  city  of 
Breslau  has  seven  parishes,  and  each  parish  its  separate  school,  and 
no  scholar  of  one  parish  can  go  into  another  singing  or  shouting, 
*  ad  idem,  ad  idem?  without  causing  a  general  uproar;  the  boys  run 
together  from  each  side  and  pummel  each  other  most  unmercifully. 
It  is  said  there  have  been  some  thousands  of  Bacchants  and  fags  in 
the  city  at  a  time,  and  all  dependent  on  alms.  They  say,  more- 
over, that  some  have  their  fags  for  twenty  and  even  thirty  years, 
who  forage  for  them.  I  would  often  carry  five  or  six  loads  home  of 
an  evening  to  my  Bacchants  to  the  school  where  they  lived.  The 
people  were  always  very  ready  to  give  to  me,  because  I  was  a  little 
boy,  and  a  Swiss ;  for  they  loved  the  Swiss,  and  they  felt  great  sym- 
pathy for  them,  because  they  had  fared  so  ill  in  the  great  Milan 
battle ;  and  it  was  the  common  saying,  'now  have  the  Swiss  lost  their 
best  pater  nosterj  for  before  every  one  thought  them  invincible. 

"I  remained  here  some  length  of  time,  and  during  the  winter  was 
thrice  taken  sick,  so  that  I  had  to  go  into  the  hospital.  The  scholars 
had  their  own  hospital  and  physician.  They  received  from  the  city 
treasury  sixteen  hellers  each  a  week ;  this  was  ample  for  their 
support ;  out  of  it  they  had  good  attendance  and  a  good  bed,  though 
there  were  many  vermin,  like  little  hemp-seed,  so  that  I  preferred, 
with  many  others,  to  lie  on  the  hearth  rather  than  in  bed.  The  scholars 
were  covered  with  vermin  to  an  extent  that  was  scarcely  credible. 
As  often  as  I  wished,  I  could  pick  two  or  three  out  of  my  bosom.  I 
have  often,  especially  in  the  summer,  gone  down  to  the  Oder,  washed 
my  shirt,  hung  it  on  the  bushes  to  dry,  and  meanwhile  picked  the 
vermin  off  my  coat,  dug  a  pit,  buried  a  great  quantity  in  it,  covered 
them  up,  and  marked  the  spot  with  a  little  cross. 

"  In  the  winter  the  fags  lay  on  the  hearth  in  the  school  room,  but 
the  Bacchants  in  the  cells,  of  which  there  were  some  hundreds  at 
St.  Elizabeth's ;  but  in  the  summer,  when  it  was  hot,  we  lay  in  the 
church-yard  ;  we  carried  the  grass  that  was  spread  in  the  Herren-gasse 
for  the  houses  on  Saturday,  made  a  bed  of  it  in  a  good  spot  in  the 


THOMAS  PLATTER.  273 

church-yard,  and  there  lay,  like  pigs  in  their  straw.  But  if  it  rained, 
we  ran  into  the  school,  and  when  there  was  a  thunder-storm,  we  sang 
the  whole  night  long  the  Responsoria ,  etc.,  with  the  Sub-cantor. 

u  Sometimes  we  would  go  of  a  summer  evening  to  the  ale-house  tc 
fetch  beer.  There  they  gave  us  full  flagons  of  strong  beer,  and  I 
often  drank  so  much  before  I  knew  it,  that  I  could  not  go  back  to 
the  school  again,  though  it  was  but  a  stone's  throw  from  where  I  was. 
In  short  there  was  plenty  to  eat  and  drink,  but  not  much  studying. 

"  In  the  school  at  St.  Elizabeth's  nine  Baccalaureates  in  a  room 
read  every  hour.  The  Greek  tongue  had  not  been  then  introduced 
into  the  country,  nor  had  they  any  printed  books;  only  the  teacher 
had  a  printed  Terence.  Whatever  was  read,  had  first  to  be  written, 
then  divided,  then  construed,  and  then  explained,  so  that  when  the 
Bacchants  left  the  school,  they  had  great  thick  copy-books  to  carry 
away  with  them." 

From  Breslau  he  went  with  Paul,  by  way  of  Dresden,  to  Munich, 
to  a  soap-boiler's.  "This  my  master,"  he  says,  "I  helped  boil  soap, 
more  than  I  went  to  school ;  and  I  went  about  with  him,  through  the 
surrounding  villages,  to  buy  ashes.  Paul  went  to  school  in  the  parish 
of  Our  Lady,  and  so  did  I,  though  seldom,  for  I  sung  through  the 
streets  to  procure  bread,  which  I  brought  to  Paul." 

After  fifteen  years'  wanderings  Platter  revisited  with  Paul  his  native 
town,  Vispach.  "  Here,"  he  adds,  "  my  friends  could  not  understand 
my  speech.  *  Our  Tommy,'  they  said,  *  talks  so  foreign,  that  no  one 
can  tell  what  he  would  have ;'  for  while  I  was  young,  I  had  learned 
the  language  of  every  country  where  I  had  lived. 

"  Soon  after  this  we  went  back  again  to  Ulm  :  Paul  took  a  lad  with 
him,  whose  name  was  Hildebrand  Kalbermatter,  a  clergyman's  son, 
and  quite  young.  They  gave  him  a  piece  of  cloth,  such  as  is  made 
in  the  place,  for  a  coat.  When  we  came  to  Ulm,  Paul  bade  me  take 
the  cloth,  and  go  for  food.  In  it  I  brought  much  home  ;  for  I  was 
well  used  to  wheedling  and  begging,  since  to  this  trade  the  Bacchants 
had  from  the  first  accustomed  me,  but  not  to  go  to  school,  and  not 
to  learn  to  read. 

"Though  I  seldom  went  to  school,  and  during  school  hours  went 
around  with  the  cloth,  yet  I  suffered  much  from  hunger ;  for,  what- 
ever I  got,  I  brought  to  my  Bacchant ;  I  ate  not  a  mouthful  of  it  all,  for 
I  feared  a  beating.  Paul  had  associated  with  him  another  Bacchant, 
named  Acacius,  from  Mentz,  and  I  and  Hildebrand,  my  companion, 
had  to  provide  for  him  too.  But  Hildebrand  ate  up  every  thing;  so 
they  sometimes  followed  him  through  the  streets  to  detect  him  in  the 

act,  or  when  he  came  back,  they  would  force  him  to  rinse  out  hk 
18 


2^4  THOMAS  PLATTER. 

mouth  with  water  and  spit  in  a  basin,  in  order  to  find  out  whether  he 
had  been  eating.  And  if  he  had,  they  would  both  together  take  him, 
throw  him  on  the  bed,  cover  his  head  with  a  pillow  to  drown  his 
cries,  and  then  beat  him  terribly.  This  put  me  in  so  great  fear,  that 
I  brought  every  thing  home,  and  we  often  had  so  much  bread,  that 
it  would  turn  mouldy ;  the  mouldy  part  they  would  then  cut  off  and 
give  to  us.  Many  a  time  have  I  suffered  bitterly  from  hunger  and 
cold,  when  walking  the  streets  far  into  midnight,  singing  for  bread. 
And  this  puts  me  in  mind  how  at  Ulm  there  was  a  kind  widow  lady, 
who  had  two  grown  up  daughters  at  home,  and  a  son,  named  Paul 
Reling.  Often  in  winter,  when  I  came  to  her  house,  she  wrapped  ray 
feet  in  a  warm  blanket  that  hung  behind  the  stove,  gave  me  a  plate 
full  of  boiled  pudding,  and  then  bid  me  God  speed.  Often  T  felt  th(\ 
gnawings  of  hunger  so  keenly,  that  I  would  snatch  the  bone  out  o 
a  dog's  mouth,  or  would  pick  the  crumbs  from  the  crevices  in  th 
school  room  floor,  and  eat  them." 

At  Munich  Platter  ran  away  from  his  Bacchants,  who  had  perse 
cuted  him  so  long,  and  went  to  Zurich. 

"  Here  I  found  a  fellow-townsman  of  mine,  named  Anthony  Venet, 
who  persuaded  me  to  go  with  him  to  Strasburg.  When  we  arrived 
there,  we  found  the  place  full  of  needy  scholars,  and  but  an  indiffer^ 
ent  school,  but  heard  there  was  a  good  school  at  Schlettstadt.  So  we 
set  out  for  the  latter  place,  and  on  the  way  met  a  nobleman,  who 
asked  us  where  we  were  going.  When  we  told  him  '  to  Schlettstadt/ 
he  advised  us  not  to  go,  as  the  place  swarmed  with  indigent  scholars, 
and  there  were  but  few  rich  people  there.  Then  my  companion  began 
to  weep  aloud  and  to  ask,  what  we  should  do.  I  bade  him  keep  up 
a  good  courage,  '  for,'  said  I,  '  when  we  get  there,  I  am  sure  that  one 
can  easily  shift  for  himself  alone,  and  if  so,  I  will  engage  to  provide 
for  us  both.'  As  we  came  to  an  inn  about  a  mile  from  Schlettstadt, 
I  was  seized  with  such  a  severe  colic,  that  I  thought  I  should  die ;  I 
had  eaten  so  many  unripe  nuts  which  I  found  under  the  trees.  Then 
my  companion  wept  again,  saying  if  he  should  lose  me  he  would 
not  know  what  to  do  or  where  to  go ;  and  yet  all  the  time  he  had 
ten  crowns  secreted  about  him,  while  I  had  not  so  much  as  a  heller. 

"  When  we  arrived  at  the  city,  we  found  lodgings  with  an  aged 
matron,  whose  husband  was  stone-blind.  We  then  went  to  my  bo- 
loved  preceptor,  John  Sapidus,  now  deceased,  and  asked  him  to  take 
us  into  his  school.  He  inquired  from  what  country  we  came,  and 
when  we  replied,  '  from  Vispach,  in  Switzerland,'  he  said,  *  they  are 
headstrong,  bad  people  there ;  they  have  driven  all  their  bishops  out 
of  the  land.  But  for  you,  if  you  will  study  well,  you  need  pay  me 


THOMAS  PLATTER.  27o 

nothing,  otherwise  you  shall  pay  rae,  or  I  will  have  the  very  coats  off 
from  your  backs."  This  was  about  the  period  of  the  revival  of  class- 
ical studies  and  the  classical  tongues,  and  in  the  same  year  that  wit- 
nessed the  Diet  of  Worms.  Sapidus  had  nine  hundred  pupils  at 
once,  some  of  them  well-bred,  learned  scholars.  There  were  there 
at  that  time  Dr.  Jerome  Gemusaeus,  and  Dr.  John  Huber,  besides 
many  others  who  have  since  become  eminent  doctors  and  renowned 
men. 

"  When  I  came  into  the  school,  I  knew  nothing,  nor  could  I  even 
read  Donatus,  and  yet  I  was  eighteen  years  of  age ;  and  I  sat  there 
like  a  hen  among  the  chickens.  One  day  as  Sapidus  read  over  the 
names  of  his  scholars,  he  said  '  there  are  many  barbarous  names 
among  you ;  these  I  must  Latinize  a  little.'  After  he  had  finished 
reading,  he  wrote  down  my  name,  Thomas  Platter,  and  my  compan- 
ion's, Antony  Venet :  these  he  changed  into  Thomas  Platerus,  and 
Antonius  Venetus,  and  then  said,  '  let  these  two  stand  up  ;'  when  we 
did  this,  he  exclaimed,  '  see,  there  are  a  pair  of  clumsy  boys,  and  yet 
what  fine-sounding  names  they  have.'  This  was  in  part  true,  espe- 
cially of  my  companion,  whose  awkwardness  was  so  great  that  I  had 
many  a  laugh  at  his  expense ;  for  I  suited  myself  to  foreign  ways 
and  usages  much  more  readily  than  he. 

We  remained  here  from  autumn  to  Easter,  and  as  new  scholars 
kept  continually  coming,  and  so  it  grew  harder  to  secure  a  livelihood, 
we  went  to  Soleure.  Here  there  was  quite  a  good  school,  and  more 
abundant  provision,  but  there  was  so  much  time  to  be  spent  in  the 
church,  and  otherwise  consumed,  that  we  resolved  to  return  home. 
I  remained  at  home  a  while,  and  went  to  school  to  a  master 
who  taught  me  a  little  writing,  and  I  know  not  what  else  I  learned. 
At  this  time  I  taught  my  little  cousin,  Simon  Steiner,  his  *  a  b  c,'  in 
one  day ;  the  following  year  he  came  to  me  to  Zurich,  continued  there 
at  school,  until  he  went  to  Strasburg ;  was  Dr.  Bucer's/amw/ws;  stud- 
ied till  he  was  appointed  teacher  of  the  third  class,  then  of  the  sec- 
ond ;  was  married  twice,  and  died  at  Strasburg  deeply  lamented  by 
the  whole  school." 

After  much  change  of  place  Platter  returned  to  Zurich,  and  here 
went  into  the  Frauen minster  school. 

"  The  schoolmaster's  name  was  Master  Wolfgang  Knoewell ;  he 
took  his  degree  at  Paris,  and  while  there  went  by  the  appellation  '  Le 
Gran  Diable;'  he  was  a  man  of  stalwart  frame  and  honesty  of  pur- 
pose, but  gave  little  heed  to  the  school,  attending  more  to  the  pretty 
maidens,  whose  charms  he  could  not  resist.  But  I  desired  to  study 
for  I  felt  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost. 


276  THOMAS  PLATTER. 

It  was  soon  after  reported  that  a  teacher  was  coming  from  Einsied- 
liu,  that  he  had  formerly  been  at  Lucerne,  wr..,  a  very  learned  man 
and  a  faithful  master,  but  odd  in  the  extreme.  Thei  I  took  a  seat 
in  the  corner  near  the  teacher's  chair,  and  thought  to  myself,  '  here 
in  the  corner  will  I  study  or  die.'  When,  now,  the  new  teacher  ar- 
rived and  entered  the  school-house,  he  said,  "  This  is  a  neat-looking 
place/ — it  had  recently  been  built  anew — *  but  it  seems  tome  the  bovs 
are  an  ungainly  set ;  let  them  only  show  a  diligent  spirit,  though,  and 
all  will  be  right.'  For  my  part,  if  my  life  had  been  at  stake,  1  could 
not  have  declined  a  noun  of  the  first  declension,  and  yet  had  learned 
Donatus  by  heart.  For  when  I  was  at  Schlettstadt,  Sapidus  had  with 
him  a  Baccalaureate,  named  George  Andlow,  a  very  learned  scholar, 
who  tormented  the  Bacchants  so  incessantly  with  Donatus  that  I 
thought  if  this  is  such  an  important  book  I  will  master  it  thoroughly, 
and  so  I  did.  And  this  stood  me  in  good  stead  with  Father  Myco- 
nius.  For  when  he  came  he  read  Terence  to  us,  and  we  were  obliged 
to  decline  and  conjugate  every  word  of  whole  comedies,  he  was 
often  so  severe  with  me  that  my  shirt  was  wet  with  perspiration,  and 
my  sight  failed  me  ;  and  yet  he  did  not  give  me  a  blow,  not  even 
with  his  little  finger.  He  read,  likewise  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and 
at  such  hours  many  of  the  laity  would  come  in  to  hear,  for  the  light 
of  the  Holy  Gospel  was  then  only  beginning  to  dawn,  and  men  were 
yet  burdened  with  interminable  masses,  and  had  idols  in  all  the 
churches.  But  whenever  he  had  been  angry  with  me,  he  took  me 
home  with  him,  and  gave  me  to  eat,  and  after  I  had  eaten,  he  would 
listen  in  delight  as  I  told  of  all  that  had  befallen  me  in  my  long 
and  many  wanderings  in  Germany." 

Platter  was  afterward  tutor  to  the  two  sons  of  Henry  Werdmiller. 
"  There  they  gave  me  every  day  regular  meals  to  eat.  One  of  the 
boys  was  named  Otho;  he  afterward  became  Master  of  Arts  at  Wit- 
ten  oerg,  and  subsequently  entered  the  service  of  the  church  at  Zu- 
rich ;  but  the  other  died  at  Kappell.  I  had  no  more  hardships  to 
endure;  only  it  might  have  been  that  I  applied  myself  too  severely 
to  study ;  T  undertook  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew,  gave  myself  for 
whole  nights  together  but  little  sleep,  but  fought  resolutely  against 
sleep,  when  I  began  to  feel  drowsiness,  putting  raw  turnips,  sa':d,  or 
cold  water  into  my  mouth,  or  grinding  my  teeth  together,  etc.  My 
good  Father  Myconius  would  caution  me  against  such  close  study,  nor 
did  he  rebuke  me  when,  at  times,  sleep  came  upon  me  unawares. 
And  although  I  had  never  been  where  I  could  hear  lectures  upon 
either  Latin,  Greek,  or  Hebrew  grammar,  yet  I  practiced  reading  by 
myself ;  for  Myconius  had  before  drilled  us  with  frequent  exercises  in 


THOMAS  PLATTER.  277 

the  Latin  grammar  ;  but  Greek  he  did  not  pursue  to  any  extent,  for  the 
Greek  language  was  yet  foreign,  and  but  little  used.  I,  however,  read 
by  myself  in  Lucian  and  Homer,  as  far  as  the  vernacular  version 
would  carry  me.  It  happened,  moreover,  when  Father  Myconius  took 
me  to  live  with  him  in  his  house,  that  he  had  some  at  his  table,  the 
now  deceased  Dr.  Gessner  was  one  of  them,  with  whom  I  was  obliged 
o  '  -ctice  Donatus  and  the  declensions ;  and  this  proved  of  great 
;  to  me.  At  that  time,  too,  Myconius  had  for  an  assistant,  the 

finished  scholar  Theodore  Bibliander,  who  was  thoroughly  versed  in 
the  languages,  the  Hebrew  especially,  and  had  written  a  Hebrew 
grammar ;  he  likewise  took  his  meals  with  Myconius.  I  begged  him, 
to  teach  me  the  Hebrew ;  he  did  so,  and  I  learned  to  read  it  both 
printed  and  written.  Then  I  rose  early  in  the  mornings,  made  a  fire 
in  Myconius'  room,  sat  by  the  stove,  and'  copied  off  the  grammar, 
while  he  slept ;  nor  did  he  ever  know  what  I  had  done." 

Immediately  after  this  period  Platter  taught  Hebrew  to  others,  but 
himself  learned — the  ropemaker's  trade.  "  There  came,"  he  contin- 
ues, "  a  well-bred  and  learned  young  man  from  Lucerne,  on  his  way 
to  attend  the  festivities  at  Constance,  and  Zwingle  and  Myconius  per- 
suaded him  to  stop  and  learn  the  ropemaker's  art  with  his  money. 
After  he  had  learned  to  weave  and  become  a  master  workman,  I 
begged  him  to  teach  me  the  trade  too.  He*  said  he  had  no  hemp.  I 
had  a  small  pittance  left  me  by  my  deceased  mother,  and  with  that  I 
bought  the  master  an  hundred  of  hemp  and  learned  with  it,  as  far  as 
it  went,  and  yet  all  the  while  took  great  delight  in  study.  When 
my  master  thought  me  asleep,  I  rose  up  stealthily,  struck  a  light, 
stepped  softly,  and  procured  his  Homer,  glossed  my  own  by  it, 
and  this  I  kept  by  me  while  I  plied  my  trade.  He  afterward  learned 
what  I  had  been  doing,  and  he  said  to  me,  *  Platerus,  he  whose  mind 
is  on  many  things  can  do  nothing  well ;  either  study  or  else  work  at 
your  trade  !'  Once,  as  we  sat  together  by  the  water  pitcher,  he  said, 
'Platerus,  what  says  Pindar?'  As  I  replied  'apioVov  /xsv  TO  u£wp' 
he  said,  laughing ;  *  then  we  will  follow  Pindar,  and  have  no  wine, 
but  only  water !' 

When  I  had  worked  up  the  hundred  of  hemp,  my  lesson  was  end- 
ed, and  I  determined  to  go  to  Basle,  which  I  did  at  Christmas." 

At  Basle  he  went  to  a  second  master  of  the  craft,  Hans  Staehlin. 
"  It  was  said  of  him,  he  was  the  crustiest  master  who  could  be  found 
in  all  the  Rhine  valley,  hence  no  journeyman  would  willingly  stay 
with  him,  and  there  was  the  more  room  for  me."  When  Platter 
worked  till  "the  sweat  ran  down,  then  my  master  laughed  and  said; 
'  had  I  studied  as  much  as  thou,  and  loved  it  as  much,  I  would  toss 


278  THOMAS  PLATTER. 

ropemaking  to  the  devil !'  For  he  saw  very  well,  that  I  had  a  special 
fondness  for  books. 

The  printer  Cratander  had  presented  me.  with  an  unbound  copy  of 
Plautus  printed  by  himself  in  8vo.  I  took  one  leaf  at  a  time,  fixed 
it  upon  a  fork,  stuck  the  fork  underneath  in  the  lower  division  of  the 
hemp,  so  that  as  I  twisted  I  could  read  alternately  each  side  of  the 
leaf;  but  when  I  saw  the  master  coming,  I  would  throw  the  loose 
hemp  over  it.  Once  he  came  up  before  I  was  aware,  and  when  he 
saw  what  I  was  about,  he  flew  into  a  passion  and  cursed  me  roundly : 
(  A.  pox  light  on  you  for  your  villainy,  hypocritical  priest  that  you  are  ! 
Wilt  study  ?  Then  go  elsewhere.  But  if  you  remain  with  me  you 
must  work.  Is  it  not  enough  that  you  have  evenings  and  Fridavs  to 
yourself,  but  must  you  read  the  rest  of  the  time  too  ?'  On  Fridays, 
after  breakfast  was  over,  I  would  take  my  book,  go  out  into  the  fields, 
and  read  the  whole  day  until  nightfall.  By  degrees  I  made  th<  ac- 
quaintance of  a  few  scholars,  chiefly  those  who  attended  the  instruc- 
tion of  Beatus  Rhenanus.  These  and  others  came  often  to  the  shop, 
and  urged  me  to  leave  off  ropemaking." 

At  the  request  of  Dr.  Oporinus,  Platter  engaged  to  teach  him  He- 
brew. "  Oporinus  nailed  up  on  the  churches  a  notice  that  there  was 
a  certain  one  who  would  read  the  elements  of  the  Hebrew  tongue  on 
Monday,  from  4  to  5,  at  St.  Lienhart;  there  it  was  that  Oporinus 
taught  school.  I  went  at  the  appointed  hour,  thinking  to  find  Opori- 
nus alone,  for  I  had  not  seen  the  cards  on  the  church  doors ;  when 
lo !  there  were  eighteen  of  his  friends  assembled,  all  well-bred,  studi- 
ous young  men.  When  I  saw  them,  I  drew  back  ;  but  Dr.  Oporinus 
reassured  me,  saying  they  were  good  friends  of  his.  I  was  ashamed 
of  my  shop  clothes,  but  nevertheless  yielded  to  his  importunity,  and 
began  by  reading  from  the  grammar  of  Dr.  Munster, — its  fame  had 
not  then  reached  Basle ; — I  read  to  them  also  from  the  proj  het  Jo- 
nah as  well  as  I  was  able." 

Platter  subsequently  taught  in  his  native  town,  and  elsewhere,  ply- 
ing his  trade  at  the  same  time  ;  he  was  also  employed  as  proof-reader 
at  Basle,  and  sometimes,  too,  as  a  printer.  He  was  repeatedly  uro-ed 
to  give  up  printing,  by  Rudolph  Frey  among  the  rest,  who  said  to 
him ;  "  my  friend,  become  a  school  teacher ;  you  will  thus  please  our 
rulers,  and  serve  God  and  the  world."  He  then  spoke  to  the  council, 
and  the  council  delegated  the  town  recorder,  Dr.  Grynaeus  to  confer 
with  me.  Dr.  Grynaeus  said  to  me ;  '  become  a  school  teacher ; 
there  is  no  more  godlike  office  ;  for  myself  there  is  no  station  I  would 
sooner  fill.'  So  much  was  said  to  me  that  I  finally  consented.  This 
was  in  the  year  1541,  on  Good  Friday. 


THOMAS  PLATTER.  279 

The  council  then  sent  for  me  to  meet  them  at  the  town  house,  and 
then  they  made  an  agreement  with  me.  I  stipulated,  in  case  they 
should  intrust  the  school  to  me  to  organize  and  direct  it,  for  three  as- 
sistants and  a  salary  upon  which  I  could  subsist;  otherwise  I  told 
them  I  could  not  conduct  the  school  with  profit  and  honor.  This  was 
all  granted ;  the  salary,  however,  with  some  reluctance.  I  desired 
200  florins ;  100  for  myself,  and  100  for  my  assistants.  They  agreed 
to  this  with  the  proviso,  however,  that  I  should  not  mention  it  to  any 
one,  for  they  had  never  given  so  much  before,  and  they  would  scarce- 
ly give  the  like  to  any  one  who  should  come  after  me.  Now  every- 
thing was  concluded,  and  die  university  not  consulted  at  all  in  the 
matter,  whereat  they  were  not  a  little  nettled ;  for  they  had  desired 
to  strike  another  bargain  with  me,  and  would  have  pledged  them- 
selves above  all,  in  case  I  had  subjected  myself  to  their  authority,  or- 
ganizing my  school  after  the  pattern  they  should  furnish,  and  reading 
such  authors  alone  as  they  should  prescribe, — that  they  would  confer 
a  Master's  Degree  upon  me,  with  other  marks  of  their  favor  from 
time  to  time. 

Then  I  went  to  Strasburg,  intending  to  look  into  the  system  in  op- 
eration there,  and  to  confer  with  my  brother  Lithonius,  who  was 
teacher  of  the  third  class  there ;  and  then  to  re-arrange  rny  school 
so  far  as  the  case  would  admit.  I  returned,  divided  my  four  classes; 
for,  before,  the  pupils  were  in  the  lower  rooms,  and  it  had  been  the 
custom  to  warm  no  other  rooms  than  the  lower ;  for  there  had  been  but 
very  few  pupils.  When  I  now  began  to  keep  school,  I  was  obliged  to 
lay  before  the  university  in  writing,  my  class  system,  and  whatever  I 
read  every  hour  during  the  whole  week.  This  did  not  entirely  please 
them ;  they  thought  I  read  higher  authors  than  they  in  my  instruc- 
tion, and  as  for  dialectics  they  would  not  suffer  me  to  teach  it  at  all ; 
and  they  chid  me  so  often  that  at  last  the  masters  began  to  wonder 
what  this  dialectics  could  be,  about  which  there  was  so  much  strife 
and  contention.  When  I  explained  to  Herr  Joder  Brand,  the  wor- 
shipful burgomaster,  at  his  own  request,  what  dialectics  was,  he  was 
astonished  at  their  refusal  to  let  me  teach  it.  For  at  their  convoca- 
tion at  Easter,  they  had  unanimously  resolved  that  I  should  not  teach  it 
any  longer.  But  for  all  their  interdict,  I  did  not  vary  my  course  a 
hair,  so  long  as  I  had  pupils  who  wished  to  study  the  art.  However, 
the  Faculties  generally  were  not  much  opposed  to  it,  only  the  Faculty 
of  arts,  and  they  said  it  would  revolutionize  the  existing  systems  of  in- 
struction. But  the  boys,  nevertheless,  would  not  give  it  up ;  for  their 
minds  were  wholly  set  upon  it.  This  strife  lasted  for  some  six  years, 


2gQ  THOMAS  PLATTER. 

until  finally  a  pestilence  came,  and  my  school,  in  consequence,  was  so 
reduced  that  I  had  no  pupils  who  desired  to  learn  dialectics." 

The  university  soon  after  signified  to  him  their  pleasure  that  he  should 
hold  examinations  before  their  delegates.  "At  the  next  Lent,"  he  adds, 
"  I  conducted  my  class  down  to  be  examined  in  due  form.  But  some 
of  them  so  managed  the  matter,  that  they  soon  fell  out  with  each 
other,  and  not  being  able  to  harmonize,  they  bade  me  undertake  the 
examination.  I  said  they  must  do  it,  for  /  had  it  to  do  every  day  in 
the  school ;  however,  I  yielded,  and  since  then  have  conducted  these 
examinations  myself.  My  opinion  was,  the  examinations  were  insti- 
tuted that  it  might  be  seen  whether  the  boys  made  improvement  or 
no ;  but  those,  who  should  hear,  sat  there,  the  most  of  them,  and 
prated.  The  examinations  are  worthless ;  scarce  a  line  can  any  one 
explain,  and  people  truly  say,  they  are  only  continued  that  the  world 
may  exclaim,  "  what  care  is  given  to  these  things !" 

In  the  close  Platter  turns  to  his  son  Felix,  for  whom  he  wrote  this 
biography,  glances  back  upon  the  hardships  and  the  poverty  of  his 
own  youth  time,  and  down  through  later  years,  when  competence  and 
fame  had  been  allotted  to  him.  "  What  shall  I  then  say  of  you, 
Felix,  of  your  prosperity,  and  the  respect  which  is  paid  to  you? 
What,  but  that  it  is  God  our  Lord  who  has  granted  you  the  happi- 
ness of  living  so  long  under  the  fostering  care  of  your  dear  mother, 
and  the  fortune  of  making  the  acquaintance  of  many  princes  and 
lords,  noblemen  and  commoners.  i  Looking  at  all  these  things,  my 
dear  son  Felix,  ascribe  nothing  of  it  all  to  your  own  merits,  but  give 
God  alone  the  praise  and  the  glory  your  whole  life  long  ;  so  shall  you 
win  the  life  that  is  everlasting.  Amen." 

It  was  in  1541,  in  his  42d  year,  that  Platter  took  up  the  office  of 
teacher;  and  he  administered  it  with  faithfulness  and  vigor  for  thirty- 
seven  years,  until  1578.  He  died,  his  son  Felix  tells  us,  on  the  26th 
of  January,  1582,  in  the  full  possession  of  his  faculties,  at  the  age  of 
eighty-three. 

NOTE. 

BACCHANTS,  and  ABC-shooters.  In  the  period  from  1300  to  1600,  when  the 
Latin  town  schools  first  began  to  flourish  independently  of  the  church,  many 
grown-up  students,  with  more  or  less  of  university  education,  were  accustomed  to 
wander  over  all  Germany,  like  the  journeymen  of  the  present  day  ;  stopping  at  one 
place  and  another  to  teach,  and  leading  with  them  a  number  of  boys,  nominally 
their  scholars.  These  students  were  called  Bacchants,  from  their  bacchanalian 
lives ;  and  their  scholars,  ABC-shooters,  from  the  rudimentary  character  of  their 
studies  and  their  chief  occupation,  which  was,  not  only  to  study,  but  to  steal  (Baccan- 
tice  to  shoot)  fowls.  &c.,  and  to  beg,  for  the  maintenance  of  their  masters.  A 
future  articl  •  will  treat  somewhat  more  fuHv  of  tb^se  extraordinary  peripatetic 
educators  and  their  lives. 


UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY. 

[Translated  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education,  from  the  German  of  Karl  von  Raumer.J 


THE  reader  has  doubtless  been  surprised  to  learn  how  much  was 
left  untaught,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  in  the  schools.  Geography 
and  history  were  entirely  omitted  in  every  scheme  of  instruction, 
mathematics  played  but  a  subordinate  part,  while  not  a  thought  was 
bestowed  either  upon  natural  philosophy  or  natural  history.  Every 
moment  and  every  effort  were  given  to  the  classical  languages,  chief- 
ly to  the  Latin. 

But  we  should  be  overhasty,  should  we  conclude,  without  further 
inquiry,  that  these  branches,  thus  neglected  in  the  schools,  were  there- 
fore every  where  untaught.  Perhaps  they  were  reserved  for  the  uni- 
versity alone,  and  there,  too,  for  the  professors  of  the  philosophical 
faculty,  as  is  the  case  even  at  the  present  day  with  natural  philosophy 
and  natural  history ;  nay,  logic,  which  was  a  regular  school  study  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  is,  in  our  day,  widely  cultivated  at  the  univers 
ity. 

We  must,  therefore,  in  order  to  form  a  just  judgment  upon  the 
range  of  subjects  taught  in  the  sixteenth  century,  as  well  as  upon  the 
methods  of  instruction,  first  cast  a  glance  at  the  state  of  the  universi- 
ties of  that  period,  especially  in  the  philosophical  faculties. 

A  prominent  source  of  information  on  this  point  is  to  be  found  in 
the  statutes  of  the  University  of  Wittenberg,  revised  by  Melancthon, 
in  the  y^ar  1545. 

The  theological  faculty  appears,  by  these  statutes,  to  have  con 
sisted  of  four  professors,  who  read  lectures  on  the  Old  and  New  Tes- 
taments,—chiefly  on  the  Psalms,  Genesis,  Isaiah,  the  Gospel  of  John, 
and  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  They  also  taught  dogmatics,  com- 
menting upon  the  Nicene  creed  and  Augustine's  book,  "De  spiritu  et 
literal 

The  Wittenberg  lecture  schedule*  for  the  year  1561,  is  to  the  same 
effect ;  only  we  have  here,  besides  exegesis  and  dogmatics,  catechetics 
"Jikewise. 

Acar*rding  to  the  statutes,  the  philosophical  faculty   was  composed 


*  This  id  to  be  found  in  Strobel's  "  New  Contributions  to  Literature,"  who  likewise  cites  an 
earlier  one  of  the  v^ar  l.W 


282  UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY. 

of  ten  professors.  The  first  was  to  read  upon  logic  and  rhetoric ;  the 
second,  upon  physics,  and  the  second  book  of  Pliny's  natural  history  ; 
the  third,  upon  arithmetic  and  the  "-Sphere  "  of  John  de  Sacro  Busto  ; 
the  fourth,  upon  Euclid,  the  "Theories  Planetarum"  of  Burbach,  and 
Ptolemy's  "Almagest;"  the  fifth  and  sixth,  upon  the  Latin  poets  and 
Cicero ;  the  seventh,  who  was  the  "Pedagogus^  explained  to  the 
younger  class,  Latin  Grammar,  Linacer  de  emendata  structura  Latini 
sermonis,  Terence,  and  some  of  Plautus ;  the  eighth,  who  was  the 
"  Physicus,"  explained  Aristotle's  "Physics  and  Dioscorides  ;"  the 
ninth  gave  instruction  in  Hebrew  ;  and  the  tenth  reviewed  the  Greek 
Grammar,  read  lectures  on  Greek  Classics*  at  intervals,  also  on  one 
of  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  and,  at  the  same  time,  on  ethics. 

The  above  requisitions  of  the  statutes  are  likewise  confirmed  by  the 
lecture  schedule  already  alluded  to.  To  the  lectures  were  added 
declamations  and  disputes,  and  that  alternating,  so  that  on  one  Satur- 
day there  would  be  declamations,  on  the  next  disputes,  &c. 

In  regard  to  lectures  by  jurists  and  medicists,  the  statutes  are 
silent.  But  we  learn  from  the  lecture  schedule,  before  cited,  that 
seven  jurists  read  upon  the  various  departments  of  Roman  and  canon 
law ;  of  medicists,  one  discoursed  upon  the  ninth  book  of  ^Rasis  ad 
Almansorem  ;"  a  second  read  " Hippocratica  et  Galenica  ;"  a  third, 
likewise  upon  Galen,  and  also  upon  Avicenna. 

Thus  the  philosophical  faculty  appears  to  have  been  the  most  fully 
represented  at  Wittenberg,  as  it  included  ten  professors,  while  the 
theological  had  but  four,  the  medical  but  three.  The  Elector  John 
Frederick,  in  a  new  foundation-grant  to  the  university,  specified  a 
faculty  of  "Artists?  the  "  origin  and  parent  of  all  the  other  facul- 
ties," and  took  it  under  his  especial  protection.  Its  functions  over- 
stepped even  the  limits  of  the  curriculum,  prescribed  by  the  statutes. 
Thus  Melancthon  read  a  historical  course  upon  Carion's  "dhronicon," 
as  did  afterward  his  son-in-law,  Peucer.  A  new  chair,  moreover,  was 
established  in  1572,  when  William  Rabot,  a  native  of  Dauphiny,  was 
installed  in  Wittenberg  as  professor  of  the  French  language.  In  his 
inaugural  address,  he  spoke  of  the  affinity  between  the  Germans  and 
the  French,  remarked  that,  according  to  the  "  lex  Carolina"  the  Ger- 
man emperors  were  expected  to  understand  French,  and  praised  the 
elector,  because  he  had  called  a  special  teacher  to  give  instruction  in 
the  language. 

On  a  comparison  of  different  Protestant  universities  of  the  sixteenth 

•  When  Melancthon  was  a  student  at  Wittenberg,  there  existed  no  chair  there  for  instruc- 
tion in  the  Greek  language;  at  Heidelberg,  however,  Dionysius  Reuchlin  had,  prior  to  this 
»eriod,  been  inducted  into  the  office  of  Greek  Professor. 


UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.  283 

century,  it  appears  that  they  all  proposed  to  themselves  essentially 
one  and  the  same  problem.  This  problem  was,  in  part,  entirely  new  ; 
though,  in  part  also,  an  inheritance  of  the  past,  made  new,  however, 
or  greatly  modified,  under  the  demands  of  that  awakening  age.  We 
need  only  refer,  in  illustration  of  our  statement,  to  the  fact,  that  be- 
fore Erasmus  there  was  no  exegesis  of  the  New  Testament  in  the 
original,  before  Reuchlin  none  of  the  Old,  and  that  Rudolf  Agricola 
was  the  first  to  initiate  a  new  style  of  commenting  on  and  interpreting 
the  ancient  classics. 

But,  as  in  our  own  day,  we  should  not  be  in  a  condition  to  make  a 
correct  estimate  of  the  value  of  our  present  schools  and  universities 
simply  by  consulting  school-plans,  governmental  decrees,  lecture  sched- 
ules, and  the  like,  but  must  much  rather,  to  avoid  erroneous  conclu- 
sions, inform  ourselves,  by  careful  observation,  upon  the  internal  econ- 
omy of  these  institutions,  so  neither  can  we  decide  upon  the  merits 
of  the  institutions  of  learning  of  former  centuries,  without  putting 
them  to  a  similar  ordeal.  Now  there  happens  to  have  been  preserved 
some  indirect  testimony  to  this  point,  going  to  show  that  studies  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  at  least  those  of  the  majority  of  students,  by 
no  means  conformed  to  the  idea  which  the  reader  will  naturally  form 
of  them  in  the  light  of  the  preceding  pages.  A  few  examples  will 
suffice  in  support  of  this  assertion. 

The  professor  of  mathematics  and  astronomy,  at  Wittenberg, 
Erasmus  Reinhold,*  was  an  eminent  scholar,  who  advocated  the 
Copernican  system  ;  but,  in  spite  of  his  ability, "  because  of  the  general 
distaste  for  mathematical  pursuits,  he  had  few  hearers."  Melancthon 
wrote  to  Duke  Albert,  of  Prussia,  as  follows:  "Very  few  apply 
themselves  to  mathematics,  and  fewer  still  are  the  men  of  wealth  and 
influence  who  foster  this  study  by  their  patronage.  Our  court  pays 
scarce  any  heed  to  it."  To  Spalatin  he  wrote :  "  There  is  urgent 
need  of  two  instructors  of  mathematics  in  Wittenberg,  that  a  science 
so  absolutely  indispensable,  but  now  neglected,  may  come  into  honor." 
But  the  best  proof  we  can  give  of  the  disrepute  into  which  mathe- 
matics had  then  fallen,  is  to  be  found  in  the  address  of  invitation  of 
a  Wittenberg  mathematical  Docent.  He  eulogizes  arithmetic,  and 
implores  students  not  to  be  intimidated  by  the  difficulties  that  this 
study  presents.  The  first  elements  are  easy,  and  though  the  principles 
of  multiplication  and  division  require  more  diligence,  yet  the  attent- 
ive can  master  them  with  ease.  It  is  true  there  are  parts  of  arith- 
metic which  are  much  harder,  "  but,"  he  continues,  "  I  now  speak 
only  of  these  rudiments,  which  I  am  to  teach,  and  which  you  will 

*  Reinhold  was  born  at  Saalfeld,  in  1511,  and  he  died  in  1552.    His  principal  work  was  en- 
titled "  Tabulae  prutenicae  coelestium  motuum." 


284  UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY. 

find  serviceable."     W-3  can  scarcely  trust  our  eyes,  when  we  read 
such  language  as  the  above. 

In  the  year  1536,  Melancthon  read  a  course  of  lectures  upon  Ptole- 
my's Treatise,  "De  apotelesmatibus  etjudiciis  astrorum"  On  finish- 
ing the  first  book,  he  announced  the  second  in  these  terms:  -"It  gives 
me  pain  to  perceive  that  some  of  my  hearers  have  already  taken  a 
dislike  to  so  excellent  an  author."  Then,  after  a  panegyric  upon 
Ptolemy's  book,  he  continues:  "It  appears  marvelous  to  me  that  so 
many  can  reject  such  a  book.  For,  if  we  think  of  it,  the  life  of  a 
student  is  a  continual  warfare.  Now  it  is  not  becoming  in  a  soldier 
to  grow  weary  and  faint-hearted  when  every  thing  does  not  go  accord- 
ing to  his  wish.  I  therefore  exhort  all  who  began  with  me  these 
lectures  upon  Ptolemy  to  come  back.  To  those  who  have  not  desert- 
ed me,  I  offer  my  tribute  of  thanks." 

We  might  conclude  that  such  a  general  indisposition  to  study  had 
reference  mainly  to  the  department  of  natural  science,  and  not  to 
philology ;  inasmuch  as  the  latter  was  the  peculiar  educational  agent 
of  that  era.  But  it  fared  no  better  with  Greek  at  Wittenberg,  as  we 
may  learn  from  the  following  expressions  of  Melancthon.  In  1531, 
he  announced  that  he  would  give  some  lectures  upon  Homer :  •'  I 
shall,"  said  he,  "  according  to  my  custom,  read  gratis.  But,  as  Homer 
in  his  life-time  was  needy  and  a  beggar,  so  the  same  fate  follows  him 
now  that  he  is  dead.  For  this  noblest  of  poets  is  compelled  now  to 
wander  about  imploring  men  to  listen  to  him.  He  does  not,  however, 
seek  out  those  groveling  souls,  bent  only  on  gain,  who,  not  content 
with  resting  in  ignorance  themselves,  delight  in  crying  down  all  noble 
learning,  but  turns  rather  to  those  free  spirits  who  aim  after  perfect 
knowledge."  , 

There  is  preserved  an  announcement  from  Melancthon,  of  the  year 
1533,  of  his  lectures  on  the  4th  Philippic  of  Demosthenes.*  In  this 
he  says:  "I  had  hoped,  by  disclosing  to  my  hearers  the  grace  of  the 
second  Olynthiac,  to  have  allured  them  to  a  nearer  acquaintance  with 
Demosthenes.  But  I  perceive  that  this  generation  has  no  ear  for 
such  authors.  For  there  remain  to  me  but  few  hearers,  and  these 
have  not  forsaken  me  lest  I  should  be  wholly  discouraged ;  for  this 
courtesy,  I  thank  them.  But  I  shall,  nevertheless,  continue  to  dis- 
charge the  duties  of  my  office.  I  shall  commence  these  lectures 
to-morrow."  But,  on  another  occasion,  Melancthon  spoke  in  still 
stronger  terms:  "To-morrow  it  is  my  intention  to  begin  my  exposi- 
tion of  the  "Antigone"  of  Sophocles.  And  I  would  here  utter  an  admo- 
nition, if  I  thought  it  would  be  at  all  heeded,  in  reluike  of  the  shock- 

*  The  scarcity  of  printed  copies  of  Demosthenes  occasioned  the  request  "that  the  stnrffints 
should  transcribe  Melancthon's  copy." 


UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.  285 

ing  barbarism  of  manners  that  prevails  around  us.*  But  I  must 
except  a  tew  of  a  better  class,  who  have  been  my  hearers  thus  far,  and 
thank  them." 

As  at  the  schools,  so  also  at  the  universities,  Latin  was  the  chief 
object  of  attention.  And,  while  Greek  was  regarded  with  indifference, 
we  have  the  authority  of  Grohmann  for  the  assertion  that  a  special 
Professorship  of  Terence  was  founded  by  Frederick  the  Wise.  But 
we  have  a  truer  criterion  by  which  to  judge  of  the  limited  nature  of 
the  studies  of  that  period,  as  compared  with  the  wide  field  which  they 
cover  at  the  present  day,  in  the  then  almost  total  lack  of  academical 
apparatus  and  equipments.  The  only  exception  was  to  be  found  in 
the  case  of  libraries;  but,  how  meager  and  insufficient  all  collections 
of  books  must  have  been  at  that  time,  when  books  were  few  in  num- 
ber and  very  costly,  will  appear  from  the  fund,  for  example,  which 
was  assigned  to  the  Wittenberg  library ;  it  yielded  annually  but  one 
hundred  gulden,  (about  $63,)  with  which,  "for  the  profit  of  the  uni- 
versity and  chiefly  of  the  poorer  students  therein,  the  library  may  be 
adorned  and  enriched  with  books  in  all  the  faculties  and  in  every  art, 
as  well  in  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  tongues."  f 

Of  other  apparatus,  such  as  collections  in  natural  history,  anatomi- 
cal museums,  botanical  gardens,  and  the  like,  we  find  no  mention 
and  the  less,  inasmuch  as  there  was  no  need  of  them  in  elucidation  of 

*  This  strong  expression  of  Melancthon's  agrees  throughout  with  many  of  his  addresses, 
delivered  to  the  students  on  the  annual  reading  of  the  university  statutes.  Take  an  extract, 
by  way  of  example,  from  the  address  of  the  year  1533  :  "Quorundam  tanta  est  ferocitas,  ut 
contemptum  disciplinae  et  legum,  fortitudinem  quandam  esse  putent.  Jure  deplorant  omnea 
boni  viri  hoc  tempore  nimis  laxatam  esse  disciplinam."  "  The  barbarity  of  some  is  so  great 
that  they  even  think  that  a  contempt  for  discipline  and  law  is  a  part  of  true  bravery."  And 
again  he  says,  in  the  address  of  1537 :  lt  Nunquam  juventus  tarn  impaliens  legum  et  disciplinae 
fuit,  prorsus  suo  arbitrio,  non  alieno  vult  vivere.  Nou  eiiim  hominum  sed  Cyclopum  hi 
mores  sunt,  totas  noctes  in  publico  tumultuari.furiosis  clamoribus  omnia  complere,  conviciis, 
lapidum  jactu,  armis  in  pacatos  adeoque  inermes  atque  innocentes  hostilem  in  modum 
debacchari,oppugnare  honestorum  civium  aedes,  effringere  fores,  fenestras,  turbare  somnum 
puerperis  miserisque  aegrotis  ac  senibus,  dissipare  tabernas  in  foro.  currus  et  quicquid 
occurrit."  "  Never  were  our  youth  so  impatient  of  laws  and  of  discipline,  so  determined  to 
live  after  their  own  wills  and  not  according  to  the  wills  of  others.  But  it  is  the  part,  not  of 
men,  but  of  Cyclops,  to  make  public  tumults  all  night ;  to  fill  whole  neighborhoods  with  furi- 
ous outcries;  to  make  bacchanalian  and  even  hostile  assaults  upon  the  unarmed  and  innocent 
with  insults,  throwing  stones,  and  even  with  weapons;  to  lay  siege  to  the  dwellings  of  respect- 
able citizens  ;  to  break  in  their  doors  and  windows,  destroy  the  slumbers  of  women  in  child- 
bed, of  the  wretched,  the  sick,  and  the  aged ;  to  demolish  the  booths  in  the  market-place,  car- 
riages, and  whatever  else  comes  in  the  way." 

t  The  largest  salaries  then  received  by  any  of  the  professors  at  Wittenberg  amounted  to 
only  two  hundred  gulden.  The  third  medical  professor  had  but  eighty  gulden.  And  the 
annual  expenditure  of  the  entire  university  did  not  exceed  three  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
ninety-five  gulden.  And  yet  we  find  sumptuary  edicts  then  in  force,  which  forbade  the 
rector,  a  doctor,  &c.,  to  entertain  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  guests  at  any  one  time. 
But  we  should  remember  that  a  cord  of  wood  could  then  be  bought  for  six  groschen,  a  hare 
for  two,  and  other  things  in  proportion.  "  For  board,  lodging,  and  government,  the  student 
paid  annually,  to  one  of  the  professors,  the  sum  of  thirty  gulden. 


286  UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY. 

such  lectures  as  the  professors  ordinarily  gave.  When  Paul  Eber, 
the  theologian,  read  lectures  upon  anatomy,  he  made  no  use  of  dis- 
section. And  it  was  stated,  as  a  remarkable  event,  that  the  medical 
lecturer,  Schurf,  in  the  year  1526,  instituted  an  anatomical  analysis 
of  a  human  head.  For  it  was  not  until  some  years  after,  that  the 
special  enactment,  requiring  two  dissections  annually,  was  passed.  In 
Frankfort -on-the-Oder,  Eggeling  instituted  the  first  dissection  in 
1542.  But  much  earlier,  in  1482,  Pope  Sixtus  IV.  had  issued  a  brief, 
in  which  the  University  of  Tubingen  received  permission  to  dissect 
one  subject  every  third  or  fourth  year.  It  was  not,  however,  until 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  that  the  first  anatomical  museum 
was  founded  by  the  efforts  of  the  talented  Leonard  Fox  ;  and,  in  1569, 
the  medical  faculty  were  empowered  to  dissect  the  bodies  of  executed 
criminals.* 

The  earliest  mention  that  we  find  of  a  botanical  garden  at  Tubin- 
gen is  in  1652,  at  Wittenberg  in  1668.  Yet,  at  the  latter  place,  it 
appears  to  have  been  a  part  of  the  duty  of  Professor  Niemann,  in 
1624,  "to  take  medical  students,  twice  in  each  year,  on  a  botanizing 
tour,  (herbatum.}\ 

The  earliest  regulations  for  the  Tubingen  cabinet  of  natural  history 
are  of  the  year  1771. 

In  the  year  1603,  Professor  Joestelius,  at  Wittenberg,  asked  in  vain 
for  the  erection  of  an  observatory,  and  it  was  not  until  1752  that 
Tubingen  could  boast  of  one. 

In  the  following  pages  we  shall  see  how  there  grew  up  by  degrees 
a  strong  desire,  no  longer  to  teach  and  to  learn  a  traditional  science 
of  nature  from  books  alone,  but  to  question  nature  herself  directly, 
without  an  interpreter ;  meanwhile,  what  has  been  now  advanced 
respecting  academical  institutes  (apparatus,)  may  serve  to  point  in 
advance  to  the  period  when  a  true  realism  was  applied  to  the  investi- 
gation of  nature,  and  an  enlightened  humanism,  moving  in  language 
as  in  its  native  element,  penetrated  through  the  form  to  the  spirit  of 
the  ancient  classics. 

*The  following  inscription  was  placed  over  the  door  of  the  Wittenberg  anatomical  theater, 
where  executed  criminals  were  dissected  : — 

"Qui  vivi  nocuere  mali,  post  funera  prosunt, 

Et  petit  ex  ipsa  commoda  morte  salus." 
'« Here  wicked  men  are  found  at  last  in  useful  ways, 

And  here  death  shows  us  how  to  lengthen  out  our  days  " 

t  As  early  as  1615,  the  University  of  Wittenberg  sentenced  a  student,  who  had  Deeit  con- 
victed of  the  crime  of  dueling,  to  pay  a  fine  of  three  hundred  gulden,  hoping  with  the  money 
to  found  a  botanical  garden,  but  the  project  failed  through  the  inability  of  the  student  to  pay 


EARLY  SCHOOL  CODES  OF  GERMANY. 

I.    DUCHY    OF    WIRTEMBERG. 

(Translated  from  the  German  of  Karl  Von  Raumer,  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education. 


THE  schools  of  Trotzendorf,  Neander,  and  Sturm,  formed  the  gen- 
eral model  upon  which  the  schools  of  the  sixteenth  century  were  or- 
ganized, a  model  imitated  with  greater  or  less  exactness,  however,  in 
the  different  German  states,  according  to  their  varying  position  and 
demands.  The  truth  of  this  remark  will  appear  from  an  examination 
of  the  school  codes  of  Wirtemberg  and  Saxony,  that  were  published 
in  the  second  half  of  this  (sixteenth)  century. 

The  Wirtemberg  code,  to  which  we  shall  first  advert,  is  to  be  found 
incorporated  in  the  Grand  Ecclesiastical  Order,  so-called,  issued  in  the 
year  1559,  by  Duke  Christopher,  and,  after  receiving  the  formal  sanc- 
tion of  the  assembled  states  at  the  Diet  of  1565,  accepted  as  an  inte- 
gral part  of  the  constitution  of  the  government,  and  approved  by  suc- 
cessive revisions  at  different  periods,  as  in  1582,  1660,  etc.  In  the 
preamble  to  this  code,  its  purpose  is  stated  as  follows :  "To  carry  youth 
from  the  elements  through  successive  grades  to  the  degree  of  culture 
demanded  for  offices  in  the  church  and  in  the  state." 

TEUTSCH  (GERMAN)  SCHOOLS. 

The  "  Teutsch  "  schools  formed  the  lowest  grade,  in  which  boys  and 
girls,  separate  from  each  other,  received  instruction  in  reading,  writing, 
religion,  and  sacred  music.  Arithmetic  was  left  out  of  the  account 
here ;  although  afterward  we  find  it  required  of  the  schoolmaster, 
that  he  be  "  of  a  good  understanding  to  teach  both  reading  and  fig- 
ures." In  the  matter  of  discipline,  the  master  was  cautioned  "to  use 
the  rod  on  all  proper  occasions,  but  never  to  seize  the  children  by  the 
hair,  etc."  And  in  order  that  the  service  of  the  school  might  wholly 
engage  the  attention  of  the  teacher,  "  wherever  any  sacristan  is  now 
required  to  do  beadle  and  mass  service,  for  the  future  he  may  be  re- 
leased therefrom." 

Such  "  Teutsch"  schools,  moreover,  were  to  be  set  up  "in  the  little 
villages  and  hamlets,"  where  there  were  no  higher  institutions  in  ex- 
istence; but,  together  with  these,  "in  each  and  every  city,  large  or 
small,  as  well  as  in  the  principal  villages  or  hamlets,  Latin  schools  like- 
wise were  to  be  founded."  These  last  were  also  called  private  schools 


SCH001   CODE  Ob  WIRTEMBERG. 
LATIN    SCHOOLS. 

A  fully  equipped  Latin  school  was  to  include,  according  to  the  code 
of  Duke  Christopher,  five  classes,  to  which  Duke  Louis  added  a  sixth. 
This  number,  howevei,  in  thinly  settled  hamlets,  was  reduced,  so  that 
in  some  instances  we  f  nd  but  one  class  in  a  school. 

Where  the  classes  were  sufficiently  full,  they  were  to  be  divided  into 
decurice  ;  and  each  decuAa,  as  in  the  school  of  Sturm,  had  its  decurion, 
elected  weekly,  whose  duty  it  was  to  take  the  general  "oversight  of 
his  comrades." 

The  lowest  class  was  called  Prima.  The  boys  in  tuis  class  learned 
to  read  Latin.  The  teachers  were  particularly  admonished  to  require 
the  boys  "to  pronounce  the  vowels  and  consonants  in  a  clear  and  dis- 
tinct manner,  and  according  to  the  usage  of  the  Latin  language  rather 
than  that  of  the  vernacular."  Those  who,  "from  natural  backwardness, 
are  unable  to  pronounce  all  the  letters,  should  be,  as  much  as  possible, 
practiced  upon  words  of  a  smooth  and  gliding  accent."  The  paradigms 
of  the  etymology  were  taught,  Cato  read,  and  two  Latin  words,  taken 
from  the  Nomenclatura  rerum,  were  daily  assigned  to  each  scholar,  to 
copy  and  commit  to  memory. 

Second  Class. — In  this,  Cato  and  the  "Mimi  Publiani"  were  ex- 
pounded, word  by  word,  and  the  declensions  and  conjugations  were 
continued;  "with  the  other  parts  of  speech  (i.  e.,  other  than  nouns 
substantive  and  adjective,  and  verbs,)  the  boys  in  the  lower  decuria 
were  not  to  be  perplexed ; "  but,  in  the  upper  decurice,  all  the  parts  of 
speech  were  to  be  learned,  syntax  begun,  and  translations  made  from 
the  Latin  catechism.  Moreover,  the  preceptor  was  enjoined  to  "ques- 
tion and  drill  the  boys  in  phrases,"  to  see  how  they  would  express  this 
or  that  particular  phrase  in  Latin ;  for  at  this  point  Latin  conversation 
was  the  chief  subject  of  attention.  Exercises  in  music  were  likewise 
required. 

Third  Class. — In  this  class,  lessons  were  recited  from  the  "Fables 
of  Camerarius "  and  the  "  Dialogues  of  Cattalio,"  and  "  fine  phrases 
were  pointed  out  therein,"  for  the  boys  "  to  put  to  use,  both  in  writing 
and  in  speech."  They  were  likewise  introduced  to  the  "choice  epis- 
tles of  Cicero,"  and  to  Terence.  The  latter  was  to  be  committed  to 
memory.  "And,  since  Terence  wrote  with  great  elegance  and  purity, 
the  boys  should  read  over  his  expressions  often,  and  that  attentively, 
and  should  also  turn  them  into  good  German,  'that  so  their  own 
Latin,  both  written  and  colloquial,  may  be  improved.' "  At  the  read- 
ing of  Terence,  the  teachers  "should  be  specially  cireful  to  give  prom- 
inence to  the  design  and  purpose  of  the  author,  how  he  does  not  him- 
self advocate  every  thing  that  is  said,  but  depicts  various  vices  and 


SCHOOL  CODE  OF  W1RTEMBERG  289 

dispositions  in  the  person  of  his  various  characters  ;  for  instance, 
where  Mitio  says — '  Non  est  flagitium  (crede  mihi)  adolescentem  scor- 
tari,  neque  potare,  neque  fores  effringere,'  etc. ;  here  the  boys  are  to 
understand  that  these  words  do  not  express  the  real  sentiments  of  the 
writer."  "  Again,  these  and  the  like  passages  should  be  used  by  the 
preceptor,  to  show  how  those  benighted  pagans  knew  nothing  of 
God  and  his  word  ;  in  short,  a  diligent  care  should  be  exercised,  on  all 
occasions,  that  the  tender  minds  of  the  young  receive  no  evil  bias." 

Syntax  was  then  taken  up,  combined  with  "  exercises  in  style ; " 
and  in  these  the  pupil  was  instructed  "  to  imitate  the  periods  of  au- 
thors, gleaned  from  suitable  readings."  Patience  and  perseverance 
were  especially  commended  to  teachers,  in  their  corrections  of  the 
written  essays  of  their  scholars. 

Fourth  Class. — Cicero's  "  Letters  to  his  Friends,"  the  treatises  on 
"Friendship,"  and  on  "Old  Age,"  and  Terence  were  read  in  this  class. 
After  finishing  syntax,  the  elements  of  prosody  were  taken  up.  Also 
the  rudiments  of  Greek  grammar  were  learned,  and  translations  made 
from  the  smaller  Greek  catechism  of  Brentius. 

Fifth  Class. — Those  boys  who,  while  passing  through  the  four  first 
classes,  "  had  been  sufficiently  exercised  and  perfected  in  grammar,  so 
that  they  spoke  Latin  with  tolerable  freedom,  and  had  besides  mas- 
tered the  elements  of  Greek,"  were  in  this  class  to  be  confirmed  "  in 
all  the  studies  to  which  they  had  previously  attended." 

They  were  then  to  read  Cicero's  "Familiar  Letters,"  and  his  "Of- 
fices," also  Ovid  "  de  Tristibus,"  the  Gospels  in  Greek  and  in  Latin, 
and,  in  addition,  to  give  their  attention  to  prosody  and  to  exercises  in 
style. 

Sixth  Class. — "After  the  boys  have  been  thoroughly  drilled  in 
grammar,  they  are  in  this  class  to  be  made  acquainted  with  logic  and 
rhetoric."  They  were  to  read,  beside  Cicero's  Speeches  and  Sallust, 
the  -^Eneid  of  Virgil,  "that  they  may  thereby  grow  accustomed  to 
the  elegancies  of  the  Latin  tongue,  and  to  a  pure,  poetical  diction." 

In  their  exercises  in  style,  "  regard  should  be  paid  not  to  the  quan- 
tity but  the  quality  of  their  compositions,  and  to  their  successful  imi- 
tation of  the  idiom  and  the  phraseology  of  Cicero." 

In  Greek,  they  were  to  go  through  with  the  grammar,  and  to  read 
the  Cyropaedia  and  the  larger  catechism  of  Brentius. 

Music,  especially  sacred,  both  in  German  and  Latin  words,  was 
thoroughly  practiced  by  all  the  classes,  and  the  recitations  of  the  day 
were  always  introduced  with  the  singing  of  the  "  Veni  sancte  Spiritus" 
or  the  " Veni  Creator  Spiritus" 

The  boys  were  also  obliged,  "as  well  out  of  as  in  school,  to  con- 


290  SCHOOL  CODE  OF  WIRTEMBERG. 

verse  with  each  other  in  Latin,  not  in  German,"  and  "  every  week  to 
write  '  letters.' " 

A  comparison  of  the  Wirtemberg  school  code  with  that  of  Sturm 
reveals  a  most  surprising  similarity  between  them  both,  in  their  re- 
spective aims,  as  well  as  in  the  means  by  which  in  each  case  that  aim 
was  reached.  The  Wirtemberg  bo)rs  were  required  to  be  "devout, 
God-fearing,  modest,  and  obedient,  and  to  be  faithful  in  attendance  on 
school  and  in  study."  Teachers  were  repeatedly  cautioned  against  too 
great  severity,  especially  in  the  infliction  of  corporeal  punishment. 

THE    CLOISTER    SCHOOLS. 

Duke  Christopher's  chief  care  was  to  provide  his  people  with  good 
spiritual  guides.  For  the  education  of  such,  he  founded,  in  the  year 
1556,  cloister  schools,  so-called,  upon  the  endowments  of  the  disfran- 
chised monasteries,  so  that  these  might  be,  according  to  their  original 
design,  again  enlisted  in  the  service  of  the  church.  At  an  annual  ex- 
amination held  by  authority  at  Stuttgart,  the  most  promising  boys,  of 
twelve  or  fourteen  years  of  age,  at  the  Latin  schools,  were  transferred 
to  the  cloister  schools,  and  there  educated  without  charge,  until  they 
were  fitted  to  enter  the  University  of  Tubingen.  At  their  entrance 
into  the  cloister  schools,  the  promise  was  exacted  of  them,  to  continue 
faithfully  in  the  study  of  theology,  and,  except  under  permission  from 
the  duke,  never  to  engage  in  any  foreign  service,  The  "  Church  Order  " 
divided  the  cloister  schools  into  lower  and  higher;  the  former  were  also 
styled  grammar  schools.  Boys  went,  as  we  have  stated  above,  in  their 
twelfth  or  fourteenth  year,  from  the  Latin  school,  into  the  cloister 
grammar  school.  They  were  obliged,  beforehand,  to  have  completed 
the  studies  of  the  third  class;  for  in  the  cloister  school  they  receiver 
nearly  the  same  instruction  that  was  imparted  in  the  fifth  and  the 
sixth  of  the  Latin  schools.  To  this  there  was,  moreover,  added  much 
theological  doctrine,  bearing  upon  their  future  course. 

From  the  grammar  schools,  they  went  up  into  the  higher  cloister 
schools.  Here  they  read  Cicero,  Virgil,  and  Demosthenes,  and  took 
up  Greek  grammar ;  they  also  continued  logic  and  rhetoric,  and 
practiced  singing,  in  connection  with  the  study  of  a  compendium  of 
musical  science.  Up  to  this  point,  they  were  wholly  upon  old  ground. 
But  now,  other  and  new  branches  demanded  their  attention ;  viz.r 
arithmetic  and  astronomy,  the  latter  most  probably  taught  out  of 
the  "Sphere  of  Sacro  fiosco" 

Meanwhile,  frequent  exercises  in  style  were  insisted  on,  in  order  "  to 
attain  to  the  purity  and  elegance  of  the  Latin  tongue."  Some  short 
collection  of  phrases  was  to  be  learned  by  heart,  and  reference  "  should 


SCHOOL    CODE    OF    WIRTEMBERG.  291 

oe  freely  made  to  the  '  Phrases  out  of  Cicero  and  Terence,  collected 
by  certain  scholars,  and  now  first  put  into  print.' "  The  preceptor 
"should  himself,  with  such  phrases  as  he  had  collected  in  his  reading 
during  the  week,  compose  a  Latin  treatise,  inventing  his  argument 
in  such  a  manner,  that  well-considered  phrases  may  be  fitly  woven 
into  its  expression  ;  for  he  ought,  by  all  means,  to  avoid  affectation, 
and  to  use  embellishments  only  where  they  grow  out  of  the  subject. 
Such  treatises  he  should  translate  into  good  German,  and  dictate  the 
same  to  the  boys,  bidding  them  turn  it  again  into  pure  and  elegant 
Latin,  for  which  purpose  he  may  remind  them  to  use  their  own  com- 
mon-place books,  already  prepared  of  words  and  phrases  from  Cicero, 
Terence,  Virgil,  and  other  good  authors.  The  preceptor  must  "strike 
out  every  phrase  which  is  not  sanctioned  by  some  approved  author," 

"  and  at  last  he  should  read  over  to  the  boys  the  Latin 

treatise  which  he  has  himself  already  prepared  from  the  same 
phrases,  and  they  should  listen  attentively,  in  order  to  see  how  skill- 
fully the  preceptor  has  joined  these  phrases  together ;  that  they  may 
learn  how  to  follow  his  lead,  and  attain  to  his  excellence." 

Every  where  we  find  the  same  grand  aim  ;  i.  e.,  imitation  of  classical 
authors.  And  those  earlier  scholars  fancied  themselves  genuine 
imitators  and  pure  classical  writers,  when  they  had  merely  put 
together,  with  great  care  and  pains,  phrases  borrowed  from  the  classics. 
That  they  did  not  learn  from  the  classics,  as  did  Wieland,  how  to 
write  German  well,  is  sufficiently  evident  from  the  composition  of  the 
foregoing  citations.* 

Every  two  weeks,  disputations  were  to  be  held  upon  questions  of 
grammar,  logic,  rhetoric,  or  the  sphere,  ("Sphcerica  lectio") 

The  discipline  of  these  cloister  schools  was  the  more  strict,  inas- 
much as  more  was  demanded  of  boys  who  were  destined  for  the 
clerical  office. 

UNIVERSITY. 

When  the  cloister  scholars  had  reached  the  age  of  16  or  17,  they 
entered  the  university.  They  were  first  examined  ;  and  those  who  ' 
had  passed  a  good  examination  were  admitted  to  the  Tubingen 
Foundation,  and,  during  their  entire  university  course,  received  a 
gratuitous  maintenance.  And  here,  too,  they  were  subjected  to  a 
strict  discipline.  Besides  their  particular  department  of  theology, 
they  paid  special  attention  to  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin,  prosecuted 
logic,  rhetoric,  and  mathematics  more  thoroughly,  and  were  kept  at 
exercises  in  style,  together  with  disputations.  The  Foundation  was 

•  Take  for  instance  the  following :  "  Kein  phrasin  die  nicht  ex  probato  authore  herkommen 
passiren  la.*sen." 


292  SCHOOL    CODE   OF    WIRTEMBERU. 

sufficiently  ample  for  the  support  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  students. 
Its  privileges  however  were  extended  only  to  native-born  Wirtem- 
bergers,  who  were  destined  for  the  sacred  office. 

Such  was  the  Wirtemberg  school  system,  beginning  in  the 
"Teutsch "  or  elementary  schools,  and  ending  in  the  university. 
But  it  did  not  entirely  answer  the  expectations  even  of  its  founder, 
Duke  Christopher.  The  private  schools  especially  often  proved  a 
failure;  as,  in  many  places,  "from  the  scarcity  both  of  teachers  and 
pupils,"  they  were  not  fully  organized,  having  only  the  lower  classes. 
For  this  reason,  the  Duke  founded  in  eight  cities  special  private  schools 
with  more  classes — the  principal  of  these  was  at  Stuttgart  ;  this  con- 
tained five  classes,  to  which  Duke  Louis  added  a  sixth.  This  latter 
school  was  a  perfect  realization  of  the  plan  of  instruction  of  Louis, 
being  a  fully  equipped  private  school,  in  which  boys  were  thoroughly 
fitted  for  the  university.* 

They  read  the  speeches  of  Cicero,  Virgil,  the  comedies  of  Frischli- 
nus,  and  practiced  writing,  both  in  Latin  and  Greek,  both  d.tfuse  and 
compact,  (exercitia  styli  Latini,  Greed,  soluti,  ligati.) 

They  attended  also  to  music,  astronomy,  logic,  and  rhetoric  ;  we 
find  mention  made  likewise  of  physics  and  ethics.  And  because,  in 
1599,  complaints  were  made  of  the  neglect  of  the  Greek  language, 
the  grammar  of  Crusius  and  the  Cyropaedia  were  introduced  into 
the  school.  Afterward,  in  the  year  1686,  "  this  school  was  reorgan- 
ized into  the  form  and  shape  of  a  completely-equipped  gymnasium;" 
both  studies  and  classes  being  raised. 

The  external  organization  of  the  Wirtemberg  schools  of  the  present 
day,  agrees  in  the  main  with  that  of  the  16th  century.  In  addition 
to  the  German  elementary  schools,  the  duchy  can  now  boast  of  83 
Latin  schools.  From  these,  those  pupils  destined  for  the  ministry, 
who  distinguish  themselves  at  the  official  examinations,  are  sent  to 
the  four  cloister  seminaries  at  Maulbronn,  Urach,  Blaubeuren,  and 
Schonthal,  among  which  there  is  now  no  longer  the  ancient  distinction 
of  lower  and  higher.  For  example,  thirty  scholars  entered,  in  the 
year  1828,  the  seminary  of  Schonthal,  taking  the  places  of  those, 
previously  there,  who  had  just  left  for  Tubingen.  These  thirty  new 
scholars  formed  a  promotion,  so  called,  and  remained  there  four 
years;  until,  in  1832,  at  the  end  of  the  summer  semester,  they  all 
left  for  the  university.  In  the  same  manner,  every  year,  one  of 
the  four  cloister  schools  dismisses  its  scholars,  and  admits  at  the 
same  time  a  new  promotion,  so  that  every  year  the  Tubingen 

*  The  course  of  instruction  pursued  in  this  school  toward  the  close  of  the  16th  century 
may  be  seen  in  the  -'Swabian  Magazine  "  for  1776.  part  l.page  412.  In  1574  thescnool  nura 
hered  312  pupils 


SCHOOL    CODE    OF   SAXONY.  293 

Foundation  receives  from  one  of  the  four  cloister  schools  not  far  from 
thirty  scholars. 

But  although  the  external  organization  of  the  present  Wirtemberg 
schools  appears  thus  similar  to  that  of  the  schools  of  the  16th  cen- 
tury, yet,  on  a  comparison  of  their  internal  economy,  we  discover  a 
most  marked  difference.  A  new  educational  ideal,  developed  chiefly 
within  the  last  seventy  years,  has  introduced  new  subjects  of  instruction, 
and  inaugurated  new  methods  of  teaching.  To  speak  but  of  a  single 
branch,  viz.,  the  classics.  Under  the  old  system,  but  three  of  the  Latin 
classics,  Cicero,  Terence,  and  Virgil,  were  read ;  while  now  seven 
others  are  included  in  the  curriculum,  and  eight  Greek  classical 
authors  have  now  taken  a  place  side  by  side  with  the  Cyropsedia 
and  Demosthenes  of  those  days. 

Now,  too,  instruction  in  French  and  German  is  regarded  as  of 
equal  importance  with  that  in  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin.  We  have 
likewise,  among  our  modern  branches  of  education,  geography, 
history,  and  natural  philosophy ;  and,  with  logic,  we  have  the  new 
science  of  anthropology. 

II.   SCHOOL  CODE  OF  SAXONY,  1580. 

IN  the  year  1580  there  appeared  in  the  Electorate  of  Saxony  the 
"Rules  and  Regulations  of  Augustus,  Elector  of  Saxony,"  to  be  ob- 
served by  the  churches,  universities,  and  schools,  both  royal  and  pri- 
vate, throughout  his  dominions. 

If  we  compare  these  ordinances  closely  with  the  Wirtemberg  school 
code  of  Duke  Christopher,  we  shall  find  a  most  remarkable  similarity 
between  them;  and,  in  fact,  a  great  portion  of  this  Saxon  edict  was 
borrowed,  word  for  word,  from  the  Wirtemberg. 

The  "Teutsch  "  schools  "in  the  villages  and  thinly-settled  hamlets" 
were,  in  Saxony,  as  in  Wirtemberg,  set  apart  for  elementary  instruction 
in  reading,  writing,  and  religious  doctrine.  Here,  also,  there  was  no 
mention  made  of  arithmetic,  although  the  Wirtemberg  Ecclesiastical 
Order  required  of  schoolmasters  "  that  they  understand  it." 

Private  schools  in  Saxony,  as  in  Wirtemberg,  were  the  next  highest 
in  grade;  and  there  as  well  as  here  they  were  divided  into  five  classes. 
With  a  few  slight  exceptions,  the  Saxon  system  was  almost  a  literal 
transcript  of  the  Wirtemberg.  The  chief  difference  between  them 
was  this,  viz.,  that  in  the  Saxon  schools  arithmetic  was  carried  in  the 
fourth  class  through  division  and  finished  in  the  fifth ;  while  in  those 
of  Wirtemberg  it  was  not  taught  at  all.  With  regard  to  music,  (and 
by  consequence  to  musical  instruction,)  the  Augustan  code  thus  strin- 
gently and  wisely  ordained:  "Pastors  shall  give  diligent  heed  that 


294  SCHOOL  CODE  OF  SAXONY. 

uone  of  the  pieces  of  the  cantators,  where  these  are  also  composers, 
nor  any  new  pieces  whatever,  be  sung;  but  only  the  music  of  such 
learned  and  worthy  old  masters  as  Josquin,  Clement,  (not  the  Pope,) 
Orlandus,  and  the  like;  and,  above  all,  that  all  airs  of  a  light  and  las- 
civious character  be  avoided ;  for  all  the  music  chosen  ought  to  be 
solemn,  noble,  and  inspiring,  so  that  the  people  may  be  charmed  into 
a  devout  and  Christian  frame  of  mind." 

The  private  schools  of  Saxony  were  unconnected  with  any  special 
theological  institutions,  as  in  Wirtemberg ;  but  in  their  stead  there  were 
royal  schools  at  Meissen,  Grimme,  and  Pforten,  which  were  founded 
"for  the  benefit  of  all  future  generations."  Each  of  these  schools  were 
divided  into  three  classes,  and  each  class  into  decurice,  all  under  decu- 
rions.  Boys  were  to  remain  at  these  royal  schools  six  years.  Before 
their  admission  they  were  required  to  have  gone  through  the  third 
class  in  one  of  the  private  schools.  Nevertheless,  in  the  first  or  lowest 
class  of  the  royal  schools,  the  course  of  study  in  that  third  was  to  be 
repeated,  viz.,  etymology,  the  Mimi  Publiani,  Cato,  and  the  Familiar 
Letters  of  Cicero.  So,  likewise,  the  course  in  the  second  class  of  the 
royal  schools  agreed  in  part  with  that  of  the  fourth  of  the  private 
schools.  Latin,  syntax,  the  Familiar  Letters,  the  Bucolics  of  Virgil, 
Ovid's  Pontus,  Tibullus,  select  Latin  poetry,  elementary  Greek,  with 
^Esop's  Fables  in  Greek,  and,  lastly,  arithmetic  and  music.  In  the 
third  or  highest  class  of  the  royal  schools,  the  whole  of  Melancthon's 
Latin  grammar,  with  the  additions  of  Camerarius,  was  studied,  and 
there  was  read  of  Cicero  the  Offices,  Old  Age  and  Friendship,  and  the 
Tusculan  Questions,  Virgil's  Georgics  and  ^Eneid,  and  the  Odes  of 
Horace;  in  Greek,  Isocrates,  the  Theogony  of  Hesiod,  the  Golden 
Lines  of  Pythagoras,  and  the  first  book  of  the  Iliad,  and  Plutarch  on 
the  Education  of  Children.  Instruction  was  also  given  in  the  elements 
of  Hebrew,  in  logic  and  rhetoric,  Sacro  Bosco  on  the  " Sphere"  and 
the  "  Rudiments  of  Astronomy  "  of  M.  Blebellius.  Above  all,  the  boys 
were  to  "learn  to  read  and  write  good  Latin  in  an  elegant  as  well  as 
intelligible  manner  ;"  for  this  purpose  to  collect  phrases,  to  give  much 
attention  to  Cicero,  to  write  many  essays,  etc.  "The  comedies  of 
Terence  and  Plautus  they  (the  teachers)  shall  cause  the  boys  to  per- 
form throughout  the  year,  and  in  this  way  accustom  them  to  speak 
Latin  with  elegance."  Yet  the  teachers  should  separate  the  poison 
from  the  honey,  and  should  instruct  their  pupils  "  carefully  to  avoid 
and  eschew  the  vices  which  these  poets  have  depicted  both  in  young 
men  and  old." 

Upon  the  office  and  qualifications  of  teachers,  rectors  especially,  and 
the  doctrine  and  discipline  to  be  observed  in  schools,  the  Saxon  code 

28 


SCHOOL  CODE  OF  SAXONY.  295 

contained  much  that  was  admirable.  We  find  therein  plai  -nd 
straightforward  rules,  distinguished  alike  for  their  devout  lone  j  for 
their  shrewd  common  sense. 

In  the  year  1773,  there  appeared  the  well-known  "Remodeled 
school  code  for  the  government  of  the  three  royal  and  national  schools 
of  the  Electorate  of  Saxony"  Its  framer  had  before  him  the  code  of 
Augustus  L,  then  of  nearly  200  years'  standing,  and  he  appears  to 
have  translated  this  as  faithfully  as  possible  into  the  character  and 
style  of  his  own  day.  But,  while  both  these  codes  agree  with  each 
other  in  the  main,  yet  the  new  one  was  conformed  to  the  demands  of 
the  new  age,  disclosing,  for  instance,  an  unmistakable  tinge  of  the  ra- 
tionalism of  that  age.  The  branches  of  study  were  more  numerous ; 
notwithstanding  the  study  of  the  classics  still  continued  prominent, 
and  the  old  modes  of  forming  a  Latin  style,  both  written  and  spoken, 
were  still  retained.  Hebrew  was  taught  as  formerly,  and  to  this  were 
added  French,  Italian,  and  English.  Geography,  history,  and  chro- 
nology were  also  particularized  as  subjects  of  study.  With  logic  and 
rhetoric,  natural  theology  and  moral  philosophy  were  combined,  the 
text-books  in  these  sciences  being  the  well-known  Initia  of  Ernesti. 

Since  this  code  of  1773  appeared,  a  new  educational  era  has  dawned, 
and  the  character  of  Pforte  has  changed  far  more  since  1773  than  it 
had  previously  done  during  the  long  period  from  1580  to  1773. 


EDUCATION  IN  PERIODS  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE. 

[Translated  from  the  German  of  Karl  Von  Raumer,  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education.] 


I.      THE    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR    IN    GERMANY. 

THE  "  Thirty  Years'  War,"  which  broke  out  in  1618-19,  is  the 
most  dreadful  period  in  the  history  of  Germany.  Its  armies  were 
great  bands  of  murderers  and  robbers.  The  spirit  of  peace  and  holy 
order  had  entirely  perished  ;  and  murder,  license,  and  robbery  reigned 
without  opposition.  So  fearful  were  the  results  of  devastation  and 
impious  recklessness,  that  pious  men  began  to  doubt  even  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  God.  "  The  country  was  desolated,  plundered,  empty  of 
men — a  desert  for  wolves  and  savage  beasts.  Of  schools  and  teach- 
ers nothing  was  said."* 

The  histories  of  those  German  institutions  which  date  back  to  the 
thirty  years'  war  confirm  these  statements.  I  shall  quote  a  few  of 
them. 

The  Protestant  school  at  Friedberg,  in  Hesse,  suffered  during  that 
time  "immeasurable  evils."  The  pestilence  and  poverty  which  re- 
sulted from  the  war  robbed  it  of  many  of  its  scholars.  In  1630  it 
was  almost  destroyed  by  the  Austrians  and  Bavarians ;  but  was  re- 
established f  in  1631,  when  the  Swedes  entered  Friedberg,  after  the 
siege  of  Leipzig  by  Gustavus  Adolphus.  The  Protestant  gymnasium 
at  Hersfeld  was  put  in  possession  of  Catholic  priests  and  Jesuit 
teachers  in  1829.  Tilly  was  at  hand  to  enforce  the  Edict  of  Restitu- 
tion by  arms,  and  raved  fearfully  about  it.  In  1632  the  gymnasium 
received  its  Protestant  teachers  back  again  ;  but  was  entirely  destroyed 
in  1634  by  the  imperial  general,  Gotz — the  teachers  fleeing  to  Kassel 
and  elsewhere.  In  1636  instruction  was  again  commenced;  and,  in 
1637,  when  the  imperialist  troops  again  came  to  Hersfeld,  it  had  to 
be  clos  -d.  It  WHS  soon  reopened,  and  vegetated  painfully  through 

*  Raumer's  '"History  of  Europe."  Ill ,  596.  Two  religious  hymns,  of  the  time  of  the  thirty 
years'  war.  afford  the  deepest  glimpse  into  the  melancholy  feelings  of  upright  men.  One  by 
Meder.  a  pastor  in  ihe  circle  of  Leipzig,  begins, il  When,  oh  when  will  it  appear,  our  much- 
longed-for  day  of  peace?"  The  other,  by  Martin  Rinckart,  (1585 — 1649,)  is  a  parody  upon 
the  Lord's  Prayer  It  begins.  "  Our  father  will  no  longer  be  the  father  of  the  miserable;" 
and  again,  •' Shall  thy  name  be  entirely  forgotten  upon  earth  ?"  and,  ''Shall  thy  will  never 
more  be  done  upon  earth  1 "  If  ends,  however,  with  a  hopeful  prayer  for  relief,  and  with  the 
words.  -kThou  hast  the  kingdom,  and  the  power,  and  the  glory  over  hell  and  death." 

t  •'  Account  of  the  Augustine  School  at  Friedberg,"  by  Prof.  Dieffenbach.  Programme, 
1825,  p  12,  &c. 


298  EDUCATION  IN  PERIODS  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE. 

those  troubled  times,  until  its  first  accession  of  renewed  vigor,  after 
the  Peace  of  Westphalia.* 

Gottingen  was  besieged  for  nearly  two  months  in  1626,  and  terribly 
bombarded.  Under  the  pressure  of  the  extremest  want,  the  then 
celebrated  rector,  Georg  Andreas  Fabricius,  accepted  a  call  to  the 
gymnasium  at  Mulhausen ;  and  with  him  there  departed  the  other 
teachers  and  the  pupils  from  other  places. f  He  was  afterward  invited 
back  to  Gottingen,  but  in  1641  was  without  income  and  five  hundred 
thalers  in  arrear. 

Schulpforte  suffered  much  by  the  war.  The  minister,  Mai-tin 
Caulbel,J  came  to  Pforte,  August  2d,  1632,  through  the  midst  of 
Wallenstein's  army.  In  the  same  year  the  pupils  were  dispersed  by 
hostilities,  and  returned  next  year.  In  1636  they  were  twice  dis- 
missed, on  account  of  attacks  by  the  enemy ;  in  ]  647,  when  Field- 
Marshal  Leslie  had  his  winter-quarters  near  Pforte,  they  were  dis- 
missed for  seventeen  weeks ;  there  being  no  means  of  subsistence 
either  for  them  or  the  teachers.  On  the  18th  of  February,  1639, 
both  teachers  and  pupils  were  again  dispersed  by  Bannier's  cavalry. 
When  the  minister  of  Schulpforte  returned,  on  the  23d  of  the  same 
month,  with  five  scholars,  they  were  obliged  by  necessity  to  eat  oaten 
bread  until  the  next  harvest.  On  the  16th  of  April,  1641,  the  boys, 
twelve  in  number,  were  hunted  away  again  by  Duke  Bernhard's 
forces,  under  General  Rose.  "  God  will  repay  the  general  and  his 
soldiers  at  the  last  day,"  writes  Besold,  then  the  minister  ;  "  for  they 
tortured  two  of  the  pupils  by  cords  twisted  round  their  heads."  On 
the  21st  of  May,  Besold  and  two  scholars  returned  to  Pforte.  The 
centennial  festival  of  the  institution  fell  in  the  year  1643  ;  but  such 
was  the  devastation  of  the  war  that  only  eleven  boys  sorrowfully  cele- 
brated the  memory  of  the  foundation  of  the  school. 

It  was  only  to  the  school  at  Schweinfurt  that  the  war  seemed  to 
bring  good  fortune.§  After  the  battle  of  Leipzig,  Gustavus  Adolphus 
entered  Schweinfurt,  October  2d,  1631.  The  citizens  treated  his 
troops  exceedingly  well,  and  gave  much  assistance  in  fortifying  the 
city.  In  return,  the  Swedish  king  presented  them  with  seventeen 
valuable  villages,]  with  the  express  condition  that  the  rents  and  in- 
comes should  be  in  part  devoted  "  to  the  erection  of  a  gymnasium  for 
the  glory  of  God  and  the  benefit  of  studious  youth."  After  the 
death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  at  Liitzen,  and  the  evacuation  of  the 

*  "  Hersfeld  Gymnasium  Programme,"  by  Director  Dr.  Miinscher.     1836.  p.  8,  &c. 

t "  GVttingen  Gymnasium  Programme,"  by  Director  Dr.  Kirsten.    1829,  p.  22,  &c. 

J  H.  E.  Schmiederi,  "  Commentarii  de  vitis  Pastorum  et  Innpectorum  Portensium."  1838, 
p.  31,  &c. 

§  "  History  of  the  Latin  School  and  Gymnasium  at  Schweinfurt,"  by  Prof.  Wainich.  Pro- 
gramme  for  1831.  p.  4,  &c. 

I  The  letter  of  gift  was  dated  at  Frankfort  on  the  Main,  March  2d,  1632. 


EDUCATION  IN  PERIODS  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE.  299 

territories  of  Wurtzburg  by  the  Swedes,  the  bishop  resumed  posses- 
sion of  the  villages,  which  had  been  his  property  before.  Notwith- 
standing, the  magistrates  added  to  the  already  existing  six  classes  of 
their  Latin  school  a  seventh,  with  the  name  of  Gymnasium  Gustavia- 
num.  This  was  consecrated  in  1634,  and  the  burgomaster,  (Dr. 
Bausch,)  a  senator,  and  several  clergymen,  undertook  to  give  instruc- 
tion in  it  gratis.  The  honorable  public  spirit  of  the  citizens  maintained 
the  school  under  the  severest  misfortunes  of  the  war ;  *  and  it  only 
ceased  to  exist,  at  the  end  of  one  hundred  and  seventy  years,  in  1804. 

A  gymnasium  was  founded  in  Stargard  by  the  legacy  of  Burgo- 
master Peter  Groning,  and  was  opened  in  September,  1633.  But,  in 
1635,  the  city  was  besieged  by  the  imperialists,  and  became  a  prey  to 
the  flames — only  the  church  of  St.  Peter  and  nineteen  houses  remain- 
ing. The  gymnasium  building  itself  was  also  burnt,  and  the  teachers 
were  dispersed.  For  some  time  there  was  no  school  held.  Two 
teachers  then  gradually  gathered  the  scholars  again,  and  one  of  them, 
Conrector  Bindemann,  was  appointed  rector,  after  there  had  been 
none  for  eleven  years.f 

The  gymnasium  at  Goldberg,  once  famous  far  and  wide,  by  means 
of  Trotzendorf,  quite  perished  in  1621,  as  did  that  of  Beuthen,  in 
1629.  That  of  Oels  fell  into  great  distress.  In  1639  an  imperial 
regiment  was  quartered  in  Oels;  in  1640  the  city  was  besieged,  un- 
successfully, by  the  Swedes,  taken  and  plundered  by  them  in  1642, 
and  afterward  taken  by  the  imperialists.  Biebing,  rector  of  the  gym- 
nasium, wrote  at  that  time,  "  Truly,  among  so  many  and  so  great 
miseries,  to  live  in  Oels  means  to  starve,  to  die  before  our  time,  and 
daily  to  have  a  foretaste  of  the  torments  of  hell.J'J 

In  1648,  the  year  of  peace,  Duke  Georg  Rudolph  established  a 
school  for  princes  in  the  church  of  St.  John,  at  Liegnitz.  He  be- 
stowed upon  it  the  revenues  of  the  late  Goldberg  gymnasium,  as  he 
says  in  his  decree  of  establishment,  dated  28th  of  April,  1646,  "for 
the  re-establishment,  renovation,  and  improvement  of  all  the  praise- 
worthy institutions  of  our  forefathers,  for  church  and  school,  which  it 
has  been  an  impossibility  to  maintain,  by  reason  of  the  thirty  years' 
war."§ 

So  much  may  suffice  to  show  how  destructive  was  the  effect  of  the 
terrible  desolation  of  the  thirty  years'  war  on  the  schools  of  our  un- 
fortunate fatherland. 

*  Octavio  Piccolomini  bombarded  Schweinfurt,  after  the  battle  of  Nordlingen,  with  redhot 
balls,  and  took  it ;  and  the  Swedish  general,  Wangel,  took  it  in  1647.  The  imperial  troops 
alone  had  exacted  from  the  city  ransoms  to  the  amount  of  284,610  gulden. 

t "  History  of  the  Gymnasium  of  Stargard"  by  Director  and  School-Councilor  Falbe. 
1831,  p.  6,  dec. 

+  '•  Gymnasium  Programme"  by  Director  Dr.  Lange.    1841,  p.  18,  &c. 

§  "  Gymnasium  Programme  of  Liegnitz,"  by  Prorector  M.  Kbhler.    1837,  p.  14. 


300  EDUCATION  IN  PERIODS  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE. 

When,  however,  the  war  came  to  an  end,  this  destruction  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  period  of  "  re-establishment  and  renovation."  We  shall 
consider  this  more  in  detail,  after  we  shall  have  become  acquainted 
with  the  life  and  labors  of  Comenius,  who  lived  and  suffered  through 
the  whole  of  the  thirty  years'  war. 

II.       THE    CENTURY    AFTER    THE    PEACE    OF    WESTPHALIA. 

After  the  conclusion  of  the  peace  of  Westphalia,  all  good  princes 
and  magistrates  of  free  cities  took  an  interest  in  the  re-estaMishment 
of  schools.  This  was  the  more  necessary  since  the  generation  which 
had  grown  up  since  and  during  the  desolating  thirty  years'  war  had 
degenerated  as  well  in  morals  and  religion  as  in  knowledge. 

The  plans  of  school  organization  which  appeared  first  after  the  war 
agree  mostly  with  those  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Latin  continued 
the  chief  study ;  and  next  was  Greek. 

Programmes  of  a  later  date,  in  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  and  the 
first  ten  years  of  the  next  century,  show  a  much  altered  character. 
The  old  studies  were  pursued  no  longer  after  the  old  methods ;  and 
an  increasing  number  of  new  ones  were  gradually  introduced  into  the 
circle  of  learning. 

We  will  first  consider  the  methods  followed  in  teaching  Latin. 

In  the  school-plan  published  in  1654,  by  the  council  of  Frankfort 
on  the  Main,  daily  exercises  in  speaking  Latin  were  required.  "  Any 
one,"  it  says,  "  who  shall  speak  otherwise  than  in  Latin,  or  any  thing 
indecent  or  blasphemous,  shall  be  punished  at  the  time  of  his  trans- 
gression, but  with  good  discretion."  Entirely  in  agreement  with 
Trotzendorf,  Sturm,  and  the  Jesuits.  Whether  this  kind  of  speaking 
Latin  were  judicious,  Feuerlein,  inspector  of  the  Nuremberg  Gymna- 
sium, doubts.*  "Hitherto,"  he  says,  "our  leges  have  required  of  the 
boys  even  in  the  lower  classes,  sub  poena,  to  speak  nothing  but  Latin  ; 
with  the  intention,  besides  the  usu  expedition  hujus  linguae,  that  they 
should  not  be  able  to  chatter  so  much  with  each  other."  Others,  on 
the  other  hand,  were  so  "scrupulos"  that  they  would  not  require  any 
speaking  whatever  of  Latin  from  the  boys,  in  order  that  they  might 
not  become  used  to  a  vulgar  Latin.f  There  should  be  a  middle  way 
between  this  excessive  scrupulosity,  "  for  the  sake  of  preserving  the 
language  of  the  young  by  means  of  Latin,  or  rather  the  Latin  by 

*  ''  The  Fates  hitherto  of  the  Nuremberg  Gymnasium  of  St.  jEgidius.  rebuilt  from  the 
ground  out  of  its  ashes,  in  three  completed  periods  ;  and  the  institution  for  instruction  and 
discipline  as  renewed  and  improved  in  the  fourth  period,  now  passing."  &c-  By  J  C.  Feuer- 
lein, pastor  of  St.  ^Egidius  and  inspector  of  the  gymnasium.  1699.  p.  95 

t  Feuerlein  cites  here  Wa<jenseil's  •'  PrcK.cp.pla  de  copia  verborum  "  and  "  De  stylo.1"  (Joh. 
Christoph  Wagenseil.  born  at  Nuremberg.  1633:  died  in  1/05.  while  professor  at  Altorf;  an 
eminent  man  of  learning  in  his  day  He  wrote,  among  other  things,  upon  the  education  of  a 
prince,  who  abhors  study  above  all  things.)  He  says,  <n  the  place  quoted,  -'Infants  are  forth- 
with  taught  to  attempt  Latin  expressions ;  boys  are  forbidden,  under  severe  penalties,  from 


EDUCATION  IN  PERIODS  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE.  301 

means  of  their  tongue,  and  the  fear  that  the  boys  would  become  ac- 
customed to  mere  sorry  kitchen-Latin."  They  must  not  speak  Latin 
among  themselves,  but  only  under  the  oversight  of  their  teacher.* 
"As  for  the  test,"  says  Feuerlein,  "I  do  not  believe  it  is  necessary  to 
forbid  our  youth  from  speaking  Latin  among  themselves. 

Evidently  speaking  Latin  began  to  be  regarded  with  other  eyes  in 
the  previous  century,  for  it  was  required  of  all,  even  the  youngest 
scholars.  Having  been  regarded  as  a  second  mother-tongue  for  the 
boys,  it  had  been  taught  like  the  mother-tongue.  Just  as  the  latter 
is  at  first  spoken  by  infants  in  mere  attempts,  in  a  most  disfigured 
manner,  and  only  gradually  with  fewer  faults,  so  the  youngest  scholars 
had  been  permitted  to  speak  the  most  helpless,  gibberish  Latin.  But 
now  a  different  rule  was  established.  The  boys  were  rather  to  be 
silent  than  to  speak  bad  Latin ;  and  good  Latin  was  to  be  learned  by 
the  continued  reading  of  the  classics.  Was  the  Latin  then  no  longer 
regarded  as  a  second  mother-tongue  ?  Such  an  altered  state  of  af- 
fairs is  indicated  by  the  following  facts.  Previously,  Latin  had  been 
learned  from  the  Latin  grammars ;  a  practice  which  Ratich  was  the 
first  to  oppose.f  He  was  followed  by  the  school  ordinances  of  the 
second  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  and  the  first  decennium  of  the 
eighteenth.  **  In  Quinta^l  says  the  Frankfort  school  ordinance,  "  the 
new  German  grammar  shall  be  used  instead  of  the  '  Compendium 
Grammatical  Giessensis?  "§  Feuerlein,  of  Nuremberg,!]  says  that  it  is 
a  question  to  be  considered,  "  whether,  in  learning  Latin,  the  use  of 
a  grammar  written  in  Latin  should  be  continued,  or  whether  it  would 
not  be  found  best  to  introduce  one  written  in  German  ?  "  Some  made 
ase  of  the  German  grammar  of  Seybold.  The  celebrated  Mark 
grammar,  prepared  in  1728,  by  the  rectors  of  Berlin,  was  in 
German. 

uttering  a  word  except  Latin  at  home,  at  school,  or  amongst  their  playfellows.  Thus  it  hap- 
pens that,  by  saying  whatever  comes  into  their  mouths,  and  many  words  which  it  would  be 
oetter  not  to  hear,  they  contract,  unwisely,  the  habit,  not  of  Latin  eloquence,  but  merely  of 
Latin  talk." 

*  In  like  manner,  it  is  said,  in  the  "  Ordinance  of  the  Honorable  Council  of  Hamburg  for 
the  Public  St.  John's  School,  1732,"  that  "the  youth  shall  speak  Latin,  especially  in  the  two 
higher  classes,  and  that  there  shall  be  examinations  under  the  charge  of  the  preceptor,  to  see 
that  the  boys  speak  Latin  with  each  other."  Page  15. 

t  And  after  him  Comenius  and  Balthazar  Schuppius  (1610 — 1661.)  The  latter  says :  "The 
first  hindrance  which  makes  the  grammar  difficult  and  unnatural  is  that  they  have  to  learn 
it  in  a  language  unknown  to  them  ;  that  the  preecepfa  grammatices  are  laid  before  them  in 
Latin  ;  and  thus  it  is  naught  to  teach  them  ignotum  per  c&que  ignotum,  and  to  bring  them,  by 
means  which  they  do  not  understand,  to  the  attainment  of  a  subject  which  they  do  not  under- 
stand."— B.  Schuppius'  Works,  p.  161.  J.  M  Gesner's  opinion  was.  that  the  use  in  German 
schools  of  grammars  written  in  Latin  was  not  at  all  suitable  for  beginners,  but  only  for  such 
as  had,  by  other  means,  already  obtained  some  knowledge  of  Latin. — Gesner's  "  Minor  Ger- 
man Writings,"  302. 

t  Sc.  cJassJs  ;  5th  class. 

§  In  Quarta.  however,  the  Giessen  grammar  was  used. 

8  L.  c.,  54. 


302          EDUCATION  IN  PERIODS  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE. 

A  comparison  of  the  earlier  dramatic  representations  in  the  schools 
with  the  later  ones  is  in  place  here.*  Sturm  required  that,  every 
week,  a  piece  from  Terence  or  Plautus  should  be  acted  ;  his  design 
being  the  attainment  of  facility  in  speaking  Latin.  Many  schools 
followed  his  advice.f  In  Oels,  Terence  or  the  Colloquies  of  Erasmus 
were  used;  in  LiegnitzJ  in  1617,  "  Terentius  Christianus"  was  rec- 
ommended. " Notwithstanding,"  the  recommendation  continue?,  "let 
us  adhere  to  the  opinions  of  the  renowned  Herr  Sturmius,  whose 
counsel  is  to  make  use  in  the  schools  rather  of  recitations  and  scenic 
performances  than  of  tedious  readings  and  explanations  of  the  come- 
dies and  tragedies.  In  Gottingen,  also,  pieces  from  Plautus  and 
Terence  were  represented-! 

But  this  principle  was  not  adhered  to.  At  one  time  the  teachers 
of  gymnasiums  themselves  began  to  write  pieces,  sometimes  very  ex- 
traordinary, in  Latin ;  with  the  purpose  of  attaining  the  original  end 
of  practice  in  speaking  Latin,  and  at  the  same  time  of  avoiding  the 
indecencies  of  Terence ;  but  after  a  time  the  use  of  German  compo- 
sitions, which  began  as  early  as  in  the  sixteenth  century,  seems  to 
have  altogether  prevailed.  There  was  no  longer  any  pains  taken 
about  practice  in  speaking  Latin.  Among  the  Latin  school-dramas, 
the  "Belsasar,  Lutherus,  and  Jesulus  comoedia  sacra  de  nativitate" 
by  Hirtzwig,  rector  at  Frankfort,  was  celebrated. ||  Rector  Tesmar 
caused  to  be  exhibited,  at  Neustettin,  in  1684,  a  comedy  "De  rustico 
ebrio  qui  princeps  creabatur."*j( 

At  the  gymnasium  at  Salzwedel,  Alexander  the  Great,  after  Cur- 
tius,  was  exhibited.**  It  contained,  besides  the  historical  persons,  the 
Angel  Gabriel,  Fame,  a  multitude  of  pages,  a  ghost,  and  a  courier. 
Another  piece  was  Epaminondas  before  the  criminal  court  at  Thebes. 
Between  two  Latin  acts  was  introduced  an  entirely  inappropriate  Ger- 
man interlude,  which  represented  the  strife  between  choral  and  figural 
music ;  in  which  Apollo  and  the  muses  appeared.  In  the  drama  of 
Hercules  at  the  parting  of  the  ways,  there  appeared  the  seven  arts, 
three  soldiers,  three  students  who  sang  the  students'  song,  <fec.  And 
these  pieces  were  much  exceeded  by  the  later  German,  or  rather  Ger- 
man-Latin and  German-French,  school-dramas  in  deplorable  tasteless- 
ness.  Thus  there  was  exhibited  at  the  gymnasium  at  Thorn,  in  1723, 

*  I  only  touch  upon  the  German  school-dramas,  and  refer  to  Gervinus  for  a  rich  array  of 
facts  relating  to  them,  to  which  I  make  a  few  additions.    See  his  celebrated  "  History  of  Na- 
tional Poetical  Literature  of  the  Germans."  III.,  69,  etc.  ;  among  others,  pp.  83  and  87—94. 

t  '•  Oels  Gymnasium  Programme."  by  C.  Leissing.     1841,  p.  21. 

}  "  Liegnitz  Gymnasium  Programme,"  by  Director  M.  Kbhler.    1841,  p.  9-1 

§  Director  Kirstm.  1827.  p.  15. 

II  VSmel,  1.  c.,  13. 

*  ''  History  of  Neustetfin  Gymnasium  "  by  Director  A.  Giesebrecht     Page  19. 

"  "  Invitation  to  the  School  Festival  of  the  Gymnasium  at  Salzwedel."  by  Rector  DannelL 
1833,  p.  64. 


EDUCATION  IN  PERIODS  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE.  303 

an  "  Actus  dramaticus  of  Joseph  distressed  and  exalted,"  in  which 
the  author,  a  teacher  in  the  gymnasium,  himself  played.  "  Now,"  be 
says,  u  I  have  selected  a  biblical  subject,  and  have  obtained  pel-mis'* 
sion  from  our  masters,  the  school  officers,  to  represent  the  same  in  this 
theater ;  and  also  to  invite  to  the  same,  with  our  most  humble  obliga- 
tions, all  and  every  one  of  the  high  patrons  and  patronesses  of  our 
Parnassus — requesting  them  with  friendly  kindness  to  favor  us  with 
their  presence  for  some  few  hours,"  <fec.  The  play  is  a  mixture  of 
rococo-gallantry  and  coarseness.* 

The  drama  called  Stargaris,  on  the  bad  and  good  fortune  of  the 
town  of  Stargard,  which  the  Stargard  scholars  acted  apparently  in 
1668,  in  a  large  warehouse,  must  have  been  without  gallantry,  but 
still  coarser.  In  the  third  act,  there  appeared  two  adulterers,  with  an 
adulterous  and  loose  woman,  who  conversed  not  in  the  most  decent 
manner ;  until  there  appear  the  wives  of  the  faithless  husbands,  who 
assault  them  with  slippers  and  distaffs.  In  the  second  act,  where  the 
masons,  at  the  command  of  the  magistrates,  are  building  the  wall  of 
the  city,  there  occurs  some  violent  quarreling.  Arid  this  play  was 
acted  before  the  assembled  authorities  of  the  vicinity .f 

Although  Sturm  and  others,  by  these  Latin  school-dramas,  pro- 
posed that  the  scholars  who  acted  them  should  learn  to  speak 
Latin,  and  others  again  sought  the  edification  and  at  the  same 
time  the  amusement  both  of  scholars  and  spectators,  and  therefore 
exhibited  German  plays,  Miiller,  rector  at  Zittau,  describes  the  object 
of  these  plays  to  be  "  The  exercising  of  the  students  by  public  come- 
dies in  oratory  and  political  decorum."  Of  six  comedies  exhibited,  he 
himself  wrote  four,  by  the  exhibition  of  which  many  had  "  acquired 
better  morals,  and  had  learned  to  fill  better  than  before  their  places 
in  the  political  world."  They  are  designed  for  the  training  of  the 
memory ;  "  since,"  he  says,  "  we  did  not  seek  the  empty  pleasure  of 
idle  minds,  but  benefited  in  study  and  in  conduct.  For  we  would 
not  willingly  rank  among  those  whom  men  call  Merry  Andrews,  and 
who  divert  the  mob  with  vulgar  follies." 

Who  can  not  trace  here,  as  well  as  in  the  above  introduction  to 
the  play  at  Thorn,  the  influence  of  the  age  of  Louis  XIV.?  But  I 
shall  speak  of  this  point  further  on  ;  and  at  present  will  only  say 
this  :  The  new  principle,  that  the  youngest  scholars  were  not  to  speak 
Latin,  and  were  not  to  learn  from  the  grammar  in  Latin ;  the  decline 
of  Latin  school -dramas,  previously  acted  by  the  scholars,  in  order  to 
facilitate  speaking  Latin ;  all  these  indicate  that  Latin  was  no  longer 
sought  to  be  made  a  second  mother-tongue,  and  that  the  true  mother- 
tongue  was  beginning  to  attain  to  its  natural  and  real  rights.  This 

*  Richter's  "  Prussian  Provincial  Journal,"  Nov.,  1841,  p.  458.         t  Falbe,  p.  14, 15 


EDUCATION  IN  PERIODS  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE. 

will  now  be  made  strikingly  evident  to  us  from  other  sources ;  and  it 
will  become  quite  clear  when  we  shall  have  glanced  over  the  history 
of  Latin  in  Germany,  and  especially  of  its  relations  with  the  German 
language  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

The  requirement  to  speak  and  write  Latin  is  the  last  echo  of  the 
old  Romish  dominion  over  a  great  part  of  Europe  ;*  for  the  Romans 
forced  their  language  upon  the  conquered  nations.  The  Romish  pa- 
pacy, as  well  as  the  German  emperors,  inherited  this  ruling  language, 
which  was  that  both  of  church  and  state.  In  general,  however,  Ger- 
man was  the  language  of  government,  and  French  of  diplomacy ; 
and  thus,  after  the  Reformation,  Latin  remained  the  language  of  the 
Bible,  of  religion,  and  of  the  courts  of  justice,  only  among  the 
•Catholics. 

Thus  partly  driven  from  the  church  and  the  state,  the  speaking  and 
writing  of  Latin  fled  to  the  domain  of  learning ;  it  should  serve  as 
the  general  medium  of  intercourse,  written,  printed,  and  oral,  among 
all  the  learned  men  of  Europe. 

It  however  gradually  withdrew  itself  from  this  sphere  also,  espe- 
cially at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  and  in  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Burmann,  in  an  oration  at  Leyden,  in  the  year 
1715,  complained  that,  "  Within  a  little  time,  the  serious  German  na- 
tion has  proceeded  toward  the  disuse  of  the  Latin  speech,  so  that 
in  university  chairs  and  in  schools  only  the  mother-tongue  is  heard." 

The  intellectual  and  learned  Matthias  Gesner  expresses  himself 
clearly  upon  this  subject.  "  In  vain,"  he  says,f  "  it  has  been  held  a 
sin  to  speak  any  thing  but  Latin  in  our  universities.  And  yet,  sixty 
or  seventy  years  ago,  none  dared  to  break  the  rule.  But  when  the 
University  of  Halle  was  founded,  in  1695,  some  few  began  to  violate 
it.  The  first  was  Christian  Thomasius,  who  read  German  because  he 
did  not  understand  Latin.  But  he  had  quite  sufficient  reasons  be- 
sides this  for  doing  so.  For  at  that  time  learned  men  spoke  Latin, 
it  is  true ;  but  after  such  a  manner  that  it  would  have  been  better  for 
them  to  speak  German.  Yes,  even  had  Latin  not  been  taught  in  the 
schools  and  universities,  that  language  would  not  have  been  injured 
by  it.  Thus  then  the  ignorance  of  Thomasius  was  the  6rst  reason  for 
this  change,  but  the  second  and  entirely  just  one  was  that  the  Latin 
language  should  not  come  to  entire  destruction.  It  was  that  men 
of  education,  who  understood  Latin,  were  in  favor  of  the  use  of  the 
German,  and  advised  in  future  to  teach  it,  while  the  few  barbarians 

*  "  L«ges  sermone  suo,  imperium  quasi  prae  se  ferent  conscriptas,  imposuerunt  debellaiae 
gentl." 

t"  Isagoge,"  Vol  I.,  102.  Gesner's  lectures,  (Primes  linea  Isagoges  in  erudttionem 
universal  em,)  began  about  1742. 


EDUCATION  IN  PERIODS  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE.  305 

defended  the  use  of  Latin.*  But  the  German  made  rapid  progress, 
and  in  few  years  was  entirely  predominant.  And  now  even  royal 
edicts  were  of  no  more  avail  against  the  practice  of  teaching  in 
German  " 

Life  and  teaching  go  hand  in  hand.  When  state  and  church  no 
onger  required  the  speaking  and  writing  of  Latin,  it  was  vain  to  at- 
tempt to  require  that  it  should  be  used  as  the  living  mother-tongue 
by  the  literati.f 

As  in  the  universities,  so  in  the  schools,  the  use  of  German  in- 
creased ;  it  was  soon  made  one  of  the  branc.hes  of  instruction.^  Even 
that  very  school  ordinance  of  Frankfort,  of  1654,  which  was  so  strict 
in  requiring  the  speaking  of  Latin,  requires  the  scholars  in  the  seventh 
class  to  u  read  fluently  German  and  Latin."§  Feuerlein  of  Nuremberg] 
cites  stronger  instances.  "  Most  people,"  they  say,  "  will  in  future 
have  occasion,  in  their  spiritual  or  worldly  employments,  for  the  pow- 
er of  speaking  well  in  German  almost  always,  and  only  to  the  least 
possible  extent  in  Latin  ;  and  yet  they  give  almost  no  application  to 
German. '  But  they  add,  as  if  fearful  that  they  have  said  too  much, 
"  notwithstanding  the  Latin  is  to  be  studied  more  than  any  thing  else 
in  the  Latin  schools,  and  is  not  to  be  neglected." 

The  Hamburg  school  ordinance,  above  quoted,  goes  still  further.^]" 
The  scholars  must,  it  is  true,  according  to  it,  speak  good  Latin ;  but 
as  to  the  German,  it  is  said  that  "the  German  language  shall  be  be- 
times studied,  both  in  Quarta,  after  they  have  been  well  grounded, 
and  afterward  in  Tertia,  Svcunda,  and  Prima,  as  well  by  reading  the 
commendation  of  good  German  books  as  by  the  practical  imitation 
of  the  same  in  German  letters,  speeches,  and  otherwise  ;  so  that  no  one 

*  Gesner  had  spoken  in  the  same  way  as  early  as  1715.    "  Institutions"  p.  109. 

tl  say,  as  a  living  mother-tongue  ;  for  I  am  not  speaking  of  the  other  instruction  of  the 
schools  in  speaking  and  writing  Latin.  Of  this  1  shall  treat  hereafter.  Gervinus  says,  1.  c., 
91 :  "  At  first,  the  chief  purpose  of  the  school  comedies  was  strictly  practical ;  Latin  was  to 
be  practiced  by  the  scholars,  and  their  practice  in  conversation  had  the  same  design." 

I  Gervinus  gives  details  on  the  way  in  which  the  German  language  became  honored  again 
in  Germany  He  shows  how  the  Society  of  Usefulness  was,  above  all,  the  cause  of  it  It  is 
worthy  ot  observation  that  the  first  idea  of  this  society  happened  when  Prince  Ludwig  of 
Anhalt  was  attending  the  burial  of  his  sister.  Duchess  Dorothea  Maria  von  Weimar,  in  1617. 
It  was  this  same  Duchess  who  had  so  zealously  espoused  the  cause  of  Ratich  as  early  as  1613, 
and  had  bestowed  upon  him  two  thousand  gulden  ;  it  was  this  same  Prince  Ludwig  who  did 
so  much,  at  his  capital  of  Rbthen.  for  the  introduction  of  Ration's  plans  of  school  organiza- 
tion. It  was  also  Ratich  who  had  said,  in  1613,  that  it  was  the  course  of  nature  for  boys  first 
to  learn  well  and  fluently  to  read,  write,  and  speak  their  mother-tongue  ;  and  in  all  the  facul- 
ties the  German  language  could  be  used.  When  the  Society  of  Usefulness,  in  1620,  published 
Terence,  in  Kothen.  in  German  and  Latin,  this,  as  we  have  shown,  was  brought  about  by 
Ratich  ;  and  his  own  school-books  appeared  there  in  the  year  1619.  And  the  question  may 
be  asked  whether,  if  Ratich  did  not  himself  give  the  first  impulse  to  the  establishment  of  the 
Society  of  Usefulness  he  was  not  the  occasion  of  the  movement  from  which  it  came.  Comp. 
p.  23,  remark  2. 

§  P.,  5. 

HL.c.,93.  20 

IL.  c.,14. 


306  EDUCATION  IN  PERIODS  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE. 

shall  leave  the  school  for  the  gymnasium  who  shall  not  have  passed 
a  sufficient  examination  in  pure  composition  in  this  language. 

Many  entertained  similar  opinions.  Baumeister,  rector  at  Gorlitz, 
says:  *  "It  is  a  very  harmful  opinion  to  believe,  that  at  school  men 
must  trouble  themselves  only  about  the  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew 
tongues ;  but  that  the  German  does  not  belong  among  the  learned 
tongues.  The  example  of  the  Romans  ought  to  be  remembeied, 
who  never  dishonored  their  native  tongue  in  such  a  way.  I  seek  on 
every  occasion  to  remove  this  prejudice  among  youth."  He  ^ays  fur- 
ther that,  if  they  would  strictly  require  thorough  study  and  practice 
of  the  mother-tongue,  the  Germans  have  their  classical  authors  as 
well  as  the  Romans. 

Wenzky,  rector  in  Prenzlau>f  says :  "  It  is  fitting  that  men  should 
learn  their  own  mother-tongue  well,  and  that  youth  should  acquire 
the  same  in  the  school.  This  principle  will  be  acknowledged  just  now 
by  many  persons.  If  men  had  had  regard  to  this  in  past  times,  there 
would  not  have  been  all  the  mortification  which  has  been  felt  at  see- 
ing our  greatest  and  most  learned  men  make  such  blunders  in  Latin 
as  would  have  been  severely  punished  in  a  scholar  at  school." 

MullerJ;  already  mentioned  as  rector  of  the  gymnasium  at  Zittati, 
expresses  the  same  opinion.  "Among  the  languages,"  he  says,  "the 
mother-tongue  holds  the  pre-eminence ;  both  because  it  is  the  model 
by  which  all  other  languages  must  be  learned  and  judged  and  is  the 
chief  means  by  which  we  apply  to  practical  use  all  our  acqusitions. 
For  these  reasons  should  the  German  language  be  diligently  studied  in 
all  schools,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  ;  and  be  made  the  chief  in- 
strument of  the  development  of  all  the  powers  of  the  understanding." 

It  is  a  matter  of  astonishment  that  rectors  of  gymnasiums  should 
have  entertained  such  views  upon  the  German  language ;  for  at  that 
time  it  was  in  a  state  of  the  deepest  decay.  While  previously  there 
had  been  written  a  compound  of  German  and  Latin,  there  had  lately 
entered  into  it  a  third  element — the  French ;  it  was  a  truly  Babelish 
language.  The  proverb  "  The  style  is  the  man  "  might  apply  both  to 
the  upper  classes  and  the  people.  In  the  second  half  of  the  seven- 
teenth and  the  first  of  the  eighteenth  century,  there  was  apparent,  in 
the  style,  the  taste,  and  even  in  the  opinions  and  character  of  the 
German  men  of  learning,  a  heterogenous  and  intolerable  mixture  of 
stiff  German-Latin  erudition  and  pedantry  with  frivolous  gallantry 
ana  a  disgustful  servilism  to  France. 

There  now  began  the  strife  between  the  Latin   and  Latin  litera- 

*  "  Account  of  an  Important  Improvement  in  the  Gymnasium  at  Gorlitz."  By  F.  Ch.  Bau- 
meister, rector  of  GSrlitz  Gymnasium. 

t "  The  Mode  of  Teaching  Used  by  Georg  Wenzky,  Adjunct-Rector  in  Prenzlau,"  1746,  p.  5. 
I L.  c.,  7. 


EDUCATION  IN  PERIODS  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE.  307 

ture  and  French  and  French  literature.  Vainglorious  Frenchmen 
made  themselves  and  others  believe  that  their  poets  and  prosemen 
excelled  the  ancient  classics.*  In  diplomacy  French  unfortunately 
gradually  took  the  place  of  Latin  as  the  universal  language  of  kings 
and  princes.  It  had  also  become  the  language  of  conversation  among 
the  higher  classes  in  German,  having  been  introduced  by  the  influ- 
ence of  the  profligate  Louis  XIV.  and  the  crowd  of  abandoned  court- 
iers who  adored  him  as  the  highest  model  of  courtly  training. 
The  shallow  and  traitorous  un-German  admirers  of  this  literature 
hoped  that  the  French  would  entirely  drive  out  the  classical  lan- 
guages, and  would  even  become  the  language  of  instruction  at  the 
universities.! 

Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  all  this  had  an  influence  upon  schools  ? 
"  It  has  come  to  be  the  case,"  says  Feuerlein,  of  Nuremberg^  "  that 
some  eminent  people  have  exempted  their  sons  entirely  from  the 
study  of  Greek."  And  again,  "The  tendency  of  the  times  is  to  con- 
sider a  knowledge  of  French  entirely  indispensable  to  such  persons." 

The  connection  is  evident  between  the  exemption  of  the  sons  of 
these  eminent  people  from  studying  Greek  and  the  considering  a 
knowledge  of  French  indispensable  to  them. 

When  Sturm's  gymnasium,  in  1578,  contained  more  than  one 
thousand  scholars,  and  among  them  about  two  hundred  nobles,  twen- 
ty-four counts  and  barons,  and  three  princes,  yet  all  these  scholars, 
great  and  small,  were  instructed  according  to  one  and  the  same  plan. 
The  Baron  von  Sonneck  was,§  as  we  have  seen,  examined  exactly  like 
his  fellow-scholars  in  rhetoric,  Latin,  and  Greek.  The  same  equality 
among  the  scholars  prevailed  at  Trotzendorf  s  gymnasium,  and  here 
they  even  proclaimed  in  the  school  laws.  He  who  is  a  scholar  can 
no  longer  play  the  noble. I 

What  honorable  firmness  and  disregard  of  consequences  on  the 

*"  Among  writers  in  that  tongue,  (French,)  it  can  not  fairly  be  denied  that  there  were 
many  of  very  finished  talents  ;  but  an  all  but  intolerable  conceit  obscured  the  excellencies  of 
some  of  them.  They  boasted,  often  in  a  ridiculously  ostentatious  manner,  that  they  only 
were  men,  that  they  only  possessed  talents,"  <fec.  Morhof,  Polyhistor.  I.,  759. 

t  For  the  malignant  and  truly  devilish  way  in  which  the  French  perverted  our  princes,  and 
poisoned  their  murals,  see  Riih's  "  Historical  Developments  of  the  Influences  of  France  and 
the  French  upon  Germany  and  the  Germans.  Berlin,  1815."  A  book  of  the  greatest  inter- 
est and  value.  Corruption  of  German  princes,  167.  French  education  of  the  young,  174. 
Astonishment  of  an  emigre  upon  finding  that  the  Princess  Sophie  Charlotte  of  Brandenburg 
understood  German,  as  she  usually  spoke  only  French,  205.  How  French  gradually  came  to 
be  the  language  of  diplomacy,  358.  The  work  contains  many  other  facts  of  the  same  kind. 
How  different  the  custom  of  the  Romans  !  "  The  ancient  magistrates  took  the  most  watch- 
ful  pains  that  no  answer  should  be  made  to  the  Greeks  except  in  Latin.  So  that  those  of  that 
nation,  being  unable  to  use  that  volubility  of  speech  on  which  they  were  accustomed  chiefly 
to  depend,  were  obliged  to  speak  through  interpreters."  Valerius  Maximus,  2,  2,  2, 

JL.  c.,  118. 

§Part  J.,249. 

II  "  Ponit  etiam  personam  nobilis  qui  induit  scholastic!."    Ib.,  216. 


308  EDUCATION  IN  PERIODS  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE. 

part  of  these  old  rectors !  How  rightly  did  they  feel  that  in  the 
realm  of  learning  there  is  no  respect  for  persons ! 

How  disgusting,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  conduct  of  later  rectors, 
who  treated  their  noble  scholars  in  a  more  respectful  and  entirely  dif- 
ferent manner  from  the  others!  The  same  France  which,  in  the 
Revolution,  preached  a  thoroughly  false  equality,  preached,  in 
the  time  of  the  tyranny  of  Louis  XIV.,  an  equally  false  in- 
equality of  rank,  and  thus  pointed  out  the  way  to  the  later  preach- 
ers of  equality.  This  French  servility  to  those  of  higher  grade 
spread  into  Germany,  and  even  infected  the  schools.  We  give  a  few 
examples  of  it. 

Baumeister,*  already  mentioned  as  rector  at  Gorlitz.  has  an  especial 
arrangement  of  lessons  for  the  noble  scholars.  Greek,  which  the 
citizen  scholars  studied  assiduously,  is  omitted  from  it.  It  was  prom- 
ised that  a  French  teacher  should  be  aj  pointed.  It  was  said  that 
"  mathematics  chiefly  were  to  be  learned  by  nobles."  The  man  is 
even  not  ashamed  to  say  "  We  make  a  distinction  between  the  chil- 
dren of  nobles  and  gentlemen  and  those  of  lower  birtli ;  in  part  be- 
cause a  more  intimate,  loving,  and  trustful  intercourse  with  their 
teachers  is  proper  for  them,  for  instruction  in  the  manners  a-  propriate 
to  their  rank,  and  in  part  that  they  may  be  safe  from  faults  into 
which  they  might  fall  by  intercourse  with  the  others.  If  the  children 
of  gentlemen,"  he  continues,  "  bring  a  tutor  with  them,  they  are  not 
strictly  required  to  attend  the  public  recitations."  For  such  'esson? 
a  nobleman  paid  double. 

Rector  Miiller,  of  Zittau,  agrees  with  him  of  Gorlitz ;  and  his  pro- 
gramme, both  in  language  and  in  matter,  is  made  up  of  stiff  pedant- 
ry, plastered  over  with  a  dressing  of  French  gallantry.  Modern  his- 
tory,f  according  to  him,  must  be  studied  thoroughly,  but  other  his- 
tory only  in  a  cursory  manner.  "  We  study,"  he  says,  "not  for  old 
times,  but  for  the  present.  And  we  might  well  study  also  heraldry 
and  genealogy."  Again,  "The  languages  of  the  present  political 
world  must  not  be  neglected  in  the  schools;"  these  are  of  practical 
use  to  "many  classes  of  persons,  especially  the  nobility  and  those 
about  the  court."  MiillerJ;  assures  patrons  that  in  the  gymnasium 
their  children  will  have  abundant  opportunity  to  acquire  noble  and 
gallant  studies,  especially  mathematics,  French,  Italian,  and  English, 
as  well  as  dancing."  "  Yes,"  he  continues,  "  if  any  one  should  be 
most  graciously  pleased  to  intrust  their  children  to  my  own  house 
and  table,  I  will  myself  instruct  them  in  French  and  dancing,  in 

*  "  Account  of  the  Gymnasium  at  Gb'rhtz,"  28.  '29,  30. 

t  L.  c.    9.  8.     At  p.  29  we  read,  "  A  lecture  upon  history  entirely  me  dern.  from  1700  down 
to  the  present  time." 
in,    33. 


EDUCATION  IN  PERIODS  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE.  309 

order  to  have  them  more  completely  under  my  own  observation,  and 
when  needful  to  give  them  an  occasional  admonition." 

It  was  always,  however,  an  ungrateful  task  for  the  gymnasium 
rectors  of  that  time  to  instruct  their  noble  scholars  after  the  model 
of  the  French  aristocracy.  The  purpose  of  the  system  of  education, 
the  method,  the  organization,  and  the  character  of  the  teachers  of  the 
gymnasium  were  all  opposed  to  it.  From  the  troubles  arising  from 
these  sources  came  the  practice  of  founding  special  institutions  for 
noble  youth,  such  as  the  Paedagogium  at  Halle,  the  Knights'  Acade- 
my at  Liegnitz,  &c. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  schools  of  literature,  in  the  century  after  the 
peace  of  Westphalia,  assumed  a  character  very  much  varied  from 
that  of  those  of  the  sixteenth  century.  We  see  that  the  Latin  lost 
its  place  as  a  second  mother-tongue,  and  that  the  German  took  its 
rightful  one  as  the  native  and  honored  language ;  but  that,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  disgusting  influence  of  France  upon  our  country,  the 
French  language  and  French  education  ruled  our  higher  ranks  with 
an  unholy  spell. 

How  deeply  soever  these  influences  had  already  changed  the  idea 
of  the  character  of  our  literary  schools,  still  other  causes  were  at 
work  to  the  same  end. 

"For  a  long  time,"  writes  Rector  Wenzky  of  Prenzlau,  in  1746,* 
"  the  old  methods  of  teaching  have  been  discontinued  in  most  places, 
and  others  have  been  adopted  more  in  accordance  with  the  times. 
The  object  now  is,  though  it  is  pursued  in  various  ways,  to  instruct 
scholars  who  may  be  able  to  serve  the  state  best  in  the  present 
emergency.  The  times  change,  and  the  school-teachers  must  vary 
with  them."  We  have  already  seen  how  unfortunately  the  times 
had  varied.  Wenzky  sought  especially  the  introduction  of  a  multi- 
tude of  new  studies,  and  names,  besides  the  already  mentioned  in- 
struction in  the  mother-tongue,  genealogy,  heraldry,  geometry,  mili- 
tary and  civil  architecture,  astronomy,  dialing,  botany,  theoretical  and 
practical  philosophy,  &c.,  <fcc.  "  I  teach,"  he  says,  "  how  to  judge  of 
books ;  and  show  how  to  compose,  write,  examine,  complete,  and  cor- 
rect the  proof  of  a  book."  •'!  dissuade  scholars  from  prejudices  as 
from  irreconcilable  enemies."  "If  one  should  tell  me  these  'subjects 
are  too  many,  and  the  chief  object,  the  learning  of  language,  must 
be  obstructed  thereby;'  I  answer,  these  subjects  are  nevertheless  all 
useful,  and  are  such  that  the  scholar  must  have  some  knowledge  of 
all  of  them.  Why  are  the  arts  and  sciences  so  many  ?  'r  In  this 
strange  error  we  see  a  picture  of  the  theory  of  pedagogical  develop- 
ment of  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  which  has 

"L.  c,32. 


310  EDUCATION  IN  PERIODS  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE. 

existed  down  to  our  own  times.  These  exercises  may  be  described  in 
two  words:  real  subjects,  and  exercises  of  the  understanding.  We 
shall  hereafter  become  sufficiently  acquainted  with  both  of  them  ; 
but  their  real  objects  remined  us  but  little  of  the  profound  views  of 
Bacon  and  Comenius. 

There  appeared  also  a  third  element  which  has  been  named  pie- 
tism, which  originated  with  August  Hermann  Francke  and  his  school. 
Before  I  speak  of  this  school,  I  must  discuss  the  pedagogy  of  a  man 
who  is  to  be  considered  a  follower  of  Montaigne  and  Bacon,  and  as  a 
predecessor  of  Rousseau ;  the  pedagogy  of  the  Englishman  Locke. 


THE  PROGRESSIVES  OF  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

[Translated  from  the  German  of  Karl  Von  Raumer,  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education.] 


WE  have  already  become  acquainted  with  the  educational  institu- 
tions of  Protestant  Germany,  from  the  lowest  elementary  school  to 
the  university  ;  and  likewise  with  the  character  of  the  most  important 
Catholic  schools — those  of  the  Jesuits. 

We  now  approach  the  beginning  of  a  new  period  in  the  history  of- 
the  German  systems  of  instruction ;  at  the  same  time,  the  most 
frightful  period  in  the  history  of  Germany.  Before  delineating  the 
character  of  this  new  epoch,  I  shall  glance  at  the  condition  of  the 
schools  of  learning  in  Germany,  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century. 

First,  the  institutions  of  the  Jesuits.  The  Order  had  early  discerned 
the  immeasurable  importance  to  its  purpose — the  purpose  of  re-estab- 
lishing an  absolute  hierarchy,  and  of  nullifying  the  results  of  the 
Reformation — of  securing  to  itself,  if  possible,  the  entire  management 
of  the  education  of  youth.  The  Jesuits  followed  up  their  design 
with  wonderful  wisdom  and  skill,  and  indefatigable  perseverance ;  and 
upon  comprehensive  and  well-studied  plans.*  In  1550,  they  had  no 
permanent  foothold  in  Germany.  The  next  year  they  founded  their 
first  school,  in  Vienna  ;  in  1556,  they  established  seminaries  at  Co- 
logne, Prague,  and  Ingolstadt ;  in  1559,  at  Munich  and  Tyrnau ;  in  15G3, 
at  Dillingen;  in  1569,  at  Brannsberg;  and,  in  1575,  at  Heiligenstadt.f 
They  also  established  themselves  firmly  at  Mentz,  Aschaffenburg, 
Briinn,  Olmiitz,  and  Wiirzburg. 

The  Jesuits  were  accustomed  to  use  every  means  of  accomplishing 
their  objects ;  and  well  understood  how  to  put  out  of  their  way  such 
institutions  as  obstructed  them — not  only  Protestant,  but  Catholic 
ones — as  in  Treves,  Posen,  and  Prague. 

In  Treves,  the  Hieronymites  had  established  a  Brothers'  House,  at 
the  end  of  the  15th  century .J  Johannes  Even,  substitute-bishop  of 

*  Ranke's  account  of  the  Counter-Reformation.— History  of  the  Popes,  Vol.  2.  p.  25,  Ac. 

t  Director  Rinke  says,  ("Gymnasial  Programme."  Heiligenstadt,  1837,)  "  In  J574  com- 
menced the  work  of  regaining  Eichsfeld  to  Catholicism."  Two  years  after  the  erection  of 
th«  Jesuit  school  there,  in  1577.  it  already  had  200  scholars.  The  Jesuits  remained  there 
until  1773.  when  Dalberg  came  from  Erfurt,  and  ordered  them,  in  pursuance  of  the  bull  of 
abrogation  of  Clement  XIV.,  to  leave  the  city  before  daybreak  of  Sept.  30.— Ibid,  pp  6. 11,  41. 

I  •»  Contribution  to  the  history  of  schools  in  the  former  electorate  of  Treves,  by  First 
Director  J.  H.  Wvttenbach  "  In  the  Treves  Gymnasium  programme  of  1841,  p.  10,  &a 


312      THE  PROGRESSIVES  OF  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURi. 

Treves,  gives  (about  1514,)  a  most  favorable  account  of  them,  as  good 
and  respected  priests,  of  virtuous  life,  and  as  having  in  his  time  300 
scholars.  The  people  gave  the  Hieronymians  the  surname  of  "  golden 
priests."  A  protestant  movement  appearing  in  the  archbishopric, 
Archbishop  Johann  von  der  Leyen  invited  the  Jesuits  to  Treves,  in 
1560.  They  begun  by  preaching;  then  the  elector  appointed  them 
teachers;  and,  in  1566,  they  had  a  college,  completely  organized. 
"  The  Hieronymian  College  of  St.  Germain,  was  still  in  existence, 
although  operations  were  already  commenced  to  undermine  the 
institution  from  a  distance,  since  it  did  not  seem  practicable  openly  to 
overturn  it.  But  it  was  easy  to  foresee  that,  by  the  side  of  that  of 
the  Jesuits,  which  received  all  the  favors  of  the  prince,  it  could  not 
exist  much  longer."  In  1570,  the  Jesuits  got  possession  of  a  convent, 
which  the  Minorites  were  obliged  to  leave,  "  altogether  against  their 
will,  and  to  remove  into  the  building  of  the  College  of  St.  Germain, 
where  the  school  of  the  Hieronyraians  had  at  last  come  to  an  end. 
Of  these  latter  teachers  was  remaining,  in  1569,  only  one."  They 
were  obliged  "  at  Treves,  as  elsewhere,  to  give  way  to  the  new  order. 
All  the  schools  came  into  the  hands  of  the  Jesuits."*  In  Posen,f 
Bishop  Lubranski  had  established  a  school,  in  1519;  the  Jesuits 
founded  theirs  in  1573.  They  contrived  to  get  such  an  influence 
over  Bishop  Konarski,  that  he  not  only  favored  and  assisted  the 
Jesuit  college  in  every  way,  but  altogether  neglected  Lubranski's 
school,  and  intentionally  suffered  it  to  decline.  In  1574,  most  of  its 
pupils  had  already  left  it  for  the  Jesuit  institution,  in  which  they  were 
permitted  much  greater  liberty.  Thus  did  this  order  use  their  seduc- 
tive influence,  as  well  against  Catholics  as  Protestants.  A  merchant, 
Ryot,  had  founded  an  evangelical  school  here,  in  1567  ;  and  still 
earlier,  in  1555,  one  had  been  established  by  the  Bohemian  brothers. 
In  1616,  both  these  schools,  as  well  as  the  evangelical  church,  were 
"  destroyed  by  the  scholars  of  the  Jesuits,  and  a  mob  acting  in  con 
cert  with  them."  In  1621,  after  the  battle  of  the  White  Mountains, 
the  Jesuits  intrigued  most  recklessly  against  both  Catholics  and  Prot- 
estants. In  spite  of  the  opposition  of  Archbishop  Harrach  of 
Prague,  and  in  violation  of  the  existing  rights  of  the  chapter,  univers- 
ity, dean,  and  minister,  they  seized  the  exclusive  control  of  all  schools 
and  institutions  of  education.  In  the  same  year,  they  drove  the 
Calvinistic  preachers  into  Bohemia.]; 

*lb.,p  14. 

t  "  On  the  former  schools  of  Poland,  especially  in  Posen,"  by  Prof.  Czwalina.    Posen 
Gymnasium  programme,  1837,  pp.  10,  14,  18,  19. 
1  Raumer's  History  of  Europe,  iii.  416. 


THE  PROGRESSIVES  OF  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  313 

With  the  purpose  which  the  Jesuits  had  in  view,  they  very  natu- 
rally established  themselves,  as  far  as  possible,  in  Protestant  cities,  or  in 
their  vicinity.  And  Protestant  parents  in  various  portions  of  Germany 
were,  nevertheless,  so  blind,  as  to  intrust  their  children  to  the  Order, 
for  instruction.  Should  they  wonder  or  be  angry,  if  they  were  thus 
enticed  into  the  bosom  of  the  Catholic  church  ? 

When  the  Jesuits,  in  1621,  were  about  building  a  stately  college 
at  Alt-Schottland,  before  the  very  doors  of  Dantzig,  Johannes  Schro- 
der, teacher  in  the  Dantzig  Gymnasium,  wrote  to  the  council,  that 
there  was  urgent  need  for  their  schools  to  rouse  themselves;  "  lest,"  he 
says,  "  these  fellows,  with  their  institution,  obtain  the  pre-eminence  and 
the  prize.  Otherwise,  much  young  blood  will  be  seized  upon  by 
them,  and  thoroughly  contaminated.  I  know  these  birds — I  under- 
stand the  Jesuits.  I  had  twelve  years'  acquaintance  with  them  in 
Brunswick."* 

Against  this  far-seeing  and  deeply-planned  educational  activity  of 
the  Jesuits,  we  have  already  seen  with  what  hearty  zeal  the  Protest- 
ants, reformers,  educators,  and  princes,  exerted  themselves  for  the 
erection  or  improvement  of  schools.  Especially  prominent,  in  the 
second  half  of  the  16th  century,  is  Johannes  Sturm,  as  a  normal 
educator.  His  method,  says  Morhof,f  was  followed  not  only  by  the 
German  cities,  but  also  by  those  of  foreign  lands.  We  have  seen 
that  the  school  system  of  Duke  Christopher,  of  Wurtemberg,  and  that 
of  August  I.,  of  Saxony,  corresponded  very  nearly  with  Sturm's.  His 
model  was  followed  in  the  most  different  German  cities.  The  plan 
drawn  up  for  the  Stralsund  Gymnasium,  in  1591,  by  Rector  Jen tzkow, 
was  "  no  other  than  the  method  laid  down  by  Johann  Sturm,  in  his 
various  writings,  extended  and  adapted  with  great  care  and  judg- 
ment.";]; In  like  manner,  it  is  related  by  Rector  Heinrich  Petreus, 
that,  in  organizing  the  Gottingen  Gymnasium,  he  took  that  of  Stras- 
burg  for  a  model.§  In  the  gymnasium  at  Frankfurt-on-the-Mayne, 
Sturm's  method  was  followed. ||  The  introduction  of  decurions,  in 
the  gymnasium  at  Liegnitz,  as  well  as  at  Frankfurt,  was  evidently 
after  Sturm's  plan.^f 

The  contest  of  the  confessionals  was  transferred  to  the  schools. 
But,  nevertheless,  Protestants  and  Catholics  sought  the  same  object  in 
their  effort^  for  literary  culture.  Sturm  said  :  "  I  have  observed  what 

*  "  History  of  the  Academic  Gymnasium  in  Dantzig,  by  Prof.  Dr.  Th.  Hirsch."    Dantzig 
Gymnasium  programme,  Ausr  3  1837.    Exceedingly  valuable, 
t  Morliof  Polyh  sfor     Ed.  4.  1747  :  I.  333. 
JZober;  Stralsund  Gymnasium  programme,  1846,  p.  7. 

§  Some  account  of  the  ancient  schools  of  Gottingen,  by  Dir  Kirsten,  1840,  p.  7. 
II  On  the  trecentennial  jub  lee  of  the  Frankfurt  Gymnasium,  by  Rector  Vomel.  1829.  p.  5. 
IT  Gymnasium  prosrrammi-  of  Rector  Kohler.  in  Liegnitz,  1837. 


314  THE  PROGRESSIVES  OF  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

writers  the  Jesuits  explain,  and  what  method  they  follow  ;  and  it 
differs  so  little  from  ours,  that  it  seems  as  if  they  had  drank  from  our 
fountains.'' 

Against  this  system  of  education,  common  to  the  Protestants  and 
Jesuits  of  that  day,  adversaries  now  rose  up.  In  the  first  decennium 
of  the  17th  century,  commenced  that  contest  of  pedagogical  principles, 
originating  from  Protestant  sources,  which,  under  varying  forms,  has 
lasted  even  to  the  present  day. 

Those  who  sought  to  introduce  these  new  principles  and  new  ideals 
into  pedagogy,  I  shall  for  that  reason  denominate  Progressives. 
This  term  is  to  be  understood  as  implying  neither  praise  nor  blame. 
It  is  to  indicate  not  at  all  whether  the  new  matter  brought 
forward  by  these  men  was  good,  or  bad,  or  mingled  of  both. 

Innovations  were  to  be  expected.  When  any  mode  of  culture  is 
exclusively  adhered  to,  until  it  passes  over  into  caricature ;  whenever 
only  this  or  that  subject  of  instruction  is  regarded,  to  the  exclusion  of 
others ;  and  only  the  faculties  employed  about  that  subject  developed, 
while  others  are  neglected  ;  sooner  or  latter,  this  condition  of  affairs 
brings  its  own  retribution,  in  the  reaction  which  must  follow.  And 
this  reaction,  moreover,  commonly  in  its  turn  overpasses  the  limits 
of  moderation,  becomes  a  radicalism,  and  seeks  entirely  to  extirpate 
what  had  previously  been  made  too  prominent. 

Thus  it  happened  in  the  pedagogical  controversy  which  was  now 
beginning.  That  the  philological  education  had  been  pushed  into 
caricature,  Erasmus  had  already  seen,  and  had  satirized  the  imitators 
of  Cicero.  His  "Ciceronianus  "  seems  yet  to  have  made  no  impression 
upon  Sturm.  The  latter's  ideal  of  attainment  was,  and  remained, 
Ciceronian  Latin  eloquence  ;  and  he  would  make  every  school-boy,  as 
far  as  possible,  a  Ciceronian.  We  wonder  at  his  method,  at  the  pro- 
fessional and  literary  skill  with  which  he  pursued  his  object,  and  con- 
centrated all  the  mental  powers  upon  it.  But,  if  it  be  asked,  Was  his 
ideal  of  attainment  the  true  one  ?  We  can  not  escape  the  reply,  that 
he  himself,  and  his  innumerable  imitators,  in  their  zeal  to  train  their 
scholars  to  a  Ciceronian  eloquence,  undervalued  almost  every  thing 
else  worth  learning,  and  every  intellectual  gift  of  the  pupil  as  well, 
except  that  of  speaking.  We  have  moreover  seen  that  Bacon  and 
Montaigne,  directly  or  indirectly,  opposed  this  purely  philological 
training.  But  neither  of  these  was  an  educator,  and  they  were 
therefore  not  in  a  condition. 

But  it  was  not  long  before  there  were  teachers,  also,  contending 
actively  against  the  cotemporary  system  of  instruction.  Two  men 
appeared,  who,  for  many  years,  made  persevering  and  uuinterrnitted 


THE  PROGRESSIVES  OF  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  315 

efforts  to  develop,  and  put  in  practice,  a  new  method  of  teaching. 
These  were  Wolfgang  Ratich  and  Johann  Amos  Comenius.  With 
them  commences  a  long  series  of  educational  methodologists,  in  which 
Locke,  Rousseau,  Basedow,  and  Pestalozzi,  are  most  prominent. 
Th^se  men  differed  widely ;  from  personal  character,  the  influences 
of  country,  religious  belief,  and  the  times  and  circumstances  in  which 
they  lived ;  yet  we  find  something  of  a  common  character  in  the 
principles  and  tendencies  of  them  all.  I  will  preface,  to  the  mono- 
graphs upon  these  men,  a  short  discussion  of  these  common  elements, 
as  composers  introduce  into  the  overture  of  an  opera  the  principal 
themes  which  are  afterward  to  be  heard  in  the  work  itself. 

Sight  was  becoming  clearer,  views  wider,  and  many  new  opinions 
and  ideals  of  value  had  arisen.  In  truth,  the  horizon  enlarged  so 
rapidly,  that  the  vision  of  the  observers  failed  to  command  it.  Fre- 
quently the  Progressives  were  incompetent  to  work  out  the  complete 
exemplification  of  their  own  ideals.  It  was  with  entire  correctness 
that  they  recognized  as  indispensable,  and  as  founded  in  human 
nature,  and  as  demanded  by  the  relations  of  actual  life,  elements  of 
culture  unthought  of  by  preceding  teachers.  They  were  right  in  oppos- 
ing their  narrow  one-sidedness,  and  the  manifold  errors  in  their 
courses  of  instruction.  But,  again,  even  from  the  short  characteriza- 
tions of  the  Progressives*  which  follow,  it  will  appear,  that  they  in 
their  turn  failed  to  recognize  many  valuable  constituents  of  a  perfected 
course  of  study  ;  and,  in  opposing  one  extreme,  fell  themselves  into 
the  other.  Let  us  hope  that  we  ourselves,  taking  warning  by  this 
error,  may  shun  both  extremes,  thankfully  recognize  the  good  exist- 
ing in  each  of  the  two  conflicting  parties,  and  hold  it  fast ;  and  thus 
accomplish  an  actual  and  solid  reconciliation  of  both. 

The  traits  common  to  the  Progressives  are  these  : — 

1.  They  all  vigorously  controverted  the  systems  of  education  and 
instruction  prevailing  in  their  day.     They  called  the  common  methods 
of  instruction,  which  remained  substantially  the  same,  from  the  Ref- 
ormation nearly  down  to  our  own  times — that  of  the  Grammatici 
(Philologists) — a  blind  groping,  without  road  or  object. 

2.  They  offered,  not  an  improved  method,  but  asserted  that  the 
teaching  of  the  Grammatici  was  entirely  unmethodical ;   and  offered 
simply  a  method  ;  as  something  entirely  new.     This  was  to  conduct 
the  student  forward,  from  the  simplest  and  most  comprehensible  ele- 
ments of  each  subject  taught,  by  a  plain,  short,  and  easy  way,  to  the 
attainment  of  his  end.     They  said  even,  in  substance,  that,  with  the 

•  In  the  course  of  the  History,  I  shall  furnish  the  proofs  of  this  description. 


316  THE  PROGRESSIVES  OF  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTUKV. 

inner  organic   necessities   of   the  pupil,  the  blossoms   and   fruits  oi 
learning  would  be  developed. 

3.  They  wrote  manuals,  adapted  to  their  methods ;  by  the  use  of 
which,  as  they  claimed,  one  as  well  as  another,  the  intelligent  and 
the  stupid  alike  could   learn  well,  if  only  he  adhered  to  the  text-book 
with  diligent  and  even  pedantic  exactitude.     This  equalized  talents  ; 
indeed,  it  was  questioned   whether   independent   and    untramrrieled 
teachers  were  not  inferior,  in   pedagogic   efficiency,  to  those  of  more 
moderate  endowments. 

4.  These  views  were  carried  into  actual  caricature  by  some,  who 
ventured  to  maintain  :  That  intelligence  or  dullness  is  a  matter  of 
indifference  to  the  scholar.     The  teacher  who  adheres  closely  to  the 
method,  will  accomplish  every  thing  by  that  means.     He  can  carve  a 
Mercury,  and  make  grass  grow,  out  of  the  same  timber. 

5.  They  opposed,  in  particular,  the  current  modes  of  instruction ; 
calling  them  vain,  lifeless  memory -cramming.     (This  was  their  usual 
term  for  it.)*     This  was  especially  the  case  with  the  usual   methods 
of  teaching  the  ancient  languages ;  which  the  Progressives  promised 
to  teach  in  a  shorter  time,  and   an  easier  manner;  one  in  one  new 
way,  and  another  in  another. 

6.  They  applied  the  term  lifeless  to  the  so-called  memory-cram- 
ming, because  by  it  the  pupil   was  made  to  learn  so  many  things 
which  he  did  not  understand.     They  aimed  at  imparting  life  to  in- 
struction, by  calling  into  action  the  understanding  of  the  child,  in 
proportion  as  they  omitted  the  drilling  of  memory.     Some  of  them 
seem  indeed  to  have  had  no  reverence  for  the  mystery  of  the  memory, 
and  even  to   have  known  nothing  of  any  intellectually  living  human 
memory,  but  only  of  a  mere  echo-like  parrot's  memory ;  and  not  to 
have  known   how  very  common  is  the  phenomenon  of   an  under- 
standing stupefied  by  drilling. 

7.  While  undervaluing  the  receptivity,  so  natural   to  youth,  they 
endeavored,  on  the  contrary,  to  stimulate  the  learner  to  an  incessant 
and  unnatural  effort  after  precocious  production.     Estimating  all  com- 
municated knowledge  at  a  low  rate,  they  preached  to  the  young  gen- 
eration the  doctrine  that  they  were  to  take  pride  in  shaping  out 
and   accomplishing  every  thing  for  themselves  ;  and   that  to  them- 
selves, therefore,  were  they  to  be  indebted  for  every  thing. 

8.  Since  our  method  is  conformable  to  nature,  said  the  Progressives, 
the  children   will    learn,  voluntarily,  with  ease  and    pleasure.     And 
they  gave  assurances  that,  by  their  method,  all  punishments,  corporeal 

*  An  expression  somewhat  appropriate  for  the  military  style  in  which  the  teachers  put 
he  children  through  their  rote-exercises. 


lib  PROGRESSIVES  UF  THE  SEVENTEENTH  OKMLRx.  317 

ones  especially,  would  cease  of  themselves ;  being  only  the  results  of 
a  course  of  instruction  uncongenial,  and  stimulating  to  disobedience. 

9.  Some  of  the  Progressives  would  have  had  each  scholar  taught 
according  to   his  individual    peculiarities  and   gifts ;    not  all    alike. 
Oth(  s,  on  the  contrary,  regarded  only  the  human  character  in  general. 
As  th     x  is  only  one  and  the  same  nature,  they  said,  common  to  all 
men,  so  thgre  should  be  only  one  and  the  same  method  of  education. 
The  former  of  these  was  the  more  aristocratic  view,  the  latter  demo- 
cratic ;  the  former  was  entertained  by  those  who  looked  to  the  edu- 
cation of  some  single  normal  pupil,  the  latter  by  those  who  aimed 
at  common  education. 

10.  The  Progressives  had  a  regard  for  the  mother  tongue;  indeed, 
a  special  one ;  and  contended  against  the  tyrannical  dominion  of  the 
Latin,  without  altogether  rejecting  it.     By  this  study  of  the  mother 
tongue,  by   introducing   it   among   subjects  of  instruction,  they  en- 
deavored,  if  not  to  break  up  the  sharp  distinction  maintained   by 
means  of  Latin  between  educated  and   non-educated  classes,  at  least 
to  narrow  it  as  far  as  possible,  and  to  promote  at  once  an  education 
independent  of  Latin,  and  democratic  sentiments. 

11.  They  set  great  value  upon  real  studies,  and  endeavored  to  con- 
nect them  with  studies  in  language. 

12.  Connected  with  these  traits  are  the  progress  of  bodily  exercise, 
and  the  controversy  against  dark  and  dim  school  rooms. 

13.  As  the  mother  tongue  and  real  studies  became  prominent, 
opposition  arose  to  the  education  of  uneducated  persons  in  the  Latin 
schools  ;  and  separate  real  schools  were  demanded.     Some,  from  true 
Christian  love,  turned  their  attention  to  the  improvement  of  the  com- 
mon schools,  which  were  undervalued  by  most  of  the  Latinist  learned 
men,  and  labored  extensively  in  their  behalf. 

14.  These  Progressives  opposed  themselves  not  only  to  the  mem- 
ory, but  the  imagination — more  however  in  effect  than  in  theory.    Their 
unnatural  and  precocious  stimulation  of  the  reason  of  the  children 
destroyed  their  imagination.     Of  the   beautiful   they  said    nothing. 
If  they  taught  music,  drawing,  &c.,  it  was  upon  a  rationalist,  anti- 
artistic   plan.     Poetry  was   neglected,  or  taught   with  loveless   and 
unfriendly  coldness.     The  poems  were  analyzed  and  interpreted  to 
death. 

15.  The   intuition,  of  which   there  was    so  much    said    amongst 
them,  tended  to  the  development  of  imagination ;  although,  for  the 
most  part,  only  apparently  so.     They  disturbed  the    quiet  necessary 
for  it,  by  incessant  repetition,  and  torturing  questions,  and  destroyed 
the  natural  susceptibility  to  ideas  by  the  most  untimely  and  repulsw*. 

30 


318      THE  PROGRESSIVES  OF  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURA. 

reflections  and  reasonings.  This  word  does  not  signify  a  complete 
expression  in  the  mind  of  the  scholar;  it  refers  much  more  to  wordy 
put  too  soon  into  the  child's  mind  by  the  teacher.  He  was  oblig^  : 
to  name  and  describe  things  entirely  strange  to  him.  Thus  the  o, 
called  exercises  in  intuition  were  only  empty  exercises  in  ta'o»ng, 
without  any  real  substance.  ta1 

16.  They  were  especially  strict  in  insisting  that  the  r-upi.s,  even 
the  youngest,  should  have  a  clear  conciousness  in  all  tb&Y  Baying  and 
acting;  and  should  give  a  thorough  account  of  all  their  doings  and 
thinkings,  in  clear  and  weii-ehosen  words.     By  diligent  reflection  upon 
language  and  speaking,  it  was  thus  expected  that  the  pupils  would 
become  able  to  hear  and  to  speak  intelligently.     In  this  manner  they 
sought  to  drive  the  children  away  -from  their  natural  simplicity,  and 
to  tram  them  into  an  unnatural,  unchild-like  condition  ;  one  occupied 
by  themselves,  and  trying  to  manage  and  govern  themselves. 

17.  With  this  controversy  against  the  memory,  was  united,  on  the 
part  of  many,  an   undervaluation  of  history,  and  a  deification  of  the 
present  and   the  actual.     Thus  was  induced  the  most  powerful   ten- 
dency to  mere  earthly,  material  interest,  and  earthly  things  and  labors, 
and  an  entire  contempt  for  a  higher  and  freer  culture. 

18.  With  some  of  the  Progressives  of  the  eighteenth  century  there 
appeared  a  distinct  form  of  Pelagianism.    The  problem  of  the  educator, 
according  to  them,  was  only  this  :    To  promote  the  vegetative  devel- 
opment of    the  natural   good  endowments  of  each  child,  after   the 
fashion  of  a  gardener,  so  that  the  inborn  potentia  may  ripen  into 
actus.     Naturam  sequi,  is  their  principle.     Of  any  case  that  the  in- 
born bad  potentia  should   become  extinct,  and  should   not  ripen  into 
actus,  of  the  strife  after  holiness,  they  took  no  heed ;  with  them  the 
opposites  of  nature  and  of  grace  have  no  existence.* 

Thus  may  the  outlines  of  the  new  tendencies  in  instruction  and 
education  be  described ;  we  now  come  to  the  life  and  labors  of  the 
Coryphaeus  of  the  Progressives,  Wolfgang  Ration. 

•References  will  be  made,  further  on,  to  the  religious  tendencies  of  the  earlier  Progressives, 
and  to  the  irreligious  ones  of  the  later. 


WOLFGANG  RATICH. 

[Translated  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education,  from  the  German  of  Karl  von  Rautnet. 


WOLFGANG  RATICH  was  born  in  1571,  at  Wilster  in  Holstein. 
He  attended  the  Hamburg  gymnasium,  and  afterward  studied  philos- 
ophy in  Rostock.  On  account  of  a  difficulty  in  his  speech  he  gave 
up  theology,  turned  his  attention  especially  to  Hebrew,  and  went 
to  England,  and  thence  to  Amsterdam,  to  study  mathematics.  Here 
he  remained  eight  years,  and  learned  Arabic  of  a  native-born  Arabian. 
Here,  also,  he  offered  to  present  to  Prince  Moritz,  of  Orange,  a  new 
method  of  instruction,  as  discovered  by  him.  The  prince  agreed  to 
his  proposal,  but  on  the  condition  that  he  should  teach  Latin  only. 
Dissatisfied  with  this  restriction,  Ratich  went  to  Basle,  Strasburg,  and 
also  to  other  courts,  offering  his  new  method.  He  finally  offered  "  to 
the  German  Empire,"  May  7th,  1612,  at  the  diet  at  Frankfort,  a  me- 
morial,* in  which  he  promised,  "  with  the  help  of  God  to  give  instruc- 
tions for  the  service  and  welfare  of  all  Christendom  : 

1.  How  the  Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin,  and  other  tongues  may  easily  be 
taught  and  learned  both  by  young  and  old,  more  thoroughly  and  in 
shorter  time. 

2.  How,  not  only  in  High  Dutch,  but,  also,  in  other  tongues  a 
school  may  be  established,  in  which  the  thorough  knowledge  of  all 
arts  and  sciences  may  be  learned  and  propagated. 

3.  How,  in  the  whole  kingdom  one  and  the  same  speech,  one  and 
the  same  government,  and  finally  one  and  the  same  religion,  may  be 
commodiously  and  peacefully  maintained. 

The  better  to  exemplify  this,"  he  continues,  "  he  is  prepared  to 
show  written  specimens  of  the  Hebrew  and  Chaldee  Scriptures,  and 
of  the  Arabian  and  Greek,  Latin  and  High  Dutch  languages,  from 
which  a  full  opinion  may  be  formed  of  the  whole  work." 

Ratich  now  proceeded  to  attack  the  usual  methods  of  instruction. 
It  is  the  course  of  nature,  he  says,  first  to  learn  to  read  right,  and 
speak  the  mother  tongue  correctly  and  fluently,  so  as  to  be  able  to 
use  the  German  Bible.  Hebrew  and  Greek  come  next,  as  the  tongues 
of  the  original  texts  of  the  Bible.  Next  comes  Latin,  which  may  be 
learned  from  Terence  ;  or  jurists  may  learn  it  from  the  Institutions. 
Elsewhere  German  should  be  used  in  all  the  faculties. 

*  I  received  a  copy  of  this  memorial  by  the  kindness  of  Herr  Archivist  Doctor  of  Law 
Hertzog,  in  Frankfort. 


320 


WOLFGANG  RATICH. 


Alter  the  reading  of  this  memorial,  Pfalzgrave  Wolfgang  Wilhelm 
von  Marburg  gave  Ratich  five  hundred  gulden  to  buy  him  the  neces- 
sary books ;  Landgrave  Ludwig  von  Darmstadt  appointed,  and  professors 
Helwig  and  Jung  of  Giessen,  to  make  reports  to  him  upon  Ratich's 
mode  of  instruction.  In  1613  the  widowed  Duchess  Dorothea  von 
Weimar  summoned  an  assembly  of  learned  men  at  Erfurt  to  exam- 
ine the  method.  At  the  request  of  the  same  lady,  Professors  Graw- 
er,  Brendel,  Walter,  and  Wolf  of  Jena,  investigated  Ratich's  method. 
Their  report  appeared  soon  after  that  of  Helwig,  and  both  were  de- 
cidedly in  favor  of  the  new  method.* 

In  1614  the  church  and  school  authorities  of  Augsburg  invited  Ra- 
tich thither  to  reform  the  schools  of  their  city.  We  know  nothing 
more  of  his  stay  there.f 

The  Duchess  Dorothea  summoned  Ratich  to  Weimar  as  early  as 
1613  to  instruct  her  and  her  sister  Anna  Sophie,  both  princesses  of 
Anhalt,  in  Latin.  In  1617,  she  gave  him,  for  the  promotion  of  hi* 
plans,  two  thousand  gulden. 

In  the  same  year,  1617,  Ratich  was  again  at  Frankfort,  where  he 
petitioned  the  town  council  to  appoint  an  agent  to  whom  he  might  ex- 
plain his  method.  The  agent  was  appointed,  reported,  and  the  coun- 
cil thereupon  decreed  that  "  Ratich  should  be  notified  that  he  had  per 
mission  to  apply  elsewhere  at  his  convenience." 

Prince  Ludwig  von  Anhalt  Kothen  first  met  Ratich  in  1613,J;  at 
Weimar,  with  his  sisters,  the  Duchess  Dorothea,  and  the  Countess 
Anna  Sophie  von  Schwarzburg.  Both  urgently  recommended  Ratich 
to  him.  In  1616  he  invited  him  to  Rheda  in  Westphalia,  and  was 
so  much  plea  ed  with  his  plans  that  he  requested  him  to  take  up  his 
abode  near  him.  April  10th,  1618,  Ratich  came  accordingly  to  Ko- 
then ;  and  explained  to  the  prince,  that  "  his  structure  was  ready  pre- 
pared to  his  mind,  but  that  the  workmen  were  wanting  to  help  put  it 
up."  He  settled  in  Kothen  for  a  time,  on  account  of  the  purity  of 
the  German  spoken  there,  to  make  a  trial  of  his  system  for  teaching 
foreign  languages,  but  especially  to  establish  a  good  German  school. 

Prince  Ludwig  repeatedly  applied  to  the  other  princes  of  Anhalt 
to  assist  him  in  carrying  out  Ratich's  schemes,  but  in  vain.  His 
brother,  Prince  Christian,  wrote  to  him  that  Ratich's  views  were 
praiseworthy,  but  that  "  it  is  the  work  that  praises  the  master,"  and 

•  Duchess  Dorothea  refers  to  both  in  the  letter  of  invitation  which  she  gave  to  Ratich,  8th 
of  May,  1613,  to  the  magistrates  of  Frankfort,  when  he  left  Weimar  for  that  city.  Of  this  I 
have  a  copy. 

t  Ri-ro-t  B.  of  Dr.  Niemeyer,  p.  11.  We  shall  hereafter  see  two  reports  from  fellow  labor 
ers  of  Ratich,  at  Augsburg. 

t  According  to  Prince  Ludwig's  own  account,  it  was  in  1618.    See  Niemeyer,  p.  6,  &c 


WOLFGANG  RATICH.  321 

it  was  best  to  wait  for  the  result.  He  advised  to  have  the  system  ex- 
amined by  Rector  Wendelin  of  Zerbst,  for  which  purpose  he  said  he 
would  gladly  use  his  influence.  But  he  soon  afterward  declined  to 
do  even  this.*  Only  Duke  Johann  Ernst  von  Weimar,  son  of  the 
Duchess  Dorothea,  and  nephew  of  Prince  Ludwig,  united  with  him 
in  the  undertaking  to  call  into  life  the  new  method  of  instruction  at 
their  common  expense." 

Ratichf  now  formally  bound  himself  to  the  work  which  the  Prince 
wished  him  to  undertake :  namely,  that  of  instructing  and  training 
teachers,  so  that  they  should  be  able  "  to  impart  to  their  pupils  a 
thorough,  good,  and  fluent  knowledge  of  any  language,  especially  of 
Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin,  in  less  time,  not  to  exceed  half  as  much, 
than  could  be  done  by  any  other  method  usual  in  Germany,  Jtnd  also 
with  much  less  pains."  These  teachers  were,  on  the  other  hand  to 
promise  him  upon  his  requisition  not  to  reveal  the  secret  of  his  meth- 
od to  any  one. 

The  prince  now  caused  a  printing  office  to  be  erected  at  Kothen, 
for  supplying  Ration's  books.  The  founts  for  six  languages  were 
partly  brought  from  Holland,  and  partly  cast  in  Kothen ;  and  four 
compositors  and  two  pressmen  were  brought  from  Rostock  and  Jena. 

The  prince  required  the  people  of  Kothen  to  send  their  children  to 
the  schools  established  by  Ratich ;  two  hundred  and  thirty-one  boys, 
and  two  hundred  and  two  girls  were  enrolled.^ 

The  schools  were  divided  into  six  classes.  In  the  three  lowest  the 
mother  tongue  was  taught,  in  the  fourth  a  beginning  was  made 
with  Latin,  and  in  the  sixth  with  Greek.§  According  to  the  plan,  his 
teacher  of  the  lowest  class,  was  to  be  a  man  of  kind  manners,  who 
need  know  no  language  except  German.  His  duty  was  to  be,  "  by  daily 
prayer,  short  Biblical  texts,  and  questions  in  the  manner  of  ordinary 
conversation,  to  form  the  tongues  and  language  of  the  new  scholars, 
according  to  the  pure  Misnian  dialect,  and  by  continued  practice  to 
correct  the  faults  of  the  scholars,  acquired  outside  the  school. ||" 

We  shall  see,  further  on,  the   methods  of  teaching  German  and 

*  Niemeyer  gives  a  French  letter  from  Prince  Christian,  of  8th  of  September,  1618.  He 
writes  literatim  as  follows:  "Puisdonques  qu'il  vous  tarde  quejeme  resolvg  sur  1'affaire 
dn  Rafichius.  J'ay  suis  delibere  de  ne  me  vouloir  pasmesler.  Et  ce  a  cause  que  nul  deceulx 
auxquels  J'ay  parle  depuis,  (vous  asseurant  en  avoir  parle  avec  divers  'personnages  qui  ont 
renomm£e  d'  estre  doctes,)  ont  voulu  croire  que  les  Effets  seront  conformes  a  ses  proposi- 
tions nV  alleguants  force  Exemples  au  contraire  en  Hassie,  en  ia  Cointe  de  Nassau,  de  Ha- 
nau.  chez  ms.  le  marg  de  Bade,  a  Auguste  et  a  Basle  merne."  Comp.  Niemeyer,  C.  p.  13. 

t  Niemeyer,  C.  10,  !5.  J  Ib.  24. 

§  Niemeyer,  C.  24.    On  comparing  pp.  28  and  42,  it  does  not  appear  whether  there  were 
five  or  six  classes,  and  whether  Greek  was  begun  in  the  5th  or  sixth. 
1J.C.29. 


322  WOLFGANG  RATICH. 

Latin  in  Ration's  schools.  Here  it  must  suffice  to  say,  as  to  the  in- 
struction at  Kothen,  that  as  soon  as  the  children  had  learned  their 
letters,  in  the  first  (lowest)  class,  they  learned  reading  and  writing 
together,  in  the  second,  using  Genesis  for  a  reading  book.  In  the 
third  class  was  studied  "  the  grammar  of  the  mother  tongue,  with 
examples  both  general  and  special;  that  is,  to  speak  and  write 
grammatically,  and  to  understand  the  grammatical  speaking  and  writ- 
ing of  others.* 

In  the  fourth  and  fifth  classes,  Terence  was  studied,  and  the  Latin 
grammar  abstracted  from  it ;  after  this  there  followed  an  especial 
Greek  class.f 

Besides  these  lessons  in  language,  there  was  instruction  in  arithme- 
tic, singfng,  and  religion. 

Ration's  labors  at  Kothen,  however,  as  in  other  places,  soon  came 
to  an  end.  There  were  various  reasons  for  this.  One  was,  that  Ra- 
tich  was  a  strong  Lutheran,  while  the  city  of  Kothen  was  of  the  "re- 
formed" persuasion.  The  citizens  also  took  offense  at  Ratich's  having 
the  ten  commandments  learned  in  his  school,  not  after  the  reformed 
text  and  division,  but  after  the  Lutheran.  Superintendent  Streso 
charged  him,  for  this  reason,  with  being  heterodox.  Prince  Ludwig 
tried  to  heal  the  difficulty  by  ordering  both  the  Heidelberg  catechism 
and  Ratich's  reading  manual  to  be  used  in  the  schools ;  but  this  satis- 
fied neither  party. 

In  a  report  which  StresoJ  and  some  other  men  of  eminence  made 
upon  Ratich's  school,  by  the  order  of  the  prince,  it  was  remarked  that 
the  catechism  and  music  were  studied  too  little ;  that  the  discipline 
was  bad  ;  that  the  hours  of  recreation  were  too  many  ;  that  the  chil- 
dren were  made  to  pass  too  quickly  and  abruptly  from  the  letters  to 
reading,  without  any  intermediate  study  of  syllables,  and  that  they 
" wrote  vitiosissime" 

It  is  true  that  the  results  did  not  answer  Ratich's  great  promises. 
He  laid  the  blame,  for  various  reasons,  upon  his  patrons  and  col- 
leagues ;  and  the  consequence  was  that  Prince  Ludwig  imprisoned 
him  on  the  sixth  of  October,  1619,  and  only  released  him  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  year  1620,  on  his  signing  a  declaration  in  which  ho  says 
that  he  "  had  claimed  and  promised  more  than  he  knew  or  could 
bring  to  pass.§ 

Afterward,  in  1620,  Ratich  went  to  Magdeburg,  where  he  was  well 
received  by  the  magistrates,  but  in  1622  he  got  into  a  quarrel  with 
Rector  Evenius.  Princess  Anna  Sophie,  who  had  married  Count 
Gunther  von  Schwarzburg,  now  invited  him  to  Rudolstadt,  where  she 

'  J.  C.  85.  t  Ib.  42.  J  Ib.  15-19.  §  Ib.  7, 19,  20. 


WOLFGANG  RATICH.  323 

•tudied  Hebrew  with  him.  About  this  time  many  opponents  came 
out  against  Ratich,  and  among  others  the  well  known  Dr.  Hoe  von 
Hoenegg,  chief  court  chaplain  at  Dresden,  who  had  been  his  strong 
partizan  in  1614.  In  1626,  however,  he  wrote  a-long  communica- 
tion to  the  Countess  Anna  Sophie,  opposing  Ratich's  views.  "Your 
grace  knows  well,"  he  writes,  "that  if  one  should  give  himself  out  for 
an  architect,  and  especially  for  an  uncommonly  good  architect,  he 
would  not  be  at  once  received  as  such,  but  that  special,  thorough, 
clear  and  demonstrative  tests,  would  be  made  use  of,  before  men 
would  employ  him  for  important  buildings,  or  put  them  under  his 
charge.  But  we,  here  at  court,  know  of  no  such  public,  thorough 
proof,  whatever,  which  the  Herr  Ratichius  has  given,  proportionate 
to  his  claims,  even  in  any  small  place ;  for  the  lack  of  which  proof, 
people  here  will  be  the  less  willing  to  make  any  change  in  their  sys- 
tem of  teaching,  and  to  adopt,  instead  of  it,  the  Didactics  of  Ra- 
tich."* The  Dukes  of  Weimar  and  Gotha  soon  gave  him  up,  but 
Countess  Anna  Sophie  still  adhered  to  him.  She  supported  him  at 
Kranichfeld  and  Erfurt,  and  recommended  him  to  Chancellor  Oxen- 
stiern,  who  caused  an  examination  to  be  made  of  his  system.  Doc- 
tors Hieronymus  Bruckner,  Johann  Matthaeus  Meyfart  and  Stephan 
Ziegler,  made  a  favorable  report  upon  it  to  the  Chancellor,  March  10, 
]634.f 

This  report  discussed,  1.  The  purpose  and  design  of  the  plan. 

2.  The  mode  of  teaching. 

3.  The  promises  made.     The  reporters  first  take  up  Ratich's  argu- 
ments against  the  existing  mode  of  instruction ;  as,  that  it  is  not 
really  Christian;  that  the  scholars  have  to  learn  too  many  things  at 
the  same  time,   &c.J     They  then  describe  Ratich's  method;   and, 
lastly,  consider  his  requirements,  as,  a  regular  appointment,  the  chief 
directorship  of  the  work,  good  fellow-laborers,  &c. 

Comenius,  who  met  the  Chancellor  in  Sweden,  in  1642,  relates  the 
result  of  his  negotiations  with  him.  "  When  I  heard,"  said  Oxen- 
stiern,  "  that  Ratich  had  a  new  method,  I  could  not  be  easy  until  I 
had  myself  seen  the  man  ;  but  instead  of  conversation,  he  sent  me  a 
thick  quarto.  I  accomplished  this  wearisome  labor,  and  after  I  had 
read  the  whole  book  through,  I  found  he  had,  it  is  true,  not  ill  dis- 
played the  faults  of  our  schools ;  but  that  his  remedies  did  not  ap- 
pear thorough. "§  A  sensible  opinion.  Comenius  himself  applied  to 

*  Niemeyer  B.  p.  8.    This  letter  is  in  the  Duke's  library  at  Gotha.    Niemeyer  gives  othei 
extracts  from  it.    (D.  13.) 

t  Ib.  A.  p.  7.  ;  Details  further  on 

$  The  Chancellor  does  not  mention  Meyfart's  report. 


324  WOLFGANG  RATICH. 

Ratich  by  letter,  in  1629,  as  he  relates  in  another  place,  asking  him 
earnestly  and  repeatedly,  to  give  him  an  account  of  his  new  method. 
But  Ratich  gave  him  no  answer. 

It  was  in  1632  that  he  first  obtained  an  account  of  it,  in  a  letter 
from  the  excellent  Georg  Winkler,  pastor  in  Goldberg.  "  What  great 
hopes,"  wrote  the  latter,  "were  excited  by  Helwig  and  Jung's  pom- 
pous report  upon  Ratich's  method !  But  our  good  friend  Ratich  fell 
short  of  it,  and  will  continue  to  fall  short  of  it."  Winkler  then  re- 
lates how  Moser,  teacher  in  the  school  at  Goldberg,  had  eaten  a  meal 
with  Ratich,  in  hopes,  by  this  plan,  to  find  out  something  about  his 
method  ;  but  he  learned  but  little.  Ratich  had  declared  that  he 
would  only  sell  his  discoveries  to  a  prince,  at  a  dear  rate,  and  upon 
the  condition  that  the  men  of  learning  to  whom  he  should  commu- 
nicate them  should  promise  to  conceal  them.  Winkler  asks,  "would 
Christ,  the  Apostles,  and  the  Prophets,  have  done  so  ?" 

Ratich  did  not  long  survive  his  negotiation  with  Oxenstiern.  He 
had  suffered  an  attack  of  palsy  in  the  tongue  and  right  hand,  in 
1633  ;  and  he  died  in  1635,  aged  sixty -four. 

We  will  now  examine  specimens  of  Ratich's  method  of  teaching 
German  and  Latin,  in  order  to  show  how  he  and  his  followers  pro- 
ceeded in  instruction,  and  then  consider  his  more  important  general 
principles  of  instruction  and  education.  1  commence  with  an  account 
of  a  method  of  instruction,  so  as  to  be  able  more  conveniently  to  re- 
fer to  it  for  explaining  principles. 

I.     RATICH'S  INSTRUCTION  IN  LANGUAGE. 

Instruction  in  language  should  begin  in  the  sixth  or  seventh  year, 
with  learning  the  letters ;  since  the  letter  is  the  simplest  element  of 
grammar.  The  teacher  should  show  the  pupil  the  form  of  the  letter, 
drawing  it  slowly  on  the  blackboard,  and  naming  it  at  the  same  time, 
so  that  the  scholar  may  learn  the  form  and  the  name  of  the  letter  to- 
gether. He  is  also  to  compare  the  letters  with  forms,  as,  for  instance, 
O  with  a  circle,  C  with  a  semicircle,  X  with  a  cross,  &c.* 

Ratich  requires  that  the  pupil  should  copy  the  letters  at  the  same 
time,  but  Kromayer,  his  follower,  on  the  contrary,  only  permits  it 
when  he  can  read  them  easily. 

The  teacher  then  proceeds  to  the  making  of  syllables;  writing  the 
names  of  them,  as  before,  at  the  same  time. 

After  this,  Ratich  says,  he  is  to  select  an  author  from  whom  the 
language  can  well  be  learned,  and  whose  contents  are  chaste  and 
interesting;  as,  some  history,  comedy,  <fec.  The  youngest  scholars 

*  Ratich's  "Methodus,"  140. 


WOLFGANG  RATICH.  325 

must,  however,  have  a  manual  of  the  rudiments,  (parvus  libellus  ru- 
dimentorum,)  while  the  older  use  the  author  himself.  This  author  is 
Terence. 

Here  the  Ratichians  differ  from  Ratich  in  one  direction,  and  Kro- 
mayer  in  another.  The  former  direct  that  after  the  study  of  the  let- 
ters, Terentius*  should  immediately  be  taken  up.  The  latter,  how- 
ever, says :  "  The  boys  should  first  learn  German  well,  before  Latin 
or  any  other  language  is  laid  before  them ;  for  it  is  wrong  for  the 
boys  to  have  any  Latin  material,  such  as  Donatus,  Latin  verses,  or 
the  like,  put  before  them,  before  they  understand  German  well."  He 
adds  that  many  scholars  learn  Latin  grammar  without  knowing  Ger- 
man well ;  "  that  although  they  may  not  have  learned  it  well  in  the 
lower  classes,  they  are  at  once  put  into  Latin.  It  is  still  worse  when 
the  children  even  at  first,  before  they  can  read  German,  are  taught  to 
read  in  Latin  ABC  books.  This  is  contrary  to  nature ;  for  it  is  much 
easier  to  learn  to  read  in  the  mother  tongue,  than  in  one  strange  or 
entirely  unknown."  German  should  therefore  be  taught  in  the  Ger- 
man classes,  and  Latin  be  postponed  to  the  Latin  classes. 

Kromayer's  course  of  Latin  instruction  is  briefly  as  follows.  From 
their  letters,  the  step  to  reading,  is  to  be  made  as  soon  as  possible. 
The  teacher  must  first  "  read  over  by  himself  the  whole  book  (of 
Genesis)  to  the  end,  reading  each  chapter  twice  over  together ;  the 
scholars  not  reading  at  all,  but  only  listening,  looking  on  and  follow- 
ing." When  the  book  is  gone  through  in  this  manner,  the  preceptor 
is  to  begin  again  at  the  beginning  and  read  each  chapter  once,  mak- 
ing the  scholar  read  it  over  immediately  after  him,  perhaps  four  lines 
at  a  time."  The  book  is  afterward  to  be  read  a  third  time,  by  the 
scholar  alone. 

After  this  Kromayer  proceeds  to  teach  German  grammar  to  those 
who  are  afterward  to  study  the  ancient  languages.  "  When  any  espe- 
cially fine  intellects  are  found,"  he  writes,  "such  as  the  teacher  recog- 
nizes as  fit  for  study,  and  to  be  afterward  put  forward  into  other 
schools,  after  they  have  learned  to  read  fluently,  they  are  to  be  put 
into  the  German  grammar,  and  thereby  a  good  introduction  made  for 
them  to  the  Latin  grammar. 

"  The  preceptor  is  to  place  these  scholars  together,  and  to  teach 
them  the  German  grammar;  a  chapter,  or  some  other  convenient 
part,  at  a  time.  The  teacher  is  first  to  read  it  clearly,  and  explain  it 
a  little,  where  necessary,  in  other  words ;  secondly,  the  scholars  are 

*"  Praxis,"  162.  "Alphabf to  absolute  progreditur  ad  syllabas.  Quo facto  statim  ad  Auto- 
rem,  qui  in  lingua  latina  est  Terentius,  fit  transits."  Nothing  is  said  by  the  Ratichians 
about  teaching  German ;  but  we  have  seen  that  in  Ration's  school  at  KBthen,  Ihe  three  lower 
classes  were  German,  and  that  Latin  was  first  begun  in  the  fourth. 


326  WOLFGANG  RATICH. 

to  read  it  over  after  him,  once,  or  ten  times,  if  necessary ;  thirdly,  as 
it  has  been  well  enough  read,  the  pupil  is  to  take  up  the  first  book  of 
Moses,  which  he  knows  already  ;  and  the  teacher  is  to  show  him  ihe 
applications  of  that  part  of  the  grammar  which  was  read,  in  the  first 
chapter,  in  five,  six,  or  even  ten  examples,  reading  the  chapter  until 
he  comes  to  a  point  which  is  an  instance  of  the  rule  in  question. 
Here  he  pauses  a  little,  and  shows  how  the  example  agrees  with  the 
rule  or  precept  in  the  grammar.  As,  for  instance ;  if  he  is  speaking 
of  uninflected  words ;  he  will  find  an  example  of  them  in  the  very 
beginning  of  the  first  book  of  Moses,  as  he  will  also  almost  anywhere. 
"  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,"  &c. 
"In"  is  a  preposition.  "And  the  earth  was  without  form  and  void. 
"And"  is  a  conjunction,  &c.  Again ;  if  he  is  speaking  of  nouns  and 
verbs,*  "Beginning"  is  a  substantive  noun,  of  the  masculine  gender, 
singular  number,  &c.  "Created"  is  an  active  verb,  third  person,  im- 
perfect, &c.  He  may  then  conjugate  it  to  the  third  person  singular, 
where  he  will  show  that  this  is  the  person  used  in  the  book,  at  that 
place.  He  is  to  go  on  with  such  applications,  not  only  in  the  first 
book  of  Genesis,  but  through  the  remaining  chapters. 

This  method  of  application  depends  chiefly  upon  this  point :  that 
the  teacher  only  is  to  read,  while  the  pupils  pick  out  the  examples  ; 
finding  them  themselves  in  the  book,  when  any  form  in  the  declen- 
sion or  conjugation  is  required  ;  so  that  it  is  necessary  to  keep  a  sharp 
eye  upon  the  grammar,  and  to  listen  very  quietly  to  the  teacher'! 
reading.  When  one  part  of  the  grammar  has  thus  been  applied,  th< 
teacher  is  to  go  on  to  another ;  read  it,  make  the  scholars  read  i;. 
after  him,  look  out  the  examples  in  Genesis,  show  and  apply  them. 

And  in  all  this  matter  of  the  German  grammar,  it  is  to  be  ob 
served,  that  it  is  not  intended  that  an  entirely  complete  knowledg«, 
of  each  part  of  the  grammar,  shall  be  required  of  the  boys  as  the} 
go  over  it.  Indeed,  this  could  not  be  required  either  of  the  teache; 
or  the  pupils. 

We  know  very  well,  it  is  true,  that  improvement  in  grammar  mus* 
consist  of  an  always  increasing  amount  of  observation  and  practice* 
but  it  is  enough  for  the  boys  to  get  a  reasonable  knowledge  in  their 
own  mother  tongue  of  the  secundas  notiones, — the  grammatical 
terms — such  as  number,  case,  declension,  conjugation,  noun,  verb,  <fec., 
before  they  take  up  Latin,  since  they  will  then  have  more  than  half 
learned  the  meaning  of  these  terms  in  their  own  language.  It  would 
be  much  easier  for  one  who  had  already  learned  the  grammar  of 
Latin,  to  understand  the  parts  of  speech,  number,  tense,  person,  verb, 

*  Ratich  uses  German  words  for  all  the  grammatical  technicals.    Niemeyer,  D.  39. 


WOLFGANG  RATICH  327 

noun.  &c.,  in  Hebrew,  or  any  other  foreign  language,  than  for  one  who 
should  first  learn  his  grammar  in  the  Hebrew,  or  other  entirely  un- 
known language,  without  knowing  what  grammar  really  is,  nor  what 
are  the  true  notions  and  actualities  of  nouns,  verbs,  number,  tense, 
mode,  and  case.  It  can  be  easily  understood  that  the  case  is  the 
same  with  scholars  who  are  set  at  once  to  learn  Latin  grammar  in  the 
unknown  Latin  language,  before  they  really  know  what  the  ideas  of 
grammar  itself  and  its  different  notions  are. 

It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  it  is  not  to  be  expected 
that  one  grammar  should  be  of  assistance  in  learning  another,  by 
having  all  the  words  in  one  of  exactly  the  same  gender,  conjugation, 
and  declension,  as  they  are  in  another.  This  is  impossible  in  most 
languages.  It  is  sufficient,  that,  in  general,  one  grammar* helps  in 
learning  another;  that,  in  general,  if  I  have  already  become  acquaint- 
ed with  the  notions  and  characters  of  gender,  case,  declension,  conju- 
gation, &c.,  they  would  no  longer  be  so  difficult  and  entirely  un- 
known, when  they  should  come  up  again  in  the  Latin,  or  some  other 
grammar,  but  much  easier.  And  this  opinion,  is,  by  no  means,  of 
little  importance.  It  is  upon  it  that  we  base  our  principle  that  the 
German  grammar  should  be  learned  before  the  Latin." 

Ration's  directions  for  teaching  Latin,  agree,  throughout,  with  those 
of  Kromayer,  in  whose  own  words  I  have  given  them.* 

"The  Latin  grammar  should  not  be  learned  before  the  author,  but 
after,  and  in  the  author.  The  books  which  we  use  in  the  Latin  class, 
are,  accordingly,  these :  1.  The  author,  as,  for  instance,  Terentius, 
whom  we  have  had  printed  for  this  special  purpose.  2.  The  Latin 
grammar,  which  we  have  also  had  arranged  expressly  for  this  purpose. 
3.  The  Latin  evangelists.  Item,  the  Latin  catechism,  and  the  Theo- 
logical Commonplaces ;  and,  moreover,  for  the  higher  classes,  the 
other  Latin  authors,  as  Cicero,  Virgilius,  &c. 

Terentius,  with  whom  we  begin,  should  be  first  understood,  as  to 
his  substance  and  meaning,  as  far  as  possible,  in  German. 

For  just  as  a  man  can  learn  Hebrew,  for  example,  in  the  first  book 
of  Moses,  which  he  already  understands  in  German,  much  more  easily 
than  in  one  of  the  difficult  Prophets,  which  is  in  great  part  unknown, 
or  than  in  an  entirely  unknown  Rabbinical  book ;  in  like  manner  is 
it  certain  that  the  scholar  will  learn  the  Latin  language  also  much 
more  easily,  if  he  is  already  acquainted  with  the  sense  and  manner 
of  his  author,  as,  Terence,  for  example,  in  German,  than  if  he  should 

*  1  purposely  give  the  full  original,  instead  of  extracts;  as  its  diffuse  form  entirely  coin- 
cides with  its  wearisome  contents,  and  will  give  the  reader  a  just  idea  of  the  method  of  in 
struction  of  Ratich,  and  his  followers,  and  a  lively  sympathy  with  teachers  and  scholar* 
under  it. 


328  WOLFGANG  RATICH. 

have  no  knowledge,  whatever,  of  it.  It  is  much  to  be  wished,  that 
some  one  would  print  a  close  translation  of  Terence,  in  good  German  ;* 
for  then  each  boy  might  be  made  to  read  over  each  corned}7  twice  or 
thrice,  before  taking  it  up  in  the  Latin. 

In  the  meanwhile,  however,  the  preceptor  must  make  up  for  the 
deficiency  by  his  own  industry.  Before  each  comedy  he  must  give 
the  whole  substance  of  it,  before  each  act  its  whole  contents,  and  be- 
fore each  scene  the  full  meaning,  in  German, , orally,  very  clearly  and 
intelligibly,  once  or  twice,  or  must  make  them  say  them  over  after 
him,  just  as  if  they  had  a  German  Terence  in  their  hands. 

After  this  he  is  to  begin  to  translate  the  Latin  de  verbo  ad  verbum  ; 
taking  perhaps  three  pages  at  once,  and  translating  it  word  for  word, 
twice  at  one  lesson.  The  signification  must  be  given  most  strictly 
after  the  letter  of  that  radical  meaning  of  the  word,  as  far  as  possi- 
ble, which  is  in  use,  whether  it  agrees  with  the  sense  or  not.  As  for 
example  in  the  prologue  to  the  Andriae :  Poeta  the  poet,  cum  when, 
primum  first,  animum  the  mind,  ad  to,  scribendum  writing,  adpulit 
he  has  applied,  id  it,  sibi  to  himself,  negotii  of  business,  credidit  he 
believed,  solum  alone,  dari  to  be  given,  papula  to  the  people,  ut  in 
order  that,  placerent  they  might  be  pleased,  quas  which,  fecisset  he 
had  madfyfabulas  the  narratives,  etc.  And  the  exposition  must  not 
vary,  but  each  word  must  be  always  translated  alike,  as  often  as  it 
appears,  throughout  the  book. 

He  must  read  each  portion  twice  at  a  lesson,  immediately  over,  and 
must  say  not  a  word  between ;  and  the  boys  are  to  remain  entirely 
still,  and  only  to  listen  and  follow  in  the  book.  Thus  the  preceptor 
is  to  go  from  lesson  to  lesson,  letting  no  one  recite,  but  translating 

*  Gervinus  (History  of  poetical  national  literature,  3,  76)  says :  "  People  could  not  be  sat- 
isfied with  translating  Terence.  In  1620.  the  Society  for  usefulness,  (fruchtbringendf.  Gcs- 
eflschaft.')  published  the  whole  of  Terence,  at  Kothen,  in  German  and  Latin.  The  whole  of  it 
was  also  translated  in  1620,  by  Michael  Meister  and  at  Halle,  in  1624,  by  David  Hoschel  and 
Math.  Schenk,  in  1626  anonymously,  (published  at  Weimar,  by  Joh.  Miechner,)  and  in  1627 
by  Johann  Rhenius  ;  which  last  translation  passed  through  two  editions  in  the  17th  century." 
All  these  translations  ought  to  be  attributed  to  Ration's  method.  The  first  certainly  was  ; 
for  its  title  is,  "  Publii  Terentii  six  comedies.  For  teaching.  Kothen  1620."  (Niemeyer  C. 
22.)  The  Society  for  usefulness,  which  edited  this  translation,  was  also  established  by  Princt 
Ludwig  von  Anhalt,  Ratich's  protector.  David  Hoschel,  a  co-author  of  the  translation  of 
1624.  was  rector  of  St.  Anne's  schools  at  Augsbursr.  He  was  sent,  with  two  others,  in  1614,  to 
Ratich  to  Frankfort-on-the-Maine,  to  become  acquainted  with  his  method  They  reported 
that  Ratich  fcad  so  far  explained  his  invention  to  them,  that  they  were  satisfied  and  pleased 
wiffl  it.  He  was,  in  consequence,  invited  to  Augsburg,  to  reform  the  Gymnasium  there.  1 
discovered  in  a  certain  catalogue  of  books,  "  Terentii  six  comedies,  translated  into  the  Ger- 
man tongue.  Weimar,  1626:"  which  is,  perhaps,  the  translation  mentioned  by  Gervinue,  and 
by  Kromayer  too.  Johann  Rhenius  published,  in  1626,  three  pedagogical  treatises,  which  he 
had  received  from  his  excellent  friend  (optimi  amid)  Ratich.  As  Terence  occupied  a  promi 
nent^ilace  in  these  treatises,  it  was,  perhaps,  by  this  means,  that  Rhenius  was  influenced 
dur  g  the  next  year,  1627,  to  print  a  translation  of  it. 


WOLFGANG  RATICH.  329 

the  whole  of  Terentius  alone,  each  portion  twice.  This  will  occupy 
a  few  weeks. 

After  this  the  preceptor  is  to  begin  Terentius  again  from  the  be- 
ginning, as  before ;  translating  word  for  word ;  but  so  that  the  pre- 
ceptor shall  translate  his  three  pages  only  for  the  first  time,  during  the 
first  half  lesson  ;  and  for  the  other  time,  immediately  after,  for  the 
second  half  of  the  lesson,  the  boys  are  to  translate,  always  in  their  order, 
each  four  or  five  lines ;  and  when  they  fail,  he  must  immediately  help 
them ;  and  the  others  are  to  listen  earnestly  in  the  meanwhile,  and 
attend. 

When,  in  this  way,  Terentius  had  again  been  brought  to  an  end,  he 
must  begin  at  the  beginning  a  third  time ;  and  now  the  boys  alone 
are  to  translate  it,  each  portion  twice  at  a  lesson ;  and  the  preceptor 
is  only  to  listen,  and  to  assist  them  when  they  fail. 

When  they  have  thus  gone  through  their  author  for  the  third  time, 
the  preceptor  is  to  cause  them  to  take  the  grammar  in  their  hands, 
and  here  also,  he  must  go  over  all  the  ground  before  them,  as  follows  : 

lie  is  to  explain  to  them  the  substance  of  the  whole  grammar : 
how  it  speaks  of  the  treatment  of  single  words  according  to  the  ety- 
mology, and  then  of  the  right  connection  of  them,  according  to  the 
rules  of  syntax,  so  that  they  shall  become  complete  propositions; 
and  he  is  to  remind  them  of  what  they  have  already  learned  in  the 
German  grammar,  and  to  encourage  them  by  showing  that  it  will  be 
almost  all  of  it  easy,  and  the  work  trifling  and  not  hard,  if  they  will 
only  silently  and  earnestly  listen  and  observe. 

After  this  he  is  to  take  a  certain  chapter  or  part,  read  the  rule  or 
definition,  and  immediately  repeat  the  interpretation  of  it  according 
to  the  sense,  that  is,  the  right  German  meaning,  always  reminding 
them  of  what  they  have  been  over  in  the  German  grammar.  Thus 
he  is  to  go  on  to  the  end  of  the  part  he  has  taken,  and  to  repeat  his 
explanation  a  second  time ;  and  for  the  third  time  he  is  to  read  the 
Latin  contents  of  the  same  part,  but  without  the  German,  and  is  to 
let  the  boys  explain  it  after  him  perhaps  three  or  four  times,  each  a 
certain  part ;  and  after  that,  at  the  same  lesson,  they  should  read  the 
portion  over  ten  times  or  more,  clearly  and  distinctly,  but  without 
translation. 

Afterward,  in  this  or  the  following  lesson,  the  preceptor  must  ap- 
ply this  lesson  without  the  grammar,  in  the  author,  Terentius,  in  this 
way ;  he  is  to  begin  Terentius  again  at  the  beginning  for  the  fourth 
time,  and  now  he  is  to  make  the  boys  all  the  time  keep  both  books 
in  their  hands,  for  the  application ;  namely,  Terentius  and  the  gram- 
mar. Then  the  preceptor  is  to  translate  again,  word  for  word,  until 


330 


WOLFGANG  RATICH. 


an  example  occurs  of  the  part  of  the  grammar  which  has  been  read, 
and  there  he  is  to  stop,  and  explain  how  this  is  an  example  of  the 
rule  which  has  been  studied,  and  to  repeat  the  translation  of  the 
Latin  words,  and  to  read  over  the  rule  or  precept,  and  immediately  to 
show  how  the  example  comes  under  it ;  and  the  boys  must  all  the 
time  point  out  with  their  fingers  the  examples  in  the  author,  as  he 
names  them,  and  immediately  afterward  turn  their  eyes  and  their 
fingers  to  the  grammar,  to  the  rule  which  has  been  explained  there 
as  that  under  which  the  example  comes. 

And  as  soon  as  the  preceptor  has  made  application  to  one  exam- 
ple, he  must  cause  the  boys  to  do  the  same  with  four  or  six  examples 
of  the  same  kind,  until  the  whole  class  has  often  enough  heard  and 
observed  what  are  such  examples  in  the  text,  how  they  stand  in  the 
author,  and  how  they  relate  to  the  grammar ;  and  until  they  well  un- 
derstand the  rule*by  means  of  such  examples.  If  the  preceptor  were 
to  proceed  at  once,  the  boys  would  not  so  soon  have  learned  to  pick 
out  the  examples  in  the  author,  and  before  they  had  learned  to  per- 
ceive and  understand  them,  the  preceptor  would  be  far  advanced  in 
the  lesson. 

But  when,  as  above  shown,  such  examples  have  been  picked  out 
five  or  six  times  by  the  boys,  then  the  preceptor  is  to  proceed  and 
select  further  examples  in  the  text.  But  he  must  always  translate 
along  in  the  author  until  another  example  occurs,  and  not  let  any 
precept  or  rule  pass  until  it  has  been  explained  by  some  twenty  ex- 
amples ;  and  must  make  the  boys  repeat  such  examples,  especially  at 
first,  and  until  they  have  become  a  little  used  to  the  application  in 
the  author,  some  four  or  six  times ;  and  when  they  have  become  used 
to  it,  at  least  two  or  three  times. 

And  in  this  course  of  study  it  is  not  necessary  to  say  how  far  the 
pupil  shall  go  at  a  lesson,  either  in  the  grammar  or  in  the  author ;  for 
when  one  lesson  is  not  sufficient,  another  may  be  taken  on  the  same. 

When  one  precept  has  been  explained  as  above,  and  applied  in  the 
author,  the  preceptor  is  to  go  on  in  the  grammar,  take  another  part 
of  it,  explain  it,  read  it,  cause  it  to  be  explained  after  him,  and  to  be 
applied  to  the  author. 

And  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  only  the  most  important  and  princi- 
pal rules  of  the  grammar  are,  for  the  most  part,  to  be  practiced ;  but 
if  there  are  some  special  portions  or  exception,  of  which  not  many 
instances  occur  in  the  author,  then  those  are  to  be  more  quickly 
passed  over,  and  the  drill  upon  them  is  to  be  postponed  until  after 
the  grammar  has  been  gone  through  with. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  also,  that  we  practice  triplicem  analysin  or 


WOLFGANG  RATICH  331 

applicationem ;  1,  particularein;  2,  universalem;  3,  universalissimam. 
In  the  particular  analysis,  we  make  application  only  to  examples 
which  come  under  the  single  precept  or  rule  of  the  grammar  which 
we  have  been  over,  and  pass  over  the  remaining  words  of  the  author 
with  only  a  translation.  But  in  the  universal  analysis,  which  follows 
after  the  pupils  have  gone  through  the  etymology  in  the  grammar 
by  portions,  we  make  applications  to  each  word,  as  they  stand  one 
after  another  in  the  author,  whether  it  be  vox  flexibilis  vel  inflexibiliti, 
conjunctio  vel  praepositio,  nomen  vel  verbum,  etc. 

In  like  manner  is  the  proceeding  to  be  with  the  syntax,  after  it  has 
been  gone  through  with  by  portions ;  that  is,  without  regard  to  the 
place  in  the  author  where  the  class  is,  all  instructions  are  to  be  used 
for  application  universaliter,  period  after  period,  as  they  stand  in  the 
author,  and  brought  under  their  rules  in  the  syntax ;  until  at  last 
comes  the  third  or  universalissimam  analysin,  in  which  all  the  gram- 
mar is  applied  at  once ;  first  etymology,  and  then  syntax  being  ap- 
plied to  each  period  of  the  author ;  until  the  whole  author  has  been 
analyzed  and  explained  grammatice. 

In  the  beginning  the  teacher  must  go  slowly,  and  make  the  appli- 
cation to  one  word  ten  or  twenty  times,  item  must  cause  each  rule  to 
be  recited  over  ten  times  or  more.  But  he  need  no  longer  go  so 
slowly,  and  may  proceed  more  rapidly,  when  he  sees  that  the  boys 
both  understand  the  principal  precepts,  and  from  their  repetition  of 
them  know  them  by  heart ;  then  it  is  enough  to  make  a  single  ap- 
plication with  one  word,  or  to  pass  it  over  entirely  and  only  to  have 
those  attended  to  and  carefully  recited,  which  occur  more  seldom,  or 
are  for  some  reason  more  difficult ;  at  the  last  the  preceptor  must 
push  on  with  speed,  only  attending  to  such  examples  as  have  some 
special  interest. 

And  especially  must  the  teacher  begin,  this  time,  when  any  par- 
ticular phrases  occur,  to  inflect  them  thoroughly  in  tenses  and  persons, 
although  not  always  in  their  regular  order ;  the  preceptor  first  re- 
peating such  phrases  over  to  the  boys,  several  times,  and  inflecting 
them,  and  causing  them  to  select  them  for  themselves  and'  inflect 
them,  when  they  have  heard  him  sufficiently. 

As  for  example,  Heaut.  1,1.  Ego  vesperi  domum  r  ever  tor,  I  re- 
turn home  at  evening ;  tu  vesperi  domum  reverteris,  thou  returnest 
home  at  evening ;  vos  vesperi  domum  revertimini,  ye  return  home  at 
evening ;  tu  vesperi  domum  revertebaris,  thou  didst  return  home  at 
evening;  nos  vesperi  domum  revertebamur,  we  returned  home  at 
evening;  illi  vesperi  domum  revertentur,  nos  vesperi  domum  rever- 
temur,  reversieramus,  etc. 


332  WOLFGANG  RATICH. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  only  the  more  important  points  in  the 
grammar  are  usually  to  be  studied ;  as,  in  etymology,  the  declen- 
sion, item  the  Genus  nominum*  item  the  Conjugatlones  verborum ; 
in  syntax,  barely  one  rule  more  than  ten:  as  1.  Adjectivum  et  Sub- 
stantivum,  etc.  2.  Substantivum  cum  substantivo.  3.  Dativos  ad- 
sciscunt,  etc.  4.  Ablativo  casu  efferuntur,  etc.  5.  Relativum  cum 
antecedente,  etc.  6.  Nominativus  praecedit,  etc.  7.  Activa  verba  om- 
nia.  8.  Ablativus  instrumenti,  etc.  9.  Quodlibet  verbum  admittit 
dativum,  etc.  10.  Infinitivi  adduntur,  etc.  \\.Accusativuspropr\us 
casus,  etc. ;  item  about  Praepositionibus. 

These  portions  are  chiefly  to  be  practiced ;  with  the  rest,  the  boys 
must  not  be  too  soon  troubled,  delayed  or  discouraged,  since  they 
can  learn  them  just  as  well  afterward,  when  they  have  come  to  the 
making  of  sentences,  when  they  can  well  and  quickly  learn  them  in 
small  portions  at  a  time,  thus  being  able  to  observe  for  themselves 
some  fructum  studii  grammatici,  not  without  pleasure  and  good 
hopes  for  the  future.  When  they  have  come  as  far  as  this,  then  the 
preceptor  may  take  up  the  remaining  more  difficult  parts,  bringing 
them  forward  as  supplementary,  and  explain  them  one  after  another, 
reading  them  over  often,  item  making  them  well  and  clearly  under- 
stood by  a  repeated  application  of  many  examples. 

When  the  grammar,  with  its  more  important  parts,  has  thus  been 
brought  to  an  end,  then  the  preceptor  is  to  take  up  the  author  once 
more  and  translate  him  according  to  the  sense,  each  scene  a  couple 
of  times,  and  then  to  go  on  immediately,  letting  the  boys  listen  only, 
until  he  observes  that  by  thus  listening  they  have  acquired  a  good 
habit  in  it ;  and  then  he  may  cause  them  to  translate  for  themselves, 
helping  them  at  once  when  they  fail. 

When  the  scholars  understand  the  author  ad  sensum,  then  may  fol- 
low exercises  in  style  ;  or,  as  they  are  called,  argument  making,  that  is  : 

The  preceptor  shall  first  for  some  four  weeks  himself  orally  make 
sentences  before  the  scholars,  all  in  imitation  of  Terentius,  from  the 
beginning  again;  shall  bid  the  boys  attend  closely,  and  repeat  to 
them  the  German  sentence,  ad  imitationem  mutatis  personis  item  tem- 
poribus,  etc.  Immediately  after  this  he  is  to  proceed  and  give  an- 
other, as  long  as  the  lesson  lasts,  and  the  boys  are  only  to  listen  and 
observe  the  imitation  in  Terentius.  Such  sentences  should  be  at 
first  only  a  line  long,  or  should  include  only  one  comma ;  but  may 
afterward  be  longer  and  longer,  of  two  or  three  commas,  etc.  At 
last  they  may  be  of  two  or  three  whole  periods ;  and  then  he  may 
carefully  explain  to  them  the  particulas  connexionem. 

*  These  are  the  beginnings  of  rules  from  the  syntax  of  Melancthon's  Latin  grammar. 


WOLFGANG  RATICH.  333 

When  this  oral  sentence-making  has  been  practiced  for  a  while, 
then  first,  and  not  before,  may  he  proceed  to  written  sentences,  and 
these  must  for  the  most  part,  especially  in  the  beginning,  for  a  suf- 
ficient time,  be  only  for  imitation.  And  when  the  sentence  has  been 
dictated  he  is  to  cause  one  or  another  scholar  to  read  it  aloud,  and  to 
observe  whether  they  have  all  heard  and  written  correctly,  and  made 
the  right  distinctions.  Afterward  comes  correction ;  and  this  to  be 
not  silent,  but  aloud ;  not  with  a  pen  .in  each  book,  (for  the  boys  can 
seldom  read  and  correctly  understand  such  blots.)  but  aloud.  And  it 
is  sufficient,  when  the  boys  are  many,  if  one  sentence  is  corrected  for 
some  four  of  them,  only  it  must  be  done  aloud,  that  the  others  may 
have  advantage  of  it. 

When  the  boys  have  come  so  far,  he  may  begin  to  talk  Latin  with 
them  ;  and  they  may  be  put  forward  ex  classe  grammatical  Terenti- 
ana,  into  a  higher  school  or  class,  as  Ciceronianam,  Virgilianam,  etc." 

In  1573  appeared  a  school-plan*  for  all  the  Saxon  duchies,  forty- 
six  years  before  Kromayer's  School  System.  This  plan  was  in  many 
respects  diametrically  opposed  to  the  latter.  Grammar  was  put  first 
in  it,  learning  by  rote,  and  private  study  next,  etc.  It  is,  therefore, 
not  to  be  wondered  at,  that  Ration's  new  method  gave  great  offense  in 
Weimar,  so  that  Kromayer,  at  the  end  of  .his  report,  was  obliged  to 
add  that  this  new  organization  for  schools  did  not  contemplate  the 
destruction  of  religion.f  "Especially,"  he  continues,  "has  this  ex- 
cellent school  system  been  opposed  by  ill-disposed  or  ignorant  per- 
sons, as  if  there  was  concealed  behind  it  nothing  else  than  a  corrup- 
tion of  pure  learning,  and  apostacy  from  the  true  Lutheran  religion. 
Such  a  charge  is  entirely  baseless  and  false."  He  refers  in  addition, 
to  the  fact  that  "  in  our  schools  the  Book  of  Concordance  itself,  which 
makes  the  Lutherans  differ  from  the  Calvinists  even  more  than  from 
the  Papists,  is  used  continually,  in  German  and  Latin,  in  a  manual 
prepared  for  the  purpose." 

I  quote  so  much  from  Kromayer's  report  to  show  that  Ratich  and 
his  followers  had  already  gone  far  enough  in  the  road  of  Hamilton 
and  Jacotot,  and  had  even  pushed  the  method  to  caricature.  For  ex- 
ample, Terence,  according  to  Kromayer's  directions,  would  be  read 
three  times  in  German,  and  more  than  six  times  in  Latin.  The  Ger- 
man translation  had  to  be  as  literal  as  possible,  for  the  purpose ;  and 
if  this  were  so,  what  justification  had  they,  for  causing  such  matter 
to  be  repeatedly  read  by  the  young  ? 

•  Method  for  managing  the  trivial  schools  proposed  at  the  visitation  of  churches  and  schools 
under  the  dukedom  of  the  younger  princes  of  Saxony.    Jena,  1573 

t  Similar  complaints,  but  with  more  reason,  were  made  against  Rousseau,  Basedow,  etc., 
at  a  later  period. 


334  WOLFGANG  RATICH. 

From  the  explanations  of  Ratich  and  the  Ratichians,  of  the  method 
of  reading  Terence  with  the  boys,  I  shall  further  only  extract  a  couple 
of  strange  observations. 

The  teacher,  says*  Ratich,  must  first  read  his  author  very  slowly, 
and  syllable-wise,  and  the  scholars  are  to  follow  in  silence,  reading 
after  him  in  their  books.  The  scholars  are  not  to  read  the  lessons 
over  by  themselves.*  After  the  lesson,  say  the  Ratichians,f  the  books 
are  to  be  left  iii  school.  Only  the  more  advanced  scholars  are  to  be 
admitted  to  repetition.  "  The  understanding  acts  of  itself,  and  learns 
naturally,"  he  says  in  the  Articles,];  "  but  only  when  the  teacher  is 
present  so  that  he  may  teach  it  first.  If  the  pupil  is  himself  wise  and 
intelligent  enough  to  know  how  he  ought  to  learn  and  be  taught,  then 
lie  needs  no  teacher."  Yet  before  the  scholar  has  heard  any  thing  of 
Latin  grammar,  the  teacher  is  to  read  with  him  a  portion  every  day, 
and  thus  from  Monday  to  Friday,  to  go  over  a  space  which  is  to  be 
read  again  on  Saturday.  Thus  the  six  comedies  of  Terence  were  to 
be  read  within  six  weeks.§ 

We  shall  see  further  on  why  the  author  is  to  be  read  before  the 
grammar  is  studied. 

Having  thus  explained  one  instance  of  the  methods  of  instruction 
of  Ratich  and  his  followers,  I  proceed  to  the 
II.     GENERAL  PRINCIPLES 

Of  this  methodologist,  as  they  appear  in  the  "Articles"  and 
"Aphorisms,"  subjoined  to  the  "  Praxis." 

1.  "  Every  thing  in  its  order ;  or,  the  course  of  nature.||     Since  na- 
ture uses  a  peculiar  method,  proper  to  herself,  with  which  the  under- 
standing of  men  is  in  a  certain  connection,  regard  must  be  had  to  it, 
also,  in  the  art  of  teaching ;  for  all  unnatural  and  violent  or  forcible 
teaching  and  learning  is  harmful,  and  weakens  nature." 

But,  had  Ratich  and  his  school  fpund  the  true  order  of  nature  ? 
Had  they,  for  instance,  in  teaching  Latin  ?  Were  they  not  forced,  in 
discipline,  to  adopt  methods  of  compulsion  and  beating,  quite  opposed 
to  the  sacred  motto  of  "naturam  sequi?" 

2.  "Only  one  thing  at  a  time.^|~     Nothing  is  a  greater  hindrance  to 
the  understanding  than  to  undertake  to  learn  many  things  togethei 
and  at  once.     It  is  as  if  one  should  undertake  to  cook  pap,  fruit, 

*  Methodus,  145.    Msente  praeceptore  omnis  privata  rejwtitio  discenti  plane  interdicta  est. 

t  Praxis,  166.  t  Ib.  p.  199. 

§  Ib.  p.  164.  "Thus  a  comedy  will  be  finished  in  a  week,  at  one  act  a  day.  This  shows 
how  much  promptness  the  teacher  needs,  to  finish  a  whole  act  in  an  hour."  (Very  true  !)  * 

"  *  "until,  in  six  weeks,  all  Terence  will  have  been  read  and  explained.  And  up  to  this 
time  the  pupil  has  heard  nothing  of  Latin  grammar." 

I  Ib.  pp.  179,  176.  1Mb.  pp.  179.  175. 


WOLFGANG  RATICH.  335 

meat,  milk  and  fish,  in  the  same  kettle.  But  things  should  be  taken 
up  orderly,  one  after  another,  and  one  thoroughly  dealt  with  before 
proceeding  to  the  next.  In  each  language,  one  author  should  be 
studied  until  the  language  is  well  learned.  When  he  is  well  learned, 
and,  as  it  were,  well  swallowed  down,  others  may  be  read.  One 
should  undertake  nothing  new  until  that  which  preceded  it  has  been 
learned  thoroughly  and  sufficiently  for  all  purposes." 

Is  this  actually  according  to  the  "  course  of  nature  ?"  Is  it  natural, 
if  one  has  lived  eight  months  on  pap  or  on  fish  alone,  just  as  Katich's 
scholars  were  kept  at  Terence  eight  months,  and  more  too,  not  to  wish 
anything  else  to  eat  ?  Is  not  a  variety  of  reading  material  like  that 
in  the  valuable  reading  books  of  Jacobs,  much  more  agreeable  to  the 
"  course  of  nature  ?"  Just  as  we  do  not  eat  one  thing  altogether ; 
but,  for  example,  bread  with  meat ;  just  so  it  is  the  problem  of  the 
teacher,  not  to  lay  before  the  scholars  an  everlasting  and  wearisome 
monotony.  And,  as  skilful  cooks  endeavor  to  find  out  what  viands 
go  together,  so  as  to  obtain  at  once  a  good  flavor  and  easy  digestion, 
just  so  must  the  skilful  pedagogue,  even  within  the  same  term,  teach 
the  same  scholars  different  things,  such  as  may  serve  as  supplements 
to  each  other,  by  their  variety  may  keep  the  scholar  fresh  and  un- 
satisfied, and  at  the  same  time  may  healthily  nourish  his  mind.* 
And  the  rule,  "  one  should  undertake  nothing  new  until  that  which 
precedes  has  been  thoroughly  learned,"  needs  this  addition :  in  pro- 
portion to  the  measure  of  ability  of  each  scholar. 

3.  "  Each  thing  should  be  often  repeated.     It  is  incredible,  what 
may  be  accomplished  by  the  frequent  repetition  of  one  thing.     For 
this  reason  it  is  that  only  one  and  the  same  material  is  to  be  handled, 
in  all  lessons,  both  forenoon  and  afternoon.     For  what  is  often  re- 
peated, will  become  more  deeply  and  correctly  impressed  upon  the 
understanding.     But  if  one  goes  over  one  thing  once,  and  immedi- 
ately goes  on  to  another,  and  so  to  many  things,  one  after  another, 
none  of  them  will  be  learned  well,  and  the  understanding  will  be 
confused,  overstrained  and  weakened." 

This  is  like  the  previous  principle ;  and  like  it  suspicious,  if  moder- 
ation be  not  observed  in  the  practice  of  it. 

4.  "  Every  thing  first  in  the  mother  tongue.     For  the  scholar  must 
do  his  thinking  about  what  he  has  to  learn,  in  the  mother  tongue ; 
and  he  ought  not  to  have  any  further  trouble  about  the  language  of 
it."     "  There  is  always  this  advantage,  that  if  knowledge  useful  and 

•  A  contemporary  had  already  said,  "  variety  of  lessons  may  be  of  two  kinds :  one  con- 
fused, and  the  other  orderly ;  this  last  is  not  hurtful,  since  it  is  directed  to  a  single  knowl- 
edge." Grawerus,  12. 


336  WOLFGANG  RATICH. 

necessary  in  common  life,  were  put  into  German  and  learneu  m  it, 
every  one,  whatever  his  business,  could  acquire  a  much  better  knowl- 
edge of  it,  because  he  could  guide  himself  and  express  himself  better 
in  all  matters  connected  with  it.  How  important  this  would  be  in 
religion  and  government,  and  in  human  life  generally,  will  easily  be 
imagined,  if  we  reflect  what  a  miserable  condition  of  ignorance  and 
inexperience  is  most  usual." 

"After  the  mother  tongue,  then  the  other  languages."* 

The  importance  of  this  article  is  clear.  It  aims  at  the  restoration 
of  the  mother  tongue  to  its  proper  rights,  and  at  the  removal  of  the 
sharp  distinction  between  the  Latin  learned  and  the  unlatinized  laity, 
and  of  the  demand  that  the  latter  shall  be  educated,  and  that  the 
mother  tongue  be  the  vehicle  of  their  education. 

What  germs  of  good,  but,  from  after  abuses,  of  evil  too ! 

5.  "  Every  thing  without  compulsion."! 

a. -"Boys  can  not  be  whipped  into  learning  or  wishing  to  learn. 
By  compulsion  and  blows  youth  are  disgusted  with  their  studies, 
so  that  study  becomes  hateful  to  them.  Moreover,  this  is  contrary  to 
nature.  For  boys  are  accustomed  to  be  flogged  for  not  remembering 
what  lias  been  taught  them ;  but  if  you  had  taught  them  rightly  they 
would  have  remembered  it,  and  you  would  not  have  needed  the 
blows.  And  that  they  should  atone  for  your  errors,  because  you  did 
not  use  the  right  method  of  teaching,  is  too  great  an  injustice.  Also, 
the  human  understanding  is  so  made  that  it  must  have  pleasure  in 
learning  what  it  is  to  remember ;  and  this  pleasure  you  destroy  with 
your  anger  and  blows.  But  as  to  what  belongs  to  morals,  mores,  and 
virtue,  there  is  a  different  rule.  'Foolishness  is  bound  up  in  the 
heart  of  a  child,  but  the  rod  of  correction  will  drive  it  far  from  him,'  as 
Solomon  says. 

b.  The  pupil  should  not  be  frightened  at  the  teacher,  but  should 
hold  him  in  love  and  reverence.  This  follows  of  itself  from  the 
foregoing.  For  if  the  teacher  rightly  exercises  his  office,  it  will 
not  fail  but  that  the  boy  shall  take  up  a  love  for  him  and  for 
his  studies. 

JA11  the  work  comes  upon  the  teacher.  For  he  has  to  read  and 
explain,  and  in  the  mother  tongue  too ;  yet  this  is  much  easier  than 
the  work  formerly  usual  in  the  schools.  For  he  has  not  to  plague 
himself  with  hearing,  examining  and  whipping,  but  conducts  his 
lessons  in  a  decent  way,  and  is  sure  that  he  will  gather  fruit  from 
them  ;  for  this  can  not  fail  him  if  he  only  does  rightly  the  office  of 
teacher,  and  pursues  the  proper  method. 

*  Praxis,  p.  182.  t  P.  183.  J  P.  196. 


WOLFGANG  RATICH.  337 

*The  teacher  must  do  nothing-  but  teach.  To  maintain  discipline 
belongs  to  the  school  officials,  *  *  *  *  so  that  the  pupil  can 
not  contract  a  repugnance  to  his  teacher,  but  may  love  him  more  and 
more ;  which  has  much  efficiency  in  learning." 

These  doctrines  again  are  forerunners  of  the  later  pedagogy.  If 
the  children  learn  nothing,  the  teacher  must  take  all  the  blame ;  for 
according  to  Ratich's  method  they  must  make  progress,  without  any 
doubt  at  all ;  a  Mercury  can  be  carved  out  of  any  block.  If  the 
earlier  pedagogy  was  hard-hearted  and  Orbilian,  here  there  appeared 
a  tendency  diametrically  opposite ;  a  fear  of  losing  the  children's 
love,  even  by  the  conscientious  enforcement  of  justice.!  To  make  up 
for  this,  it  is  not  the  teacher,  but  the  school  officer,  who  is  to  ad- 
minister punishment — as  the  Jesuits  used  to  inflict  bodily  punishment 
not  by  a  Jesuit,  but  by  some  one  not  a  member  of  the  order. 

6.  "  Nothing  must  be  learned  by  rote.J  Reason :  such  is  the  in- 
dication of  nature ;  otherwise  violence  is  done  to  the  understanding ; 
and  accordingly,  experience  shows  us  that  any  one  who  applies  him- 
self much  to  learning  by  rote,  loses  much  in  understanding  and  intel- 
lectual keenness.  For  if  the  understanding  is  occupied  with  the  words, 
it  has  not,  room  rightly  to  consider  the  things.  It  is  unnecessary,  too, 
and  can  be  accomplished  by  better  means ;  that  is,  when  a  thing  has 
been  well  impressed  upon  the  mind  by  frequent  repetition,  the 
memory  of  it  will  follow  of  itself  without  any  pains."§ 

Here  is  an  indication  of  the  origin  and  tendency  of  the  method. 
Earlier  pedagogues  base  every  thing  upon  learning  by  rote,  without 
regard  to  the  understanding  of  what  they  learned ;  but  now  the  un- 
vlerstanding  is  to  be  substituted  for  the  memory.  Ratich's  school  had 
as  little  regard  as  many  of  the  later  pedagogues,  for  the  intimate 
connection  between  imagination  and  the  memory,  by  which  the 
former  grasps  the  images  which  the  latter  retains  and  either  purposely 
or  arbitrarily  reproduces.|| 

*  Praxis,  p.  200.  The  Praxis  recommends  the  same.  p.  167.  "All  should  be  done  with  ju- 
dicious words  and  a  countenance  pleasant,  yet  grave  ;  not  with  blows  and  harshness.  If  any 
case  demands  severe  discipline,  it  should  be  put  into  the  hands  of  the  school  authorities. 

t  We  have  observed  above  that  the  complaint  was  made  in  Kothen,  that  Ratich's  schools 
were  deficient  in  discipline. 

I  P.  185.  The  Praxis,  p.  169,  says,  "  Examine  your  scholars,  whether  they  are  ready  in  the 
conjugations  and  declensions,  but  always  from  the  book,  and  not  from  memory ;  neither 
must  the  pupil  be  allowed  to  recite  the  inflections  from  memory. "(!) 

§  "  For  the  real  memory  of  an  object  depends  immediately  upon  the  knowledge  of  it." 
Methodus,  146.  "  The  proceeding  should  be  from  the  intellect  to  the  memory  ;  and  never  the 
contrary."  Praxis,  164.  "  Nature  has  been  constrained  in  this;  that  the  boys  have  been 
made  to  learn  by  rote,  and  entirely  by  themselves,  without  the  aid  of  the  preceptor, 
what  they  do  not  understand."  Grawer,  29.  He  also  says,  "  The  localis  memoria  is  entirely 
forbidden ;  that  is.  remembering  any  thing  by  means  of  certain  figures  set  in  a  certain  order 
and  so  retained."  22  '  P  186- 


338  WOLFGANG  RAT1CH. 

Connected  with  this  rule  is  another  one,  that  the  children  are  to 
have  their  hours  of  recreation ;  indeed  that  no  two  lessons  are  to 
come  immediately  together.  Chiefly  because  "  this  method  of  teach- 
ing depends  upon  reading,  and  the  hearing  becomes  wearied  more 
easily  than  the  other  senses ;"  and  because  "  each  scholar  must  listen 
and  remain  silent."*  During  the  lesson  he  must  not  speak  nor  ask 
questions,  in  order  not  to  disturb  his  fellow  scholars,  and  because  the 
lesson  can  not  otherwise  be  finished  in  time.  If  he  has  any  thing  to 
ask,  he  must  ask  it  after  the  lesson. 

That  such  a  continued  silent  listening  to  reading  was  a  most  un- 
natural constraint  upon  the  boys,  is  indirectly  here  confessed  by  the 
Ratichians  themselves  in  recognizing  this  fatigue.  Comenius,  who 
gives  us  a  short  description  of'Ratich's  method,f  mentions,  that  if  th« 
scholars  are  made  to  observe  a  Pythagorean  silence,  the  teacher  mus 
labor  in  vain,  for  all  power  of  attention  is  destroyed  in  the  former. 

*7.  "Mutual  conformity  in  all  things.]; 

"In  all  languages,  arts,  and  sciences,  there  must  be  a  conformity, 
both  as  to  the  method  of  teaching,  books  used,  and  precepts  giver, 
as  far  as  possible.  The  German  grammar,  for  instance,  must  agre>} 
with  the  Hebrew  and  the  Greek,  as  far  as  the  idioms  of  the  languages 
will  permit.  For  this  is  a  valuable  help  to  the  understanding,  *  ** 
and  gives  perspicacity,  when  one  sees  how  one  language  agrees  with 
others  and  differs  from  them." 

This  points  toward  a  general  grammar,  by  teaching  that  ths 
grammar  of  each  language  is  to  be  divided  into  two  portions,  the 
universal  and  the  particular.  This  is  certainly  right  in  part.  In 
learning  a  new  language,  we  very  soon  distinguish  its  agreements  with, 
and  differences  from,  the  mother  tongue. 

8.  §  "  First  a  thing  by  itself,  and  afterward  the  explanation  of  the 
thing. 

No  rule  can  be  given  before  the  material  for  it — the  author  or  the 
language — has  been  given.  This  appears  entirely  absurd,  but  expe- 
rience shows  that  it  is  entirely  true.  For  what  can  one  understand 
in  any  language,  who  has  read  nothing  in  any  author  of  it,  though 
he  be  all  stuffed  full  of  rules  ?  He  must  at  last  come  to  this,  that 
either  in  one  author  or  in  many,  one  after  another,  and  with  frequent 
repetition,  he  learns  to  understand  the  rules  and  make  them  useful. 

*  P.  197.    "In  the  disciple  a  Pythagorean  silence."    P.  176. 

t  Opp.  did.  2,  80,  100.    "  This  maxim  imposes  upon  the  teacher  an  asinine,  useless,  vexa 
tious  labor."    "A  human  being  is  not  a  mere  passive  log  from  which  you  are  to  carve  out 
statue ;  it  is  a  living  figure,  forming,  reforming,  deforming  itself." 

IP  187.  5  P.  188,  etc. 


WOLFGANG   RATICH.  339 

What  need,  therefore,  had  he  to  plague  himself  in  vain  beforehand 
with  the  rules  ?  Rules  without  material  confuse  the  mind.  Let  any 
one  remember  for  himself  whether  all  his  life  long  he  has  found  in 
his  reading  all  the  examples  which  he  was  obliged  to  learn  with  great 
pains  in  the  grammar.  As,  for  instance,  the  patronymics  ;  how  they 
martyr  the  poor  boys,  and  yet  are  seldom  used ;  therefore  it  is  an 
absurd  thing  that  the  grammar  should  first  be  beaten  into  them  and 
that  they  should  learn  the  language  for  the  first  time  afterward. 
Get  your  corn  before  you  trouble  yourself  about  a  sack.  Get  money 
before  you  buy  a  purse  to  put  it  in.  Rules  are  not  of  use  for  a  pre- 
paration, nor  for  a  guide ;  but  for  the  fixation  of  what  has  been 
learned.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  other  uses  of  rules,  nobody 
can  remember  that  they  gave  him  any  help  at  the  beginning,  and 
prepared  him  to  acquire  the  language  more  rapidly.  Practice  and 
experience  teach  us  that  any  such  speculation  is  empty." 

"A  basis  of  material  must  have  been  laid  in  the  mind,  before  the 
rules  can  be  applied  to  it."  To  the  observation  that  in  the  grammar 
the  rules  are  furnished  with  examples,  Ratich  answers,  that,  notwith- 
standing, the  rules  are  useless ;  because  they  are  insufficiently  scraped 
together  out  of  the  most  various  authors,  and  are  uninteresting.  And 
in  the  "Articles"  he  says  :  "All  sorts  of  examples  come  together  from 
all  sorts  of  authors,  like  mixed  fodder  in  a  manger ;  but  no  such 
means,  with  no  connection  within  itself,  can  lay  a  good  foundation 
and  lead  into  the  peculiarities  of  a  language."* 

These  are  the  grounds  upon  which  Ratich  and  his  followers  require 
the  reading  of  some  select  author,  and  that  the  grammar  shall  be  de- 
veloped out  of  that  author.  At  the  first  it  may  seem  strange  that 
Ratich  should  cite  here  the  instance  of  geometry.  Oral  instruction, 
he  says,  would  be  of  little  use  in  this  study,  if  the  teacher  should  not 
display  before  his  scholars  some  actual  body  or  drawing  on  the  black- 
board, an  obtuse  or  acute  angle,  a  circle,  etc.  But  this  illustration 
will  be  found,  upon  nearer  examination,  quite  correct.  He  expresses 
himself  entirely  in  agreement  with  our  eighth  "Article,"  thus,  "  that  it  is 
unnatural  to  occupy  oneself  with  the  accidentals  of  the  thing  before  the 
thing  itself."f  This  principle  admits  of  a  wide  application  in  teaching, 
and  is  of  great  importance  and  truth,  if  it  is  not  pushed  to  caricature. 

9.  "Every  thing  by  experience,  and  investigation  of  parts."| 

The  Latin  aphorism  is  neater :  Per  inductionem  et  experimentum 
omnia.\\ 

*  p.  133. 

iEt  omnino,  accidzntem  rei  prius  quam  rem  ipsam  quaerere prorsus  absonum  et  absvrdum 
esse  videtur.    And  in  the  Praxis,  p.  175,  Ne  modus  rei  ante  rem. 

*  P-  194-  I  p.  173. 


340  WOLFGANG  RATICH. 

No  rule  or  idea  is  admissible  which  is  not  based  upon  new  inves- 
tigation and  founded  upon  good  proof,  whether  or  not  many,  or  all, 
have  written,  or  believed  so  or  so  about  it.  For  it  is  assured  cer- 
tainty which  is  needed,  and  this  can  by  no  means  be  founded  upon 
authority.  In  this  way  there  is  no  possibility  of  failure.*  No  au- 
thority is  admissible,  therefore,  unless  traced  to  its  original  reasons. 
Neither  has  established  prescription  any  validity ;  for  it  gives  no  cer- 
tainty. 

The  Latin  phrase,  "Per  inductionem  et  experimentum  omnia" 
shows  almost  conclusively  that  Bacon  had  had  an  influence  upon 
Ratich.  Whether  or  not  the  latter  was  in  England  when  Bacon's 
first  work  appeared,  "  induction  "  was  Bacon's  shibboleth.  Ratich's 
radicalism  appears  most  strongly  in  this ;  and  the  motto  of  his  school 
books,  "Vetustas  cessit,  ratio  vicit,"\  proves  the  same — as  if  vetustas 
and  ratio  were  opposite !  In  combating  the  prevailing  servile  regard 
for  antiquity,  however,  he  threw  away  the  good  with  the  bad.  It  is 
the  past  which  must  be  the  foundation  of  the  future. 

The  later  Methodians  became  infected  with  a  stupid  self-esteem 
and  undervaluation  of  the  ancients.  In  fact,  however,  the  ancients 
had  full  authority,  with  both  Ratich  and  the  Ratichians;  which  is 
shown  by  the  important  part  which  Terence  played  in  their  schemes. 

The  above  quoted  report  of  Jungius  and  Helwig  agrees  with  this 
statement.  Jungius  was  born  in  1587  at  Lubeck,  and  was  in  turn 
professor  of  philosophy,  mathematics,  and  medicine,  at  Giessen,  Ros- 
tock, and  Helmstadt;  and  died  in  1657,  at  Hamburg,  while  rector 
of  the  gymnasium  there,  and  professor  of  physics  and  logic.  Among 
his  numerous  writings  I  find  nothing  except  this  report,  of  a  peda 
gogical  character. 

With  Helwig  it  is  otherwise.  He  was  born  in  1581,  at  Sprendlin- 
gen,  south  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  and  studied  at  Marburg,  where 
he  took  the  degree  of  master  in  1599,  in  his  eighteenth  year.  In 
1605  he  was  established  at  Geissen,  and  was  appointed  professor  of 
theology  there  in  1610.  He  died  as  early  as  1617,  in  his  thirty-sixth 
year,  apparently  in  consequence  of  overwork.  Helwig  was  an  extra- 
ordinarily learned  man.  He  spoke  Hebrew  as  well  as  his  mother 
tongue  ;J  wrote  grammars  of  Greek,  Hebrew,  Chaldean,  and  Syrian : 

*  Non  igitur  auctoritas  des'ituta  rationibus  valeat,  neque  vetustas  quicquam  praescribal. 
Praxis,  178. 

\  The  same  motto  stands  before  his  universal  system  in  German  :  "  prescription  yields,  rea- 
son overcomes,  truth  is  recognized."  (Gewohnheit  verschwind,  Vernunfft  iiberwind,  Wahr- 
hp.il  platzftnd.) 

J  Buxtorf  wrote.  "  If  1  were  with  you,  Helwig,  I  would  lick  the  dust  off  your  feet."  Thu« 
says  Schuppius.  Helwig's  son-in-law. 


WOLFGANG  RATICH.  341 

a  Hebrew  and  Greek  school  lexicon,  and  many  other  works.  He  was 
considered  one  of  the  most  skillful  teachers  of  languages  of  his  day  ;* 
and  had  a  new  method  for  teaching  languages  easily,  which  brought 
upon  him  much  derision  and  enmity.  It  was  said  of  him  that  he 
"had  contrived  a  funnel  through  which  he  could  pour  learning  into 
the  heads  of  youth  as  they  pour  wine  into  a  cask  in  the  autumn."f 
Helwig's  report  upon  Ratich's  method  appeared  only  three  years 
before  his  death.  This  learned  man  had  adopted  Ratich's  views  with 
great  enthusiasm,  and  had  developed  them  with  remarkable  skill. 

I  shall  give  the  most  important  parts  of  this  report.  In  the  be- 
ginning he  remarks,  that  Ratich  has,  "  by  diligent  reflection  and  long 
practice,  discovered  a  valuable  method  by  which  good  arts  and  lan- 
guages can  be  taught  and  studied  more  easily,  quickly  and  correctly, 
than  has  been  usual  in  the  schools  ;  and  that  he  has  been  for  thirteen 
years  pursuing  this  Christian  purpose." 

According  to  Ratich's  method  it  is  possible,  "  if  the  proper  books 
are  provided  first,  as  well  for  the  old  as  well  as  the  young,  to  teach 
or  to  learn  any  language,  with  pleasure  and  love,  better  than  the 
mother  tongue,  at  most  in  a  year,  and,  with  industry,  in  half  a  year, 
in  three  or  four  hours  daily ."J 

"Ratich's  method  is  more  practicable  in  arts  and  sciences,  than  in 
language ;  since  arts  and  sciences  are,  by  their  nature,  consistent 
with  themselves,  while  the  languages,  on  the  contrary,  by  long  use, 
have  contracted  many  incorrectnesses." 

Helwig  seems  to  consider  any  departure  from  his  general  principles 
of  language  as  much  of  an  incorrectness  as  any  maimed  or  distorted 
Latin  word  introduced  into  German. 

We  will  now  consider,  continues  Helwig,  not  only  the  knowledge 
of  objects  of  instruction,  but  the  gift  of  teaching  likewise ;  but  not 
this  only,  however. 

"  For  nature,"  he  says,  "  does  much,  it  is  true ;  but  when  art  assists 
her,  her  work  as  much  more  certain  and  complete.  Therefore  it  is 
necessary  that  there  should  be  an  especial  art  to  which  any  one  who 
desires  to  teach  can  adhere,  so  that  he  shall  not  teach  by  mere  opin- 
ion and  guess,  nor  by  native  instinct  alone,  but  by  the  rules  of  his 

*  Bayle,  Helvicus. 

t  Schuppius,  "  on  schools,"  p.  129.  His  epitaph,  on  the  contrary,  calls  him, :'  Novae  didac- 
ttcae  autoret  informa.torfelicissimus." 

I  Grawer's  report,  (p.  21,)  says  that  Ratich's  method  does  not  dispense  with  labor,  but  that 
it  requires  less  than  heretofore.  He  says,  "  If  one,  in  going  from  Jena  to  Leipzig,  goes  to 
Weida,  then  to  Altenburg,  then  to  Weissenfels,  and  thence  to  Leipzig,  he  will  get  there.  But 
if  another  comes  to  him  and  says, '  I  will  show  you  a  surer  way,  that  is,  by  Naumberg  and 
Weissenfels  to  Leipzig,'  he  does  not  mean  that  the  traveler  can  go  to  Leipzig  without  labor, 
but  only  without  superfluous  and  unnecessary  labor." 


342  WOLFGANG  RATICH. 

art ;  just  as  he  who  would  speak  correctly,  by  the  rules  of  grammar  ; 
and  he  who  would  sing  correctly,  by  the  rules  of  singing."  This  art 
of  teaching  applies,  like  that  of  logic,  to  all  languages,  arts  and 
sciences  ;  and  is  such  a  universal  art  of  teaching  as  Ratich's.  Tt  dis- 
cusses among  other  things,  "  how  to  distinguish  among  minds  and 
gifts,  so  that  the  quicker  may  not  be  delayed,  and  that,  on  the  con- 
trary, those  who  are  by  nature  not  so  quick,  may  not  remain  behind ; 
how  and  in  what  order  to  arrange  the  exercises,  how  to  assist  the 
understanding,  how  to  strengthen  the  memory,  to  sharpen  the  intellect, 
without  violence  and  after  the  true  course  of  nature.  This  art  of 
teaching,  no  less  than  other  arts,  has  its  fixed  basis  and  certain  rules, 
founded  not  only  upon  the  nature  and  understanding,  the  memory  and 
the  whole  being  of  man,  but  also  upon  the  peculiarities  of  languages, 
arts,  and  sciences ;  and  it  admits  no  means  of  teaching  which  are  not 
deduced  from  sure  grounds,  and  founded  upon  proof." 

Helwig  argues  further  against  the  usual  unintelligent  learning  by 
rote,  and  translating  into  strange  languages ;  "  the  requiring  what 
has  not  been  taught ;  the  remembering  what  is  not  understood  ;  the 
practicing  what  has  not  been  learned."  Ratich  remedies  this,  relieves 
the  boys  from  their  misery,  and  puts  the  chief  labor  upon  the  teach- 
er, who,  however,  finds  it  easier  than  before,  "  since,  if  he  is  not  fully 
master  of  every  thing  connected  with  the  language  or  art  which  he 
teaches,  still,  while  he  is  teaching  it  to  others,  he  himself,  becomes 
ready,  prompt,  and  thorough  in  it."  Under  the  usual  teaching,  the 
result  is  uncertain,  and  every  thing  must  be  done  by  guess.  "  Most 
persons,"  he  says,  "  choke  themselves  upon  the  bitter  root,  even  to 
weariness,  before  they  can  get  the  least  taste  of  the  lovely  fruit ;  that 
is,  they  have  to  torment  and  plague  themselves,  before  they  can  see 
or  know  of  the  least  use  for  their  efforts." 

Helwig  proceeds  to  oppose  the  tyranny  of  the  Latin  ;  "  as  every  such 
language  directly  injures  the  knowledge  of  the  mother  tongue,  and  as 
all  arts  and  sciences  may  be  easily  and  with  advantage  learned  in  the 
German  language."  Men,  in  general,  have  no  need  of  Latin ;  "just 
as  if  Latin  were  the  only  measure  of  all  the  other  arts  and  sciences, 
and  the  only  means  of  attaining  them." 

Thus  the  new  method  leaves  to  the  languages,  arts,  and  sciences, 
their  natural  freedom.  For,"  continues  Helwig,  ';  he  who  has  abjured 
the  tyranny  of  the  Latin,  may,  according  to  his  preferences  or  his 
necessities,  learn  one  or  another  language,  and  use  it,  or  devote  -him- 
self entirely  to  one  single  art  or  science,  and  enrich  it  with  new  dis- 
coveries, as  the  Greeks,  Hebrews,  and  others  have  done ;  who  would 
never  have  done  so  much  for  posterity  if  they  had  been  obliged  tc 


WOLFGANG  RATICH.  343 

martyr  themselves  with  the  grammar  as  many  years  as  our  own 
youth."  If  the  monopolizing  Latin  is  removed,  Hebrew,  Greek,  and 
even  Ohaldee,  Syriac,  and  Arabic,  would  be  attended  to. 

The  mother  tongue,  in  particular,  would  not  be  neglected ;  as  it 
has  great  excellencies,  and  ought  to  be  correctly  and  systematically 
learned,  as  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans  learned  their  native 
tongues.  " Besides,"  says  Helwig,  "it  is  a  clear  truth  that  all  arts 
and  sciences,  logic,  ethics,  political  economy,  mensuration,  medi- 
cine, drawing,  weighing,  astronomy,  architecture,  fortification,  and  as 
many  more  as  there  are,  can  be  more  easily,  conveniently,  correctly, 
thoroughly,  and  successfully  learned  and  taught  in  the  German  lan- 
guage, than  in  the  Greek,  Latin,  or  Arabic." 

In  order  to  introduce  Ratich's  method,  grammars  and  compends 
must  be  prepared  according  to  it,  and  "  books  of  roots  and  words." 

In  conclusion,  Helwig  recommends  the  subject  to  princes  and  au- 
thorities, parents  and  teachers. 

I  can  scarcely  say  how  many  of  the  principles  of  the  modern 
Methodians,  and  of  their  views,  appear  in  this  report.  Polemics 
against  the  usual  method  of  instruction,  against  the  tyranny  of  Latin, 
against  mechanical  learning  by  rote,  and  neglect  of  the  understand- 
ing ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  the  promise  of  a  new,  easy,  brief  and 
certain  method  of  instruction,  by  whose  aid  both  scholar  and  teacher 
would  be  spared  fatigue  and  doubt,  which  made  but  little  requisition 
upon  the  teacher ;  the  bringing  forward  of  the  understanding,  and 
the  low  estimate  of  the  memory ;  the  equalizing  of  the  Greek,  He- 
brew, <fec.,  with  the  Latin ;  and  especially  the  requisition  that  the 
mother  tongue  should  be  reinstated  in  its  rights,  and,  still  more,  that 
it  should  be  learned  "  correctly  and  systematically." 

Grawer's  report  (of  Jena)  upon  Ratich,  is  chiefly  directed  against 
the  opponents  of  the  new  method.  Objections  had  been  heard,  just 
as  they  are  to-day,  if  any  thing  new  is  sought  to  be  introduced  in  the 
school  system.  He  says,  "  Do  you  ask,  has  nobody,  up  to  this  time, 
known  how  to  teach  youth  languages  correctly  ?  Did  our  forefathers 
know  nothing  about  it  ?  Is  the  art  now  for  the  first  time  discov- 
ered?"* Grawer  answers,  "is  it  true  that  the  method  of  instructing 
youth  in  languages,  is  so  incapable  of  improvement  ?  When  music 
has  risen  to  such  a  state  of  perfection,  within  the  last  eighty  years, 
from  so  small  a  beginning,  and  yet  have  our  forefathers  left  no  im- 
provements to  be  made  in  didactics  ?" 

These  questions  were,  however,  occasioned  by  Ratich's  too  violent 

Grawer,  58. 


344  WOLFGANG  RATICH. 

attacks  upon  the  accepted  method  of  teaching,  and  his  extravagant 
valuation  of  his  own. 

The  second  objection  was,  that  if  learning  should  be  taught  in  the 
German  language,  it  would  become  altogether  too  common,  so  that 
all  without  distinction,  would  be  learned,  and  the  rightful  learned 
men  would  fall  into  disrespect.  Learning,  answers  Grawer,  is  bound 
up  with  no  language,  although  there  is  a  belief,  that,  absolutely  no 
one  can  be  learned  unless  he  understands  Latin  and  Greek  ;  and  on 
the  contrary,  that  if  any  one  knows  Latin  and  Greek,  even  if  he  knows 
nothing  else  besides,  he  is  a  very  learned  man.*  We  have  heard 
something  of  the  same  kind  in  our  own  times. 

Meyfart's  report  praises  especially  Ratich's  orthodox  Lutheranism, 
and  says  that  he  omits  useless  studies,  and  substitutes  others.f 

Ratich's  life  and  labors  are,  in  many  respects,  diametrically  op- 
posed to  those  of  Johannes  Sturm.  The  latter  succeeded  in  every 
thing,  because  he  labored  in  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and,  therefore,  had 
the  support  of  the  age.  He  was  only  the  head  master  among  many 
who  pursued  the  same  design  with  him.  Upon  this  purpose  Sturm 
kept  his  eyes  fixed  clearly  and  steadily,  and  followed  it  resolutely  and 
earnestly.  On  the  contrary,  many  of  Ratich's  ideas  were  new  and 
unintelligible,  and  even  irritating  to  his  contemporaries.  He  had  sa- 
gacity enough  to  perceive  the  wants  of  the  systems  in  vogue,  but  not 
enough  to  remedy  them.  He  indicated  many  improvements,  but 
only  shadowed  them  forth  in  general  principles.  If  he  undertakes  to 
work  out  any  of  his  principles,  to  put  them  in  practice  in  the  school, 
he  shows  himself  entirely  confused  and  incompetent.  Trusting  in  his 
principles,  he  promised  what  his  practical  incapacity  would  not  per- 
mit him  to  perform ;  and  thus,  even  with  his  well-wishers,  he  ap- 
peared a  charlatan.  This  conflict  between  his  ideal  and  his  want  of 
skill  for  the  realization  of  it,  made  him  unsuccessful,  and  in  this  he  is 
a  characteristic  forerunner  of  the  later  Methodians,  especially  of  Pes- 
talozzi.  Sturm,  as  a  man  skillful  in  his  calling,  known  and  recognized 
by  his  age,  was,  on  the  contrary,  successful. 

Ratich's  works  are  in  Latin,  diffuse  to  tediousness,  and  pedantic  in 
structure  and  style.  Those  of  his  followers  are  sometimes  in  Ger- 
man, but  singularly  interlarded  with  Latin  words,  showing  that  they 
were  still  under  the  "  tyrannical  dominion"  of  that  language. 

*  Grawer,  63-65. 

1 1  omit  what  Meyfart  says  about  "  Instrumenta  inservientia  and  dirigentia,"  as  obscure. 
''  By  means  of  the  former,"  be  says,  "  all  can  be  learned  which  will  enable  one  to  attain  to  a 
knowledge  of  things  and  of  language  ;  and  to  the  power  of  effective  labor;  and  it  therefore 
consisted,  partly  in  knowing  and  partly  in  laboring."  This  sounds  very  much  like  Bacon 
As  Inntrumenta  dirigentia,  he  names,  eutactica.  epistemonica,  mnemonia,  glossodidactica. 
praxeodidactica,  noematicodidactica,  organicodidactica. 


WOLFGANG  RATICH.  345 

WORKS    OF    AND    RELATING    TO    RATICH. 

Ratich  wrote  many  books,  of  which  the  following  have  come  to  my  knowledge  : 

1.  Universal  Encyclopaedia  for  Ratich's  Didactics.  Kothen,  1619.  This  is 
apparently  the  same  with  the  Allunterweisung  nach  der  Lehrart  Ratichii, 
1619.  This  Encyclopaedia  contains  13  pages  of  almost  nothing  except  definitions 
of  thirty-two  literary  studies.  For  example:  "What  is  Encyclopaedia?  Ans 
It  is  the  course  of  rightly  instructing  the  human  mind  in  all  things  which  can  be 
known.  How  is  it  divided  ?  Ans.  Into  dogmatics  and  didactics.  What  is  dog- 
matics 1  Ans.  It  is  the  system  of  methodically  explaining  studies." 

At  the  end  is  given  the  following  synopsis  : 

Encyclopaedia  is  divided  into  two  parts  :  into 
Didactics,  of  and         Dogmatics,  which  is  either 

which  elsewhere,       , * N 

Illiberal,  (Technology.)  Liberal. 


Real.  Instrumental. 


Divine,  (theology.) 

Human. 

of  reason,  (logic.) 

of  speech, 
(rhetoric, 
poetry, 

orramniAr  ^ 

Jurisprudence, 
Medicine.         , 

Philosophy. 

Contemplative.  Active. 

(Metaphysics,  Physics,  Mathematics,)  (Ethics,  Politics,  Economics.) 


Pure.  Mixed. 

(Arithmetic,  Geometry.)  (Music,  Astronomy, 

Cosmography,  Optics.) 

2.  Universal  Grammar  for  Ratich's  didactics  :  Kotheu,  1619.     (This  appeared 
in  Latin,  German,  Italian  and  French.)     Like  the  Encyclopaedia,  it  is  in  cate- 
chetical form,  and  has  twenty  pages,  mostly  of  definitions.     For  example  :  "  What 
is  grammar  ?     Ans.     Grammar  is  the  system  instrumental  for  correct  speech. 
How  many  things  are  to  be  considered,  relating  to  correct  speech  1     Ans.     Two ; 
essence,  and  attribute.     What  is  the  essence  of  correct  speech  1     Ans.    «The  es- 
sence of  correct  speech  is  its  agreement  with  approved  authors,"  etc. 

To  this  catechism  is  added  a  tabulated  view  of  the  Latin  conjugations  and  de- 
clensions. Both  the  Encyclopaedia  and  the  Grammar  are  little  enough  adapted 
to  give  a  knowledge  of  Ratich's  method. 

3.  The  new  method  of  instruction  of  Ratich  and  the  Ratichians  :  by  Johannes 
Rhenius.     Leipsic,  1626.     This  collection  includes: 

1.  W.  Ratich's  general  introduction  to  the  method  of  learning  languages. 

2.  The  Praxis,  and  description  of  the  method,  (in  Latin,)  which  may  serve 

as  a  model  for  other  languages :  by  certain  Ratichians. 

3.  Principles  on  which  the  Ratichian  system  is  chiefly  founded. 

Rhenius  says,  in  his  preface,  that  he  received  these  three  treatises  from  the 
hand  of  his  friend  Ratich,  and  that  two  of  them  are  by  fellow-laborers  of  his  at 
Augsburg.  My  respected  friend  Herr  Rector  Vomel  of  Frankfort,  has  been  kind 
enough  to  communicate  them  to  me  ;  they  are  of  great  importance  for  understand- 
ing the  peculiarities  of  Ratich's  method.  I  have  quoted  from  all  of  them. 

Besides  the  manuals  under  the  above  heads  1  and  2,  Ratich  published  the  fol- 
lowing books,  mentioned  by  Jocher,  Schwarz  and  Massmann.  I  have  not  been 
able  to  obtain  them,  although  I  went  for  that  purpose  to  Kothen,  where  they 
appeared. 

New  Didactics.     1619. 

Rhetoric. 

Physics. 

Metaphysics. 

Compendium  of  Latin  Grammar. 

Compendium  of  Logic.     1621. 

Practice  in  Greek.     1620. 

Little  manual  for  beginners. 

To  each  of  these  titles  are  added  the  words  "  for  Ratich's  Didactics." 

4.  Memorial  presented  to  the  German  Electoral  Diet  of  the  Empire  at  Fran*- 


346  WOLFGANG  RATICH. 

fort,  27th  and  28th  May,  1612.    This  memorial  exists  in  manuscript  in  the  city 
archives  of  Frankfort. 

To  these  works  of  Ratich  are  to  be  added  the  following  works  expressing  the 
opinions  of  his  contemporaries: 

5.  Short  report  on  the  didactics,  or  art  of  teaching,  of  Wolfgang  Ratich.     In 
which  he  gives  directions  how  the  languages,  arta  and  sciences  may  be  learned 
more  easily,  quickly,  correctly,  certainly  and  completely,  than  has  heretofore  been 
the  case.     Written   and  published   by  Christopher  Helwig,  Doctor  of  Sacred 
Theology,  and  Joachim  Jung,  Philosopher  5  both  professors  at  Giessen.     Printed 
in  the  year  1614. 

This  report  I  received,  as  also  the  subsequent  works,  through  my  friend  Profes- 
sor Massmann,  who  reprinted  them  with  valuable  remarks,  in  part  1  of  vol  7, 
for  1827,  of  Schwarz's  Independent  Year-book  for  German  common  schools. 

6.  Report  on  the  didactics,  or  art  of  teaching,  of  Wolfgang  Ratich.     In  which 
he  gives  directions  how  youth  can  learn  languages  very  easily  and  quickly,  with- 
out special  constraint  or  wearisomeness.     Composed  and  written  by  request,  by 
several  professors  of  the  University  of  Jena,  in  which  also  various  idle  and  use- 
less questions  are  answered.     Jena,  1714. 

At  the  end  of  the  report  are  the  names  of  A.  Grawer,  Doctor  and  professor  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  Zacharias  Bendel,  Doctor  of  philosophy  and  medicine  and 
public  professor.  Balthasar  Gualtherus,  professor  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek 
languages.  M.  Michael  Wolfius,  public  professor  of  physics.  I  have  quoted 
from  Grawer. 

7.  Report  on  the  new  method,  as  it  has  been  put  in  practice  in  the  instruction 
of  youth   in   the  schools  of  the  principality  of  Weimar ;  both  in  the  German 
classes  and  in  the  classes  in  Latin  grammar.     Composed  by  Johannes  Kromayer, 
court  chaplain  there,  under  the  General  Superiutendency.     Weimar :  J.  Weid- 
ner,  1619. 

For  this  important  work  also  I  am  obliged  to  the  kindness  of  Herr  Professor 
Massmaun,  who  found  them  in  the  library  at  Munich. 

8.  Humble  relation.     On  the  system  of  instruction  of  Herr  Wolfgang  Ratich, 
put  into  the  hands  of  his  excellency  the  Chancellor  and   High  Councilor  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Sweden,  at  Gross-Sommerda,  March  15,  1634.     Signed,  at  the  con- 
clusion,* in   these   words:     Signed,   at  Erfurt,   March  10,  1634.     Hieronymus 
Bruckner,  Doctor  ;  Johannes  Matthaus  Meyfart ;  Stephanus  Ziegler,  Doctor  of 
Sacred  Theology. 

This  Relation,  which  was  addressed  to  the  Chancellor  Oxenstiern,  was  printed  by 
Herr  Director  Dr.  Niemeyer  in  his  examination  programme,  Halle,  1840  ;  where 
he  has  also  made  valuable  contributions  to  our  knowledge  of  Ratich.  The  original 
Relation  is  preserved  in  the  ducal  libary  at  Gotha.  Among  the  contributions 
just  referred  to,  is  an  abstract  of  one  of  Ratich's  works,  also  found  at  Gotha, 
with  the  title :  "  The  universal  system  of  a  Christian  school,  and  how  to  establish 
and  maintain  it,  in  the  true  and  natural  faith,  and  in  harmony  of  language,  out 
of  the  Holy  Divine  writings,  Nature  and  Language,  according  to  the  educational 

system  of  Ratich.  Written  by  .  Ratichii  symbolum,  Gewohnheit 

verschwind,  Vernunfft  uberwind,  Wahrheit  platz-find.  Kranichfeld,  1632." 

In  three  other  programmes  by  Dr.  Niemeyer,  of  the  years  1841,  1842  and 
1843,  his  interesting  communications  respecting  Ratich  are  continued.  I  have 
quoted  the  programme  of  1840  as  "  Niemeyer  A,"  the  second  as  "  Niemeyer 
B,"  the  third  as  "  Niemeyer  C,"  and  the  fourth  as  "  Niemeyer  D." 

In  programmes  A  and  D,  Dr.  Niemeyer  cites,  among  others,  the  following 
important  works  relative  to  Ratich : 

Brief  account  of  a  celebrated  teacher  of  the  last  century,  Wolfgang  Ratichius. 
By  J.  C.  Forster :  Halle.  Printed  by  Miehaelis,  1782. 

Didactic  accrued  interest;  or,  certain  meditations,  and  decrees  of  wise  men 
cited  under  each ;  whence  clearly  appears  what  is  to  be  thought  of  the  method 
commonly  called  the  Ratichian.  By  M.  J.  Blocius,  of  the  school  at  Magde- 
burg, 1621. 

Ordinance  of  the  honorable  Council  of  the  City  of  Magdeburg,  relative  to  the 
didactics  of  Herr  Wolfgang  Ratich.  Magdeburg,  1641. 

Hientzsch's  Weekly  Journal  of  the  common  schools.     Vol.  1 ,  Nos.  5  to  8. 

Ratich's  new  and  much  needed  method.     Halle,  1615. 

Vockerodt  Programme,  by  Evenius.     Gotha,  1724. 


JOHN  AMOS  COMENIU8. 

[Translated  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education,  from  the  German  of  Karl  von  Raumei  J 


JOHANN  AMOS  COMENIUS  was  born  at  Comnia*  in  Moravia,  in 
1592.  He  early  lost  his  parents,  and  his  guardians  so  neglected  him 
that  he  only  began  Latin  in  his  seventeenth  year.  He  says  this  neg- 
lect of  his  instruction,  by  which  he  suffered  so  much,  made  him  early 
sympathize  with  others  in  the  like  condition.f  He  afterward  studied 
in  different  places,  especially  at  Herborn  in  the  duchy  of  Nassau, 
where  Alsted  was  his  instructor.  This  man,  a  reformed  theologian,]; 
and  an  adherent  of  the  Synod  of  Dordrecht,  was  the  author  of  many 
theological,  philosophical,  and  pedagogical  works ;  he  was  also  a  Mil- 
lenarian,  and  must  have  had  an  influence  upon  Comenius  in  the  most 
'different  directions.§  Returning  to  his  native  country  in  1614,  Co- 
menius became  rector  of  the  school  at  Prerau,  and  in  1618  preached 
at  Fulneck,||  which,  since  1480,  had  been  the  chief  seat  of  the  Bohe- 
mian Brethren,  and  of  the  Waldenses  who  had  fled  to  them.  Here 
he  busied  himself  in  overseeing  the  schools,  and  working  upon  school 
books ;  but  lost  his  manuscripts  when  the  Spaniards  took  Fulneck,  in 
1621. 

In  1624  all  the  evangelical  preachers  in  the  Austrian  dominions 
received  an  order  to  leave  the  country,  by  which  Comenius  lost  his 
place.  He  then  remained  in  the  mountain  country  of  Bohemia  with 
Baron  Sadowski  von  Slaupna,  whose  children  a  certain  Stadianus  in- 
structed, for  whom  Comenius  wrote  a  brief  methodology.  When  af- 
terward the  decree  was  issued,  ordering  all  who  would  not  become 
Catholics  to  leave  the  country,  there  left  Bohemia  thirty  thousand 
families,  of  whom  five  hundred  were  of  noble  blood.^f  Comenius, 
with  his  scattered  flock,  departed  into  Poland.  Upon  the  range  of 
mountains  at  the  boundary,  he  paused,  to  look  once  more  back  to  Mo- 
ravia and  Bohemia,  fell,  with  his  brethren,  upon  his  knees,  and  prayed 
God,  with  many  tears,  that  he  would  not  suffer  his  word  to  be  entire- 
ly destroyed  out  of  those  countries,  but  would,  preserve  some  seed  of 
it  there. 

Comenius  says  that  he  places  the  beginning  of  his  didactical  studies 

*  Comnia  is  in  Long.  35°  30',  lat.  49°. 
t  Works  on  didactics,  1.  442. 

*  Born  1588 ;  died  1638,  while  Professor  of  theology  and  philosophy  at  Weissenberg  in 
Transylvania. 

§Thus,  Comenius  says  that  he  copied  his  arrangement  of  school  classes  from  Alsted. 
II  Didact.  works,  1,  3.    Prerau  is  south  from  Olmiitz ;  Fulneck  about  midway  between 
Tetchen  and  Olmiitz. 

*  Raumer,  Hist,  of  Eurooe,  3,  451. 


348  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

in  the  year  1627,*  when  he  wrote  the  methodology  above  mentioned  ; 
but  he  might  have  gone  back  much  further,  namely,  to  the  year  1614, 
in  which  appeared  the  report  of  the  professors  of  Jena  and  Giessen, 
upon  Ratich's  method.f  Under  the  influence  of  these  reports  he  had, 
while  pastor  in  Prerau,  worked  out  a  milder  method  of  teaching 
Latin,  and,  for  the  purpose,  had  written  a  short  grammar,  which  was 
printed  at  Prague  in  1616.  In  the  unhappy  year  1627,  he  had  re- 
flected up^n  the  means  of  helping  the  people,  at  the  return  of  better 
times,  by  the  erection  of  schools  in  which  instruction  should  be  given 
by  good  school  books  and  clearer  methods.  In  like  manner,  in  the 
years  of  the  French  servitude,  Fichte  cast  his  eye  upon  Pestalozzi, 
with  the  hope  that  at  Yverdun  a  new  generation  would  grow  up,  for 
a  future  time  of  freedom  in  Germany.  Comenius  settled  at  Lissa  in 
Bohemia,  where  he  taught  Latin,  and  in  the  year  1631  published  his 
Janua  linguarum  reserata^  a  new  method  of  teaching  languages, 
especially  Latin.  This  book  was  the  basis  of  his  fame.  He  himself; 
in  the  dedication  to  his  didactic  works,  says  of  it,  "  That  happened 
which  I  could  not  have  imagined  ;  namely,  that  this  childish  book, 
(puerile  istud  opusculum,)  was  received  with  universal  approbation 
by  the  learned  world.  This  was  shown  by  the  number  of  men,  of 
different  nations,  who  wished  me  heartily  success  with  my  new  dis- 
covery, and  by  the  number  of  translations  into  foreign  languages. 
For  not  only  was  the  book  translated  into  twelve  European  languages, 
since  I  have  myself  seen  these  translations, — that  is,  into  Latin,  Greek, 
Bohemian,  Polish,  German,  Swedish,  Dutch,  English,  French,  Span- 
ish, Italian,  and  Hungarian, — but  into  the  Asiatic  languages,  Arabic, 
Turkish,  and  Persian,  and  even  into  the  Mongolian,  which  is  under- 
stood by  all  the  East  Indies."§ 

In  Lissa  he  planned,  as  early  as  1629,  his  Didactica  magna  seu 
omnes  omnia  docendi  artificium.  The  gre'at  fame  which  his  Janua 
had  given  him,  brought  him  an  invitation  from  the  Swedish  govern- 
ment, in  1638,  to  undertake  the  reformation  of  their  schools.  He 
did  not  accept  it,  but  was  induced  by  it  to  translate  his  Didactica, 
which  had  been  written  in  German,  into  Latin.  Some  of  his  friends 
in  England,  to  whom  he  had  sent  an  extract  from  it,  caused  this  to 

*Didact.  works,  1,3. 

t  Besides  him,  Comenius  names  Campanella,  Bacon,  Rhenius.  Job.  Valentin  Andrea,  &c., 
whose  methods  he  had  studied.  He  repeatedly  applied  to  Ratich  in  vain  by  letter,  during 
the  year  ]629,  for  information  upon  his  method.  Works,  2,  282.  See  Ratich. 

-tDidact.  works,  1,  250. 

<$  "  Mogolicam  toti  orientali  Indiae  familiarem."  Bayle  mentions  the  authors  of  several 
of  these  translations.  The  orientalist  J.  Golius,  of  Leyden,  sent  the  Janua  to  his  brother,  P. 
Golius,  in  Aleppo,  and  the  latter  translated  it  into  Arabic.  It  pleased  the  Mohammedans  so 
much  that  they  caused  it  to  be  translated  into  Turkish,  Persian,  and  Mongolian.  (?)  J.  Go- 
lius related  this  to  Comenius  in  1642,  and  adds,  "Vides  Comeni  quam  felictter  f'bi  ./""*••- 
tua  ad  gentes  aperiat  Januam.  Opp.  did..  2.  268. 


JOHN  AMOS   COMENIUS.  349 

be  printed.  Upon  receiving  from  England  a  like  invitation,  to  un- 
dertake to  reform  their  schools,  he  journeyed  to  London  in  1641.* 
The  matter  was  introduced  into  parliament  ;  but  the  Irish  disturb- 
ances, and  the  outbreaking  of  the  civil  wars,  hindered  his  plans  so 
much  that  he  left  England,  and,  upon  an  invitation  from  Ludwig  de 
Geer,  went  to  Sweden  in  1642.  In  Stockholm  he  conversed  with 
Chancellor  Oxenstiern,  and  with  Johannes  Skyte,  chancellor  of  the 
university  of  Upsala.  '*  Oxenstiern,  the  Northern  nobleman,"  says 
Cornenius,  "  examined  me  more  severely  than  any  learned  man 
ever  did."f  "  I  observed,  in  rny  youth,"  said  the  chancellor,  "  that 
the  usual  method  of  teaching  was  too  harsh  ;  but  was  unable  to  dis- 
cern wherein  the  fault  lay.  When,  afterward,  my  king,  of  glorious 
memory,  sent  me  as  ambassador  to  Germany,  I  spoke  upon  this  sub- 
ject with  many  persons.  When  I  heard  that  Ratich  had  come  out 
with  a  new  method,  I  had  no  rest  until  I  had  seen  the  man  himself; 
but,  instead  of  a  conversation,  he  gave  me  a  thick  quarto  to  read.  I 
performed  this  tiresome  work,  and  after  I  had  read  the  whole  book 
through,  I  found  that  he  had  well  enough  explained  the  defects  of 
the  schools  ;  but  the  remedy  which  he  proposed  seemed  to  me  not 
adequate.  What  you  bring  forward  is  better  founded."  I  replied, 
"  that  in  this  direction  I  had  done  as  much  as  was  possible,  and  that 
now  I  must  go  forward  to  something  else."  To  this  Oxenstiern  an- 
swered ;  "  I  know  that  you  are  contemplating  a  greater  design,  for  I 
have  read  your  Prodromus  Pamophiae;  we  will  speak  of  that  to- 
morrow." u  The  next  day,"  relates  Comenius  further,  "  Oxenstiern 
began  to  speak  very  plainly  about  the  Prodromus,  asking,  to  begin 
with,  whether  it  would  bear  opposition  ?"  Comenius  answering  in 
the  affirmative,  he  began  to  attack  the  great  hopes  expressed  in  the 
Prodromus,  with  profound  political  reasoning,  urging,  among  othei 
things,  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  prophecy  much  more  of  unhappiness 
than  happiness,  toward  the  end  of  the  world.  Still,  he  recommend- 
ed Comenius  to  pursue  his  undertaking,  but  first  to  care  for  the  needs 
of  the  schools,  and  to  work  out  the  easier  way  to  learn  Latin,  which 
would  be  a  step  forward  in  the  greater  design  which  he  was  looking 
to.  It  seems  as  if  the  clear-headed,  practical  Oxenstiern  desired  to 
recall  Comenius  from  his  boundless  undertaking,  into  one  more  re- 
stricted,  but  for  that  reason  more  sure  of  success. 

The  Swedish  government  now  established  Comenius  in  Elbing,  to 
compose  a  work  upon  his  method.     With  this  arrangement  his  Eng- 

*  Opp.  did.  2.  introd.    Congregatum  interim  Parlamentum,  praesentiaque  nostra  cognita, 
jussit  nos  expectare. 

tlb.    Comp.  above,  under  W.  Ratich,  where  was  given  an  extract  from  this  conversation 


^  Raumer,  Hist, 


350  JOHN  AMOS    COMENIUS. 

lish  friends  were  not  pleased ;  they  wished  that  others  might  be  left 
to  busy  themselves  in  writing  for  boys,  but  that  he  should  labor  upon 
the  greater  work  of  the  Pansophia.  "Quo  moriture  ruis?  mino- 
raque  viribus  audes  ?"  they  wrote  to  him.  He  was  pleased  at  this 
call  to  him  to  return  into  the  "  royal  highway,'1*  and  sent  the  Eng- 
lish letters  to  Sweden,  in  sure  hopes  they  would  be  persuaded  by 
them  But  the  opposite  happened ;  for  he  was  urged  much  more 
on  the  part  of  the  Swedes,  to  first  finish  his  didactics.  Things  more 
excellent  are  to  be  preferred,  it  is  true,  they  said.  But  what  must  be 
done  first,  should  be  first  done.  And  men  do  not  proceed  from  the 
greater  to  the  less,  but  from  the  less  to  the  greater. 

So  Comenius  was  obliged,  whether  he  would  or  no,  to  return  to 
making  school  books.  After  laboring  four  years  he  returned  to  Swe- 
den in  1646.  Three  commissioners  examined  the  work,  and  declared 
it  proper  for  printing,  when  Comenius  should  have  put  the  last 
touches  to  it.  He  returned  to  Elbing  to  do  this,  and  thence,  in  1648, 
to  Lissa,  where,  in  the  same  year,  he  brought  out  his  work,  the  No- 
vissima  linguarum  methodus.\  It  was  in  this  year  that  the  peace  of 
Westphalia  put  an  end  to  the  frightful  thirty  years'  war.  In  allusion 
to  this,  Comenius  thus  addresses  himself  to  the  princes,  in  the  book : 
"  Ye  have  destroyed  many  things,  O  ye  mighty  ;  now  rebuild  many ! 
In  this  matter,  imitate  him  who  has  given  you  the  power  of  deter- 
mining the  fortunes  of  men  ;  of  him  who  destroys  that  he  may  build 
up  ;  who  roots  up  that  he  may  plant." 

In  1650,  upon  an  invitation  from  Prince  Ragozki,  he  went  to  Hun- 
gary and  Transylvania,  and  remained  there  four  years,  during  which 
time  he  organized  a  school  at  Patak.J  Here  Comenius  wrote,  among 
others,  his  second  celebrated  work,  the  Orbis  Pictus.  He  was  not, 
however,  able  to  finish  it  in  Hungary,  for  want  of  a  skillful  engraver 
on  copper.  For  such  a  one  he  carried  it  to  Michael  Endter,  the  book- 
seller at  Nuremberg,  but  the  engraving  delayed  the  publication  of 
the  book  for  three  years  more.  In  1657  Comenius  expressed  the 
hope§  that  it  would  appear  during  the  next  autumn.  With  what 
great  approbation  the  work  was  received  at  its  first  appearance  is 
shown,  by  the  fact  that  within  two  years,  in  1659,  Endter  had  pub- 
lished the  second  enlarged  edition. 

In  1654  Comenius  returned  to  Lissa,  where  he  remained  until 
1656,  in  which  year  the  Poles  burnt  the  city,  by  which  he  lost  his 

*  Gavisus  ego  bac  regiam  in  viam  revocations, 
t  Didact.  works,  2.    The  preface  was  written  at  Elbing,  1648. 

J  Patak,  i  e.,  river;  also  Saros  Patak  :  according  to  Comenius,  (Did.  works,  3, 101.)  from 
its  muddiness.    It  is  east  of  Bodrog,  in  long.  29°  east,  lat.  48°  north. 
§  Did.  works,  3,  830. 


JOHN  AMOS  COMENITTS.  351 

house,  his  books,  and  his  manuscripts,  the  labor  of  many  years.  He 
fled  into  Silesia,  thence  to  Brandenburg,  and  thence  to  Hamburg 
and  Amsterdam.  Here  he  remained  until  the  end  of  his  life,  chiefly 
supported  by  wealthy  merchants,  whose  children  he  instructed.  He 
printed  his  Opera  Didactica  at  Amsterdam,  in  1657,  at  the  expense 
of  Lorenzo  de  Geer,  son  of  Ludwig  de  Geer,  mentioned  above.  He 
died  Nov.  15th,  1671,  in  his  eightieth  year. 

According  to  my  promise,  I  have  recorded  especially  the  pedagog- 
ical labors  of  Comenius,  although  other  writers*  have  made  more 
prominent  other  facts  in  relation  to  this  remarkable  man,  particularly 
his  belief  in  several  false  prophets  of  the  times,  as  Drabicius,  Kotte- 
rus,  and  Poniatovia.  Under  the  title  Lux  in  tenebris,  Comenius,  in' 
1657,  published  their  prophecies,  which  were  chiefly  directed  against 
the  Pope  and  the  house  of  Austria.  The  Turks,  they  said,  would 
make  a  successful  invasion,  take  Vienna,  and  march  thence,  by  way 
of  Venice,  against  Rome,  as  against  the  new  Babylon,  and  would 
destroy  both  cities.  Afterward,  it  was  hoped,  Louis  XIV.,  upon  the 
destruction  of  the  house  of  Austria,  would  become  emperor,  for  the 
salvation  of  the  world.  The  eyes  of  the  prophets  were  also  turned 
to  Charles  Gustavus  of  Sweden,  Ragozki,  and  others;  and  they 
looked  for  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  a  thousand  years,  in  1672. 
Georg  Miiller  says  with  much  truth,  in  relation  to  Comenius'  Lux  in 
tenebris,  "  Is  he  so  much  to  be  blamed,  when  he  saw  truth  and  reli- 
gious freedom,  which  lay  so  near  his  heart,  everywhere  put  down  by 
violence,  for  having  insisted  eagerly  upon  better  hopes  in  the  future, 
and,  for  having  seen,  in  a  lovely  and  hopeful  dream,  the  time  of  sal- 
vation more  nearly  at  hand  than  it  was  in  the  order  of  the  providence 
of  God  ?"  Similar  hopes,  remarks  Miiller,  were  entertained  by  the 
most  intelligent  men  of  the  day. 

An  important  object,  besides  pedagogy  and  prophecy,  which  Co- 
menius pursued  with  much  eagerness,  was  the  vain  undertaking  of 
reconciling  the  various  Protestant  confessions. 

We  may  obtain  an  insight  into  the  great  piety  and  heartfelt  love 
of  this  valuable  man,  as  well  as  into  the  varied  direction  of  his  rest- 
less activity,  from  the  Confession,  which  he  wrote  in  his  seventy- 
seventh  year,  in  expectation  of  death ;  from  which  I  quote  the  ex- 
tract at  the  end  of  this  account. 

Comenius  left  many  pedagogical  works.f  The  Opera  Didactica 
alone  fills  more  than  a  thousand  folio  pages,  and  is  a  most  rich  treas- 
ure of  acute  and  profound  thoughts.  I  hope  I  may  be  able  to  give 
a  brief  character  of  the  pedagogy  of  this  distinguished  man,  as  dis- 

*  See  especially,  Bayle,  roc.  Comenius  t  See  the  list  of  them,  appendix  II 


352  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

played  in  his  writings,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  present  his  most  val- 
uable and  permanent  principles,  labors,  and  efforts,  unconfused  with 
his  more  transitory  and  accidental  ideas  and  endeavors. 
The  first  important  work  which  Comenius  wrote  was  his 

I.     DIDACTICA  MAGNA. 

He  was,  by  no  means,  one  of  those  pedagogues  who  take  up  one 
or  another  single  subject  of  instruction,  or  who  place  all  good  in  this 
or  that  method  of  teaching.  He  was,  in  the  very  best  sense  of  the 
word,  universal;  and,  notwithstanding  this  universality,  he  always 
strove  after  the  most  thorough  foundation.  Of  this  his  Didactica 
Magna,  the  earliest  and  profoundest  of  his  pedagogical  works,  is  a 
proof.  He  had  planned  it  as  early  as  1628,  in  his  thirty-sixth  year, 
in  the  full  power  of  his  manhood,  and  while  unbroken  by  the  mis- 
fortunes through  which  he  afterward  passed.  He  had  pedagogical 
experience,  while  his  views  were  not  narrowed  by  the  errors  which 
afterward  came  upon  him.  He  was  sailing  before  a  prosperous 
breeze,  and  gave  his  thoughts  free  course,  without  asking  whether 
they  were  practicable.  In  truth,  how  many  of  them  were  impracti- 
cable in  his  time,  which  have  since  been  well  realized ! 

"  Man,"  says  Comenius  in  the  Didactica,  "  lives  a  threefold  life ; 
vegetable,  animal,  and  intellectual  or  spiritual.  He  has  a  threefold 
home ;  the  mother's  womb,  earth,  and  heaven.  By  birth  he  has  the 
second  of  these,  and  by  death  and  resurrection,  the  third,  which  is  eter- 
nal. As  the  child  in  his  mother's  womb  is  prepared  for  his  earthly 
life,  so  is  the  soul,  with  the  help  of  the  body,  prepared,  in  the  earthly 
life,  for  eternity.  Happy  is  he  who  brings  into  the  world  from  his 
mother's  womb,  well  formed  limbs ;  a  thousand  times  happier  he, 
who  at  death  takes  a  well  trained  soul  from  it. 

Man  is  a  reasoning  creature,  and  the  lord  of  all  other  creatures ; 
the  image  of  God ;  and,  therefore,  was  his  mind,  in  the  beginning, 
directed  toward  knowledge,  virtue,  and  piety.  We  can  not  declare 
ourselves  incapable  of  these  three  by  reason  of  the  fall,  without 
shameful  ingratitude  to  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ,  through  which 
we  are  born  again.* 

As  made  in  the  image  of  the  all-knowing  God,  we  strive  after  wis- 
dom. The  capacity  of  our  minds  is  immeasurable. 

The  seeds  of  knowledge,  virtue  and  religion,  are  not  themselves, 
in  the  beginning,  given  to  men,  but  they  must  be  developed  by 
prayer,  study,  and  practice ;  by  action  does  man  first  arrive  at  true 
existence. 

*  Interiores  nostrae  vires  ex  lapsu  primaevo  infirmatae  sunt  sednon  extinctae.    Did.  66. 


JOHN  AMOS    COMEMUS.  353 

All  men  need  instruction.  Instruction  must  begin  early.  In 
youth  God  has  made  man  unfit  for  civil  and  other  duties,  that  he 
may  have  an  opportunity  for  learning. 

All  children,  rich  or  poor,  high  or  low,  boys  or  girls,  must  be  in- 
structed in  school ;  in  every  thing  God's  image  must  be  sought  to  be 
restored,  and  each  must  be  prepared  for  his  future  calling.  Each 
must  learn  every  thing;  each  man  is  a  microcosm.  Not  that  each 
should  learn  every  science,  but  that  all  should  be  so  instructed  that 
they  may  understand  the  basis,  relation  and  purpose,  of  all  the  most 
important  things  relating  to  what  they  are,  and  are  to  become ;  so 
much  is  necessary  for  all  who  are  to  be  actors,  and  not  mere  lookers 
on,  in  this  world.* 

We  have  no  schools  which  fulfill  their  purpose.  In  many  places 
they  are  entirely  wanting;  in  others  only  the  children  of  the  rich  are 
cared  for ;  the  methods  of  instruction  are  repulsive,  wearisome  and 
obscure ;  and  morals  are  entirely  neglected.  No  instruction  is  given 
about  real  things ;  fifteen  or  twenty  years  are  spent  upon  Latin,  and 
yet  nothing  is  accomplished  in  it.  "  The  best  years  of  my  own 
youth,"  says  Comenius,  "  were  wasted  in  useless  school  exercises. 
But  how  often  since  I  have  learned  to  know  better,  have  I  shed  tears 
at  the  remembrance  of  lost  hours ;  how  often  have  I  cried  out  in  my 
grief,  0  mihi  praeteritos  referat  si  Jupiter  annos  !  But  grief  is  vain, 
and  past  days  will  not  return.  Only  one  thing  remains,  only  one 
thing  is  possible  ;  to  leave  to  posterity  what  advice  I  can,  by  show- 
ing the  way  in  which  our  teachers  have  led  us  into  errors,  and  the 
method  of  remedying  those  errors.  May  I  do  this  in  the  name  and 
under  the  guidance  of  Him  who  alone  can  number  all  our  faults, 
and  make  our  crooked  things  straight." 

Instruction  will  usually  succeed,  if  the  method  follows  the  course 
of  nature.  Whatever  is  natural,  goes  forward  of  itself. 

Instruction  should  begin  in  early  youth,  when  the  mind  is  yet 
free ;  and  should  proceed  by  steps,  in  proportion  to  the  development 
of  the  powers. 

The  schools  are  wrong,  in  first  teaching  languages,  and  then  pro- 
ceeding to  other  things.  And  boys  are  kept  for  several  years  in 
studies  which  relate  to  languages,  and  only  then  are  they  put  to  real 
studies,  such  as  mathematics,  physics,  etc.  And  yet  the  thing  is  the 
substance,  and  the  word  the  accident ;  the  thing  is  the  body,  and  the 
word  the  clothing.  Things  and  words  should  be  studied  together, 
but  things  especially,  as  being  the  object  both  of  the  understanding 
and  of  language. 

OQ  *  Didact.  42-5. 


354  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

The  practice  is  wrong  of  making  grammar  the  beginning  of  instruc- 
tion in  language,  instead  of  beginning  with  an  author,  or  a  properly 
arranged  word-book ;  for  the  author  or  the  word-book  contain  the 
material  of  the  language,  and  the  form  should  be  afterward  added 
to  it  from  the  grammar. 

Examples  should  precede  abstract  rules ;  and  in  general,  matter 
should  precede  form,  everywhere.  Too  many  things  should  not  be 
studied  at  the  same  time,  but  one  after  another. 

The  scholar  should  be  introduced  into  a  sort  of  encyclopaedia  of 
what  he  is  learning,  which  should  be  gradually  developed  further  and 
further. 

Each  language,  science,  or  art,  should  be  first  taught  in  its  simplest 
rudiments,  then  more  fully,  with  rules  and  examples ;  and  afterward 
systematically,  with  the  addition  of  the  anomalies. 

Instruction  should  be  carefully  given  in  successive  classes,  so  that 
the  lower  class  may  have  completely  gone  over  the  ground  prepara- 
tory to  the  higher,  and  that  the  higher  shall,  on  the  other  hand,  con- 
firm what  was  learned  in  the  lower.  Nature  proceeds  by  continual 
progress,  but  yet  so  that  she  usually  does  not  give  up  any  thing  pre- 
ceding, at  beginning  something  new,  but  rather  continues  what  was 
begun  before,  increasing  it  and  carrying  it  to  completion.  Each  class 
should  be  finished  in  a  fixed  time. 

Youth  should  not  be  molested  at  first  with  controversies ;  no  one 
would  ever  be  established  in  the  truth,  if  his  first  instruction  should 
consist  in  discussion. 

It  is  not  good  for  a  boy  to  have  many  teachers,  since  they  would 
hardly  follow  the  same  method,  and  thus  they  would  confuse  him. 
All  studies  should  be  taught  in  a  natural,  uniform  method,  and  from 
books  of  a  uniform  character. 

Even  teachers  of  less  ability  will  be  enabled  by  such  books  to  in- 
struct well,  because  the  book  will  make  a  beginning  for  them. 

Friendly  and  loving  parents  and  teachers,  cheerful  school  rooms, 
play-grounds  near  the  school  houses,  and  systematic  and  natural  in 
struction,  must  all  contribute  to  the  success  of  teaching,  and  to  coun- 
teract the  usual  dislike  to  the  school. 

Most  teachers  sow  plants  instead  of  seeds  of  plants :  instead  of  pro- 
ceeding from  the  simplest,  principles,  they  introduce  the  scholar  at 
once  into  a  chaos  of  books  and  miscellaneous  studies. 

The  grammar  of  a  foreign  tongue,  for  example  the  Latin,  should  be 
adapted  to  the  mother  tongue  of  each  scholar ;  since  different  mother 
tongues  stand  in  different  relations  with  the  Latin. 

In  learning  a  foreign  tongue,  the  course  of  proceeding  should  be 


JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS.  355 

from  the  understanding  of  it  to  writing  it,  and  afterward  at  the 
right  time,  further,  to  speaking  it,  when  improvising  will  be  neces- 
sary. 

Things  near  at  hand  should  be  learned  first,  and  afterward  those 
lying  further  and  further  off. 

The  first  s  education  should  be  of  the  perceptions,  then  of  the 
memory,  then  of  the  understanding,  and  then  of  the  judgment.  For 
knowledge  begins  with  mental  perceptions,  which  are  fixed  in  the 
memory  by  the  apprehension ;  then  the  understanding,  by  inductions 
from  single  apprehensions,  forms  general  truths,  or  ideas ;  and  lastly, 
certain  knowledge  proceeds  from  the  operation  of  the  judgment  upon 
things  before  understanding. 

The  scholar  should  not  learn  by  rote  what  he  does  not  understand. 

He  should  learn  nothing  which  is  not  useful  for  one  or  another 
mode  of  life  ;*  he  is  preparing  himself  not  only  for  knowledge,  but 
also  for  virtue  and  piety. 

All  studies  must  be  as  much  as  possible  worked  into  one  whole, 
and  developed  from  one  root.  The  relation  of  cause  and  effect  must 
everywhere  be  shown.f 

We  learn,  not  only  in  order  to  understand,  but  also  to  express  and 
to  use  what  we  understand.];  As  much  as  any  one  understands  so 
much  ought  he  to  accustom  himself  to  express,  and  on  the  other  hand 
he  should  understand  whatever  he  says.  Speech  and  knowledge 
should  proceed  with  equal  steps. 

If  the  teacher  is  obliged  to  instruct  a  great  number  of  scholars,  he 
should  divide  his  class  into  decuriae,  and  should  set  over  each  a  de- 
curion,  to  assist  him. 

Reading  and  writing  should  be  learned  together. 

Youth  should  be  made  to  understand,  not  the  appearances  of  the 
things  which  make  impressions  upon  their  minds,  but  the  things 
themselves. 

Instruction  must  begin  with  actual  inspection,  not  with  verbal  des- 
cription of  things.  From  such  inspection  it  is  that  certain  knowl- 
edge comes.  What  is  actually  seen  remains  faster  in  the  memory 
than  description  or  enumeration,  a  hundred  times  as  often  repeated. 
For  this  reason,  pictures,  Biblical  scenes  for  example,  are  strongly  to 
be  recommended. 

The  eye  should  first  be  directed  to  an  object  in  its  totality,  and 

*  Ea  siquidem  discenda  sunt  in  terris,  monet  Hieronymus,  quorum  scientia  perseveret  in 
coelos,  88. 

t  Omnia  doceantur  per  causas,  95.    Scire  est  rem  per  causas  tenere.  118. 
;  Q.uae  quis  intelligere  docetur,  doceatur  simul  eloqui  et  operari.  sen  transferre  ad  usum, 
96.    This  reminds  us  of  Bacon 


356  JOHN  AMOS  COMEMUS. 

afterward  to  its  parts.  This  is  true  not  only  of  the  mental,  but  of 
the  bodily  vision. 

All  the  parts,  without  exception,  should  be  dealt  with,  and  their 
various  relations. 

The  distinctions  of  things  should  be  properly  brought  out.  Qui 
bene  distinguit,  bene  docet. 

Each  study  should  be  learned  by  practice ;  writing  by  writing, 
singing  by  singing,  etc.  The  master  must  first  perform  the  thing  be- 
fore the  scholar,  to  be  imitated  by  him,  without  tiresome  theoretical 
explanation.  For  man  is  animal  jxijULujrixov. 

In  practicing  any  thing,  a  beginning  must  be  made  with  the  first 
elements,  and  gradual  progress  must  follow  to  the  more  difficult  and 
intricate  parts  of  it.  First,  for  instance,  from  letters  to  syllables, 
words,  etc. 

Imitation  must,  in  the  beginning  be  strictly  conformed  to  the 
model ;  and  the  pupil  must,  only  by  degrees,  attain  to  freedom  and 
independence.  Thus,  at  first,  he  must  copy  very  carefully  the  copy 
set  by  the  writingmaster ;  and  only  after  long  practice  does  he  attain 
to  an  individual  hand  writing. 

Languages.  The  mother  tongue  should  be  learned  first,  then  the 
language  of  some  neighboring  nation,  and  only  then  Latin,  Greek, 
Hebrew,  etc. ;  and  always  one  at  a  time.  Several  should  not  be 
commenced  at  the  same  time,  for  this  would  confuse,  When  the 
scholar  is  well  acquainted  with  several  languages,  he  may  begin  to 
compare  them  by  the  lexicon  and  grammar. 

Any  language  is  learned  better  by  practice,  by  hearing  rapid  read- 
ing, writing  off,  etc.,  than  by  rules.  These  are  to  come  in  aid  to  the 
practice  and  to  give  it  certainty.  The  rules  of  language  should  be 
strictly  grammatical,  not  subtile  and  philosophical. 

At  learning  -a  new  language,  the  scholar's  attention  should  be 
directed  to  the  differences  between  its  grammar  and  the  grammar  of 
the  language  which  he  already  knows ;  and  should  not  be  obliged  to 
repeat  every  time  things  common  to  both. 

Only  the  mother  tongue  and  Latin  should  be  learned  with  entire 
completeness. 

Comenius  gives  earnest  directions  for  training  boys  to  right  wis- 
dom, moderation,  manliness  and  uprightness,  by  practice,  teaching, 
and  the  example  of  the  old.  The  tares  sown  by  Satan,  and  the  per- 
versions of  nature,  must  be  withstood  by  the  discipline  of  warning  and 
chastisement.*  The  children,  he  says,  must  be  taught  to  seek  God, 
to  be  obedient  to  him,  and  to  love  him  above  all  things ;  and  that 

*  Verbis  et  verberibus. 


JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS.  357 

from  an  early  age.*  This  will  not  be  so  difficult  to  teach  as  many 
think ;  they  may  not,  at  the  beginning,  understand  what  they  are  do- 
ing, but  the  understanding  of  it  will  come  afterward  of  itself.  Has 
God  commanded  that  we  shall  offer  him  all  firstlings,  and  shall  we 
not  offer  him  the  firstlings  of  our  thoughts,  our  speech,  our  efforts  and 
actions  ?  The  children  should  early  be  taught  that  not  the  present, 
but  everlasting  life,  is  the  object  of  our  being,  that  time  is  a  prepara- 
tion for  eternity ;  so  that  their  eyes  may  not  be  withdrawn  by  earthly 
cares  from  the  one  thing  needful.  Therefore,  must  they  from  their 
earliest  youth,  be  led  in  the  road  which  leads  to  God ;  in  the  reading 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  in  attendance  upon  divine  worship,  and  in 
doing  good.  "  Oh  may  God  give  them  grace,"  cries  Comenius,f  "  to 
find  the  way  which  shall  teach  them  well  how  to  cast  upon  God  all 
things  with  which  our  souls  busy  themselves,  other  than  God ;  to  cast 
upon  God  all  the  earthly  cares  in  which  the  world  is  busied  and 
buried,  in  striving  after  the  heavenly  life !" 

Inwardly  and  outwardly,  must  they  be  trained  to  religion ;  out- 
ward training  alone  makes  hypocrites,  who  fear  God  only  in  appear- 
ance; inward  training  alone  makes  fanatics,  who  fall  into  visionary 
views,  disowning  the  ministry,  and  destroying  the  good  order  of  the 

church.J 

II.     JANUA  RESERATA. 

The  preface  treats  of  the  purpose  and  arrangement  of  the  book. 

Facts  show,  says  Comenius,  that  up  to  this  time,  the  proper  method 
of  teaching  languages  has  not  been  understood  in  the  schools  ;  after  ten 
years  and  more  have  often  been  devoted  to  it  without  any  remarkable 
result.  Youth  have  been  occupied  for  several  years  with  prolix  and 
confused  grammatical  rules,  and  at  the  same  time  §  crammed  "  with 
the  names  of  things,  without  the  things  themselves."  "  But,"  con- 
tinues Comenius,  "  although  the  names  signify  the  things,  how  can  they 
signify  them  to  any  good  purpose,  if  the  things  themselves  are  not 
known  ?  A  boy  may  be  able  to  say  over  a  thousand  times  a  thousand 
names,  but  if  he  has  not  the  mastery  of  the  things,  of  what  benefit 
will  all  that  multitude  be  to  him  T '|| 

It  has  been  thought  to  remedy  the  evil,  by  the  introduction  of  the 

*  Perfrui  conscientiae  voluptate.    Fruimur  Deo  in  amore  et  favore  ejus  ita  acquiesccndo 
ut  nihil  nobis  in  coelo  et  terra  optabilius  sit  Deo  ipso. 
t  Didact.,  144. 

}  The  school  plan  which  Comenius  gives  in  his  Didoctica  Magna,  will  be  given  further  on ; 
as  well  as  extracts  relating  to  Realism. 

§  I  shall  quote  indifferently,  from  the  Latin  and  German  texts  of  th*>  janua. 

I  Est  enim  nocentissimarum  fraudum  non  postrema,  quae  hum?no  genw.,  imo  et  docto- 
rum  vulgo,  multum  illudit,  in  linguarum  scientia  locare  sapientiam.  T> «  s  says  Pomenius, 
in  one  of  his  latest  works.  Ventilabrum.  o»n.  d.d..  450. 


358  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

classics  into  the  schools,  with  the  idea  that  pure  Latin  and  the  knowl- 
edge of  things  could  together  be  learned  from  them.  "But  this 
notion,  how  plausible  soever,  is  in  the  highest  degree  harmful."  In 
the  first  place,  the  boys  can  not  provide  themselves  with  the  classics, 
and  in  the  second,  they  are  not  old  enough  for  them.  And  even  if 
"  one  had  been  through  all  the  classics,  he  will  still  find  that  he  had 
not  attained  his  object,  namely,  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  language ; 
for  the  language  does  not  treat  of  every  thing,  and  even  if  it  treated 
of  all  matters  current  in  its  time,  it  could  neither  treat  of  such  as  are 
current  in  our  own  times,  nor  know  any  thing  about  them ;  so  that 
it  would  be  necessary  for  him  to  read  many  more  books,  both  of  old 
and  new  authors ;  as,  for  instance,  upon  plants,  metals,  agriculture, 
war,  and  architecture ;  and,  in  truth,  there  would  be  no  end  to  his  ac- 
cumulation of  books."  How  much  time  would  be  needed  to  learn  a 
language  in  this  way  ! 

For  this  reason  it  is  desirable  "•  that  a  short  compendium  of  the 
whole  language  should  be  prepared,  in  which  each  and  all  of  its 
words  and  phrases  should  be  brought  together  in  one  body,  so  as  to 
be  understood  in  a  short  time,  and  with  less  trouble,  and  so  as  to  give 
an  easy,  appropriate  and  certain  introduction  to  the  authors  who  treat 
of  the  subjects  themselves."  Just  as  it  would  be  easier  to  take  a 
survey  of  the  beasts  in  Noah's  ark,  than  if  they  had  to  be  searched 
out  all  over  the  world ;  so  it  would  be  easier  to  learn  all  the  words 
from  such  a  compendium,  than  to  gather  them  together  from  in- 
numerable authors.  Such  a  compendium  had  been  made  by  a  Jesuit 
some  years  before ;  he  having  published  a  Janua  linguarum  in  Latin 
and  Spanish,  which  contained,  in  twelve  hundred  proverbs,  the  most 
usual  Latin  words,  so  that,  (particles  excepted,)  no  word  appeared 
more  than  once.  This  book  was  enlarged  in  1615  with  the  English 
translation,  afterward  with  German  and  French  ones ;  and  later,  in 
1629,  appeared  in  eight  languages.* 

This  book,  however,  did  not  fullfil  its  promise.  First,  many  words 
were  wanting  in  it,  which  are  needed  in  daily  use;  and  it  contained 
many  useless  ones.  Secondly,  words  of  several  significations  ap- 
peared in  it  only  once,  and  then  only  with  one  meaning.  If  this 

'  Further  information  upon  this  Janua  will  be  found,  Didact.  works,  2,  81,  270.  Its  title  is, 
"  Janua  linguarum  sive  modus  ad  integritatem  linguarum  compendio  cognoscendam  maxime 
accommodatus ;  ubi  sententiarum  centuriis  aliquot  omnia  usitatiora  et  necessaria  vocabula 
semel  comprehensa  sunt,  ita  ut  postea  non  recurrant."  Its  author  was  an  Irishman,  W. 
Bateus,  a  Theatin  at  Salamanca.  Isaac  Habrecht,  a  physician  at  Strasburg,  reprinted  this 
Janua  in  Germany.  Caspar  Scioppius  published  it  in  1627  in  Latin  and  Italian,  under  the 
title  of  Mercurius  bilinguis,  and  in  1636  at  Basle,  as  Mercurius  quadrilinguis.  (Latin,  German, 
Greek  and  Hebrew.)  Bateus'  object  was  to  promote  the  spread  of  Christianity  by  his  book, 
oy  enabling  the  heathen  to  learn  Latin  easily  by  means  of  it- 


JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS.  359 

meaning  had  been  the  first,  simplest  and  radical  one,  an  intelligent 
person  could  easily  have  guessed  out  the  others.  But  this  was  not 
so ;  most  of  the  words  being  given  in  derived,  metaphorical,  metony- 
mic,  etc.,  meanings.  Lastly,  the  work  contains  many  sayings  with 
no  meaning,  and  others  not  edifying.  For  these  reasons  Comenius 
undertook  to  remedy  these  faults,  from  a  "  desire  to  promote  the 
profit  and  piety  of  the  young."  What  he  undertook  to  do  was  as 
follows : 

"  Since,"  he  says,  "  I  consider  it  an  established  law  of  the  art  of 
teaching,,  that  understanding  and  speech  must  go  in  parallel  lines,  and 
that  one  should  be  able  to  express  whatever  he  comprehends  with 
the  understanding,  (since  what  difference  is  there  between  one  who 
understands  what  he  can  not  express  and  a  mere  dumb  image  ?  and 
to  speak  without  understanding  is  only  parrotry,)  I  have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  all  things  in  the  world  ought  to  be  arranged  in  distinct 
classes,  so  that  the  boys  can  understand  them ;  and  what  is  to  be  ex- 
pressed in  speech,  namely,  things  themselves,  should  be  first  impressed 
upon  the  mind."  Thus  have  arisen  his  "  hundred  generic  names  of 
things." 

He  thus  brought  together  eight  thousand  words,  in  one  thousand 
complete  sentences,  which  he  made  at  -first  short  and  more  simple, 
and  afterward  longer  and  more  complex. 

Further,  he  has  endeavored  to  bring  forward,  to  be  first  understood 
by  the  boys,  all  words  in  their  proper  and  natural  signification,  fct  ex- 
cept a  few."  Words  of  several  meanings  he  has  given  more  than 
once,  in  their  different  meaning.  Synonyms  and  words  of  opposite 
meanings  he  has  given  opposite  each  other,  "  and  has  so  arranged  that 
each  shall  assist  in  the  understanding  of  the  others." 

At  the  same  time  he  has  so  prepared  the  sentences  that  they  are 
valuable  as  grammatical  exercises. 

This  preface  is  followed  by  the  one  hundred  chapters  which  treat 
de  omni  scibili,  in  one  thousand  sentences.  The  first  is  an  introduc- 
tion, in  which  the  reader  is  saluted,  and  informed  that  learning  con- 
sists in  this :  to  know  distinctions  and  names  of  things  ;  and  that  to  at- 
tain this  is  not  so  very  difficult.  In  this  short  little  book,  the  reader 
will  find  explained,  "  the  whole  world  and  the  Latin  language."  If 
the  reader  should  learn  four  pages  of  it  by  rote,  he  would  "  find  that 
his  eyes  were  opened  to  all  the  liberal  arts."  Then  follows  the  second, 
which  treats  of  the  creation  of  the  world,  and  so  on  to  the  ninety -ninth, 
which  treats  of  the  end  of  the  world ;  the  one  hundredth  is  his  fare- 
well advice  to  the  reader. 


360  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

III.     REALISM  OF  COMENIUS. 

Such,  substantially,  is  the  little  book  which  was  translated  into 
twelve  European,  and  several  Asiatic  languages.  I  shall,  hereafter, 
speak  of  the  subsequent  revision  and  enlargement  of  it.  If  it  is 
asked  how  came  about  so  great  a  success,  I  reply,  it  was  partly  from 
the  pleasure  found  in  the  survey  of  the  whole  world,  adapted  both  to 
young  and  old,  and  at  a  day  when  no  great  scientific  requirements 
were  made.  Many  were  amused  by  the  motley  variety  of  the  im- 
aginations and  investigations  of  the  book  ;  by  its  old  fashioned  gram- 
matical, didactic  and  rhetorical  discussions,  and  its  spiritual  -extrava- 
gances. The  greatest  influence  was,  however,  exerted  by  the  funda- 
mental maxim  of  the  book ;  that  the  knowledge  of  a  language, 
especially  of  Latin,  should  go  hand  in  hand  with  knowledge  of  the 
things  explained  in  it.  By  this  principle,  Comenius  is  distinguished 
from  the  earlier  pedagogues ;  and  he  sought  to  bring  it  into  natural 
operation  in  many  ways. 

From  his  Physics,  which  appeared  in  1633,*  we  may  see  how 
thorough  a  pedagogical  realist  he  was.  He  received  his  first  impulse 
in  this  direction,  as  he  himself  relates,  from  the  well  known  Spanish 
pedagogue,  Ludovicus  Vives,  who  came  out  against  Aristotle,  and  de- 
manded a  Christian  instead  of  the  heathen  mode  of  philosophizing. 
It  is  not  disputation  which  leads  to  any  result,  said  Vives,  but  the 
silent  observation  of  nature.  It  is  better  for  the  scholars  to  ask  ques- 
tions and  to  investigate,  than  to  be  disputing  with  each  other.  "  Yet," 
says  Comenius,  "  Vives  understood  better  where  the  fault  was,  than 
what  was  the  remedy. 

Comenius  received  a  second  impulse  from  Thomas  Campanella,f 
who,  however,  did  not  satisfy  him.  "  But  when,"  he  says  "  Bacon's 
Instauratio  Magna  came  into  my  hands,  a  wonderful  work,  which  I 
consider  the  most  instructive  philosophical  work  of  the  century  now 
beginning,  I  saw  in  it,  that  even  Campanella's  demonstration  was  want- 
ing in  that  thoroughness  which  is  demanded  by  the  nature  of  things .J 

*  The  preface  was  written  at  Lissa  in  1632.    The  information  following  is  from  it. 

t  Campanella  was  born  in  1568,  at  Stilo  in  Calabria,  and  died  in  1639  at  Paris.  He  was  a 
Dominican.  Being  accused  of  a  state  offense  against  the  Spanish  monarchy,  he  was  im- 
prisoned in  1599  and  only  released  in  1626,  at  the  request  of  Urban  VIII.  Of  his  works,  those 
which  had  most  influence  upon  Comenius.  were  his  Prodromus  philosophies  restaurandae, 
Realfs  philosophia  epilogfstica,  and  Libri  de  rerum  sensu. 

J  I  may  here  be  permitted,  in  order  to  a  complete  characterization  of  Comenius,  to  repeat 
something  of  what  I  have  already  said  of  Bacon's  influence  on  teaching.  In  this  connection 
1  shall  quote  the  Opp.  did.,  1,  426,  where  he  says,  (i  Non  eat  nihil,  quod  Verulamius  mirabili 
suo  organo  rerum  naturas  intimt  scrutandi  modum  infallibilem  deletit."  And  in  another 
place,  (p.  432,)  he  praises  Bacon's  "  artificiosam  inductionem,  quae  revera  in  naturae  abditn 
penetrandi  reclusa  via  est."  Elsewhere,  Comenius  cites  Bacon,  or  uses  expressions  (E.  g., 
"  Infelix  divortium  rerum  et  verborum,")  and  states  views,  which  refer  us  to  Bacon. 


JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS.  3^ 

Yet  again,  I  was  troubled,  because  the  noble  Verulam,  while  giving 
the  true  key  of  nature,  did  not  unlock  her  secrets,  but  only  showed, 
by  a  few  examples,  how  they  should  be  unlocked,  and  left  the  rest  to 
future  observations  to  be  extended  through  centuries."  He  goes  on, 
in  the  preface  to  the  Physics,  from  which  these  extracts  are  taken,  to 
say  that  he  is  convinced  that  it  is  not  Aristotle  who  must  be  master 
in  philosophy  for  Christians,  but  that  philosophy  must  be  studied 
freely  by  the  indications  of  nature,  reason  and  books.  "  For,"  he  con- 
tinues, "  are  we  not  as  well  placed  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  as  were 
our  predecessors  ?  Why  can  we  not  use  our  eyes,  ears,  and  nose  as 
well  as  they  could  ?  And  why  did  we  need  other  teachers  than 
these,  in  learning  to  know  the  works  of  nature  ?  Why,  say  I,  should 
we  not,  instead  of  these  dead  books,  lay  open  the  living  book  of  na- 
ture ?  In  this  there  is  much  more  to  display  than  one  person  like 
myself  can  relate,  and  the  display  will  bring  much  more,  both  of 
pleasure  and  profit."  k'  Moreover,"  he  adds,  evidently  following  Ba- 
con, "  we  are  so  many  centuries  beyond  Aristotle  even  in  experience." 
From  these  extracts  it  is  evident  that  Comenius,  like  Bacon,  aimed 
at  a  real  realism,  not  at  a  simply  verbal  one ;  at  one  which  should 
operate  by  the  direct  observation  of  things  by  the  senses,  not  by  the 
narratives  and  descriptions  of  others.  This  appears  clearly  also,  from 
many  portions  of  his  other  works.  Thus,  he  says,  in  the  Didactica 
Magna:  "To  instruct  youth  well,  is  not  to  cram  them  with  a  mish- 
mash of  words,  phrases,  sentences  and  opinions,  gathered  from  read- 
ing various  authors,  but  to  open  their  understandings  to  the  things 
themselves,  so  that  from  them,  as  from  living  springs,  many  streamlets 
may  flow."  Again  :  u  Hitherto,  the  schools  have  done  nothing  with 
the*  view  of  developing  children,  like  young  trees,  from  the  growing 
impulse  of  their  own  roots,  but  only  with  that  of  hanging  them  over 
with  twigs  broken  off  elsewhere.  They  teach  youth  to  adorn  them- 
selves with  others'  feathers,  like  the  crow  in  ^Esop's  fables.  They  do 
not  show  them  things  themselves,  as  they  are,  but  tell  them  what  one 
and  another,  and  a  third,  and  a  tenth,  has  thought  and  written  about 
them ;  so  that  it  is  considered  a  mark  of  great  wisdom  for  a  man  to 
know  a  great  many  opinions  which  contradict  each  other.  Thus  it 
has  come  to  pass,  that  most  scholars  do  nothing  but  gather  phrases, 
sentences  and  opinions,  and  patch  together  their  learning  like  a  cento. 
It  is  of  such  that  Horace  says,  '  0  imitatorum  servum  pecus  /'  Of 
what  use  is  it  to  vex  one's  self  about  others'  opinions  of  things,  when 
that  which  is  needed  is,  the  knowledge  of  the  things  themselves  ?  Is 
all  the  labor  of  our  lives  to  be  spent  in  nothing  except  in  running 
after  others  who  are  employed  in  all  sorts  of  directions  ?  Oh  ye 


362  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

mortals,  let  us  hasten  without  circuit,  toward  our  object.  If  our 
eyes  are  fast  and  clearly  fixed  upon  this,  why  do  we  not  together  steer 
toward  it  ?  why  should  we  prefer  to  see  with  others'  eyes,  rather  than 
with  our  own  ?  Almost  no  one  teaches  physics  by  actual  observa- 
tion and  experiment:  all  instruct  by  the  oral  explanation  of  the 
works  of  Aristotle  or  some  body  else.  In  short,  men  must  be  led  as 
much  as  possible,  to  gather  their  learning,  not  from  books,  but  from 
the  observations  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  oak  trees  and  books ; 
that  is,  he  must  know  and  investigate  things  themselves,  not  merely 
the  observations  and  explanations  of  others  about  them.  And  thus 
we  shall  be  again  following  in  the  footsteps  of  the  ancients."  Co- 
menius'  meaning  is  too  clear  to  need  an  explanation.  Further  on,* 
he  goes  more  fully  into  the  method  of  instruction.  The  object  must 
be  a  real,  true,  useful  thing,  capable  of  making  an  impression  upon 
the  senses  and  the  apprehension.  This  is  necessary,  that  it  may  be 
brought  into  communication  with  the  senses ;  if  visible,  with  the  eyes, 
if  audible,  with  the  ears,  if  odorous,  with  the  nose,  if  sapid,  with  the 
taste,  if  tangible,  with  the  touch.  The  beginning  of  knowledge  must 
be  with  the  senses.f  "  Must  not,  therefore,"  he  asks,  "  the  beginning 
of  teaching  be,  not  at  all  with  the  verbal  explanation  of  the  things, 
but  with  the  real  intuition  of  them?  and  then  first,  after  the  pre- 
sentation of  the  thing  itself,  may  the  oral  explanation  be  added,  for 
the  further  elucidation  of  it."  What  has  thus  been  perceived  by  the 
senses,  sinks  deep  into  the  memory,  and  can  not  be  forgotten  ;  an  event 
is  better  remembered,  if  one  has  lived  through  it,  than  if  he  has  heard 
it  related  a  hundred  times.  Thus  says  Plautus,  "  One  showing  to  the 
eye  is  more  than  ten  showings  to  the  ear."|  One  who  has,  with  his 
own  eyes,  seen  a  corpse  dissected,  better  understands  the  anatomy  of 
the  human  body,  and  gets  more  insight  into  it,  than  if  he  had  read 
the  greatest  quantity  of  anatomical  books,  without  having  seen  it. 
Hence  the  old  proverb,  "  Demonstration  must  make  up  for  intuition." 
If  here  and  there  a  thing  is  wanting,  one  or  another  thing  may 
make  up  for  it.  So,  for  example,  pictures,  such  as  are  to  be  found  in 
botanical,  zoological,  geographical,  and  other  books.  Such  should  be 
in  every  school ;  for  although  they  cost  much,  they  are  of  much  use. 

IV.      COMBNIUS'  THREE  SCHOOL  BOOKS,  THE  VESTIBULUM,  THE  REVISED  JANUA 
RESERATA,  AND  THE  ATRIUM. 

A.     Vestibulum. 
Soon  after  publishing  the  Janua  reserata,  Comenius  wrote  a  small 

•  Didactica  Magna,  p.  115,  etc. 

1  Comenius  repeatedly  refers  to  his  maxim,  Nihil  est  in  intellect*,  quod  nonprhis  in  sensu 

j  Comeuius  also  quotes  Horace's  "  Segnius  irritant  anmzos,"  etc. 


JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS.  363 

school  book  called  Januae  reseratae  Vestibulum*  of  only  42V  shoi% 
sentences. 

About  1648  he  published  a  revisal  of  it,f  and  a  second  in  1650, 
while  at  Patak,  employed  in  re-organizing  the  schools  there.J  He 
intended  this  second  revisal  as  a  manual  for  the  lower  classes  of  this 
school ;  I  will  briefly  describe  its  form  and  contents. 

It  begins  with  an  Invitatio;  the  teacher  promising  to  the  scholar 
an  introduction  to  wisdom,  to  the  knowledge  of  all  things,  to  the 
ability  to  do  right  always,  and  to  speak  correctly  of  every  thing, 
especially  in  Latin,  which,  as  a  language  common  to  all  nations,  is 
indispensable  to  a  learned  education.  In  the  Vestibulum  the  founda- 
tions of  language  are  laid,  in  the  Janua  the  materials  for  building  are 
furnished  ;  and  in  the  Atrium,  the  decoration  of  the  edifice  is  begun. 
After  this  the  scholar  may  enter  the  palace  of  authors ;  that  is,  their 
wise  books ;  by  the  perusal  of  which  he  may  become  learned,  wise 
and  eloquent. 

The  second  part  treats  of  the  classification  of  things ;  that  is,  of 
substantives  only,  E.  g. :  Sidera  sunt,  sol,  luna,  stella.  In  sole  sunt, 
lux,  radius,  lumen'.  Sine  lumine  est;  umbra,  caligo,  tenebrae. 

Apld  uanionem;  farcimen,  perna,  lardum,  arvina,  adeps,  sebum,  etc. 

In  the  third  part,  the  modifications  of  things  are  brought  forward, 
adjectives  being  the  most  prominent  words,  E.  g. ;  Sol  est  clarus  vel 
obscurus.  Luna  plena  vel  dimidia.  Stella  fixa  vel  vaga. 

The  fourth  part  is  headed  mentiones  rerum.  E.  g. ;  Quis  ibi  est? 
Is  quern  vides.  Quidfert?  Id  quod  vides.  It  explains  especially 
the  pronouns. 

In  the  fifth  section,  headed  motus  rerum,  verbs  are  introduced. 
E.  g. ;  Quaeque  res  potest  aliquid  esse,  agere,  pati.  Dei  actio  est 
creare,  sustentare,  beare.  S  entire  est,  videre,  audire,  etc.  After  this 
comes  the  varieties  of  human  action,  e.  g.,  per  membra  corporis,  per 
animam,  etc. 

The  sixth  section,  headed  Modi  actionum  et  passionum,  includes 
the  adverbs.  E.  g.,  Ubi  est  ?  hie,  illic,  ibi,  etc. 

The  seventh,  headed  Circumstantiae  rerum  et  actionum,  brings  in 
the  prepositions.  E.  g.,  Quod  movetur,  movetur  ab  aliquo  praeter 
aliquid,  ad  aliquid. 

The  eighth,  headed  Cohaerentiae  rerum  et  actionum,  contains  con- 
lunctions.  E.  g.,  Ego  et  tu,  illeque  sumus  homines,  etc. 

•  Opp.  did.,  1,  302.    Preface  dated  4th  January,  ]633. 

t  Opp.  did.,  2, 293.    Preface  undated.    This  Vestibulum  immediately  followed  the  Methodut 
Nomsaima,  in  whicM,  (p.  163, 173.)  it  is  described.    Only  a  fragment  of  it  is  in  the  Opp.  did. 
I  Opp.  did.,  3,  141. 


364  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

The  ninth,  Compendia  rerum  et  verborum,  contains  interjections. 
E.  g.,  Heus  tu  !  Ecce  me  !  etc. 

The  tenth  is  entitled  Multiplicatio  rerum  et  verborum  ;  and  con- 
tains some  examples  of  the  derivation  and  relation  of  words.  E.  g. ; 
Doctus,  doctor,  docet,  dociles,  doctrinam,  etc. 

The  Janua  and  the  Atrium  contain  each  1,000  sentences,  but  the 
Vestibulum  only  half  as  many,  500. 

To  the  Vestibulum  are  subjoined  the  rudiments  of  grammar. 
Chap.  1  treats  of  the  letters;  chaps.  2 — 10  correspond  with  the  same 
of  the  Vestibulum,  e.  g. ;  chap.  2  treats  of  nouns,  and  gives  briefly 
the  declensions;  chap.  5  of  verbs,  conjugation,  etc. ;  chap.  10  explains 
the  ideas  of  primitives,  derivatives,  compounds,  etc.,  and  chap.  11 
gives  fifteen  simple  rules  of  syntax. 

This  grammar  is  followed  by  a  Repertorium  vestibulare  sive  lexici 
Latini  rudimentum,  containing  all  the  words  in  the  Vestibulum, 
alphabetically  arranged,  with  the  number  of  that  sentence  of  the 
five  hundred  where  it  is  found.  E.  g.:  Cano,  (cecini,  cantum,)  45  *K 
And  sentence  457  is,  Cantoris  est  canere. 

In  a  letter  to  Tolnai,*  teacher  of  the  first  (lowest)  class  at  Patak, 
Comenius  writes  of  his  duties  as  a  teacher,  and  especially  of  the  use 
of  the  Vestibulum,  etc.  He  (Tolnai)  receives  scholars  who  can  read 
and  write  their  mother  tongue;  and  he  is  to  teach  them  the  grounds 
of  Latin  and  the  rudiments  of  grammar  and  arithmetic. 

The  arrangement  of  the  Vestibulum  might  seem  to  be  exclusively 
grammatical,  as  it  begins  with  substantives,  and  proceeds  to  adjec- 
tives, etc.  It  is  in  fact,  however,  in  the  profoundest  sense,  an  arrange- 
in  the  order  of  things ;  for  it  began  with  the  enumeration  of  the 
things  themselves,  and  goes  on  to  their  principal  qualities,  (primaria 
rerum  accidentia,)  and  so  on. 

Comenius  would  have  been  glad  to  illustrate  the  Vestibulum  with 
such  cuts  as  the  text  requires,  to  amuse  the  boys  and  to  enable  them 
better  to  remember,  but  was  prevented  for  want  of  competent  artists. 
The  want  of  such  cuts  must  be  supplied  by  the  teacher,  by  explana- 
tions of  the  things,  showing  them,  or  by  such  delineations  of  them 
as  may  be  accessible.  If  there  be  not  some  such  reference  to  them, 
the  instruction  will  be  entirely  lifeless.  "This  parallelism  of  the 
knowledge  of  words  and  things  is  the  deepest  secret  of  the  method." 
In  order  that  this  may  be  more  easily  done,  this  nomenclature  (of  the 
Vestibulum)  is  to  be  translated  into  the  mother  tongue,  and  with  this 
translation  the  scholars  are  to  be  first  taken  over  the  ground  before 
anv  study  of  Latin.  Thus  their  whole  attention  will  be  confined  to 

•  This  latter  reminds  us  strongly  of  Sturm's  Epistolae  classical 


JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS.  355 

the  things ;  they  will  not  be  required  at  the  same  time  to  attend  to 
unknown  things  and  unknown  languages,  but  only  to  the  first. 

B.    Janua. 

I  have  already  described  the  Janua  reserata  of  1631,  the  first 
edition.  But  the  Janua  which  Comenius  describes  in  the  Methodus 
Novissima,  is  different  from  this.  The  latter  consists  of  a  text,  simi- 
lar to  that  of  the  original  Janua,  but  to  which  is  added  a  lexicon,  and 
to  this  a  grammar ;  there  being  thus  three  parts,  as  in  the  Vestibu- 
lum* 

Comenius  brought  out  the  third  edition  of  the  Janua,  at  the  same 
time  with  the  third  of  the  Vestibulum,  for  the  schools  at  Patak.  It 
does  not,  however,  like  the  latter,  begin  with  the  text  and  go  on  to  the 
grammar  and  lexicon,  but  in  a  reversed  order,  with  lexicon,  grammar 
and  text.  The  lexicon  is  entitled,  Sylva  Latinae  linguae  vocum  deri- 
vatarum  copiam  explicans,  sive  lexicon  januale.\  It  is  etymological, 
showing  the  derivation  of  each  word.  E.  g. :  Fin-is-it  omnia,  et  os- 
tendit  rei-em^  h.  e.  -  alem  causam.  De-ibus  agrorum*  saepe  sunt 
lites,  quas-itor  de-it  distinguens  agrum  lam  ab  agris  -  itimis  (sen  af-et 
con-ibus)  quarn  a  con-iis  inde-itis.  Si  vero  inter  af-es  (af-itate  June- 
tos)jurgia  exoriuntur,  judex  prae-it  diem  prae-itum,  quo  ea-aliter  de- 
itat ;  nam-ita  esse  convenit  y  non  in-ita  y  in-itas  Dei  est. 

In  this  manner  are  arranged  some  twenty-five  hundred  roots  and 
their  derivations  and  compounds,  with  the  rules  of  derivation  and 
composition. 

The  teacher  is  to  occupy  some  four  months,  in  the  beginning,  in 
taking  his  scholars  through  this  lexicon ;  for  they  must  first  become 
acquainted  with  words,  which  are  the  simple  elements  of  language. 
He  calls  the  lexicon  the  forest,  in  which  the  radical  words,  with  their 
derivations  and  compounds,  are  the  trees  and  their  branches.  These 
form  the  material  in  which  the  second  book,  the  Gramma tica  januq- 
lis  continens  residuum  grammaticae  vestibularis,  is  to  be  used  and 
prepared  for  the  construction  of  speech. 

In  the  introduction  to  the  grammar,  Comenius  laments  the  faults 
of  the  earlier  teachers  of  language,  quoting  especially  the  valuable 
teacher  Gerard  Vossius.  "Our  grammars,"  says  Vossius,  "contain  a 

*  According  to  Opp.  did.,  2,  299,  this  second  edition  contained  only  the  Januae  linguarum 
grammatica.     Comp.  Melh.  nov. ;  Op/i.  did.,  2,  181. 
t  Opp.  did.,  3.  219. 

1 1.  e.,  Finis finit  omnia,  et  ostendit  reijinem,  h.  e.  ftnalem  causam,  etc.  For  the  sake  of 
greater  clearness,  Comenius  afterward,  (Opp.  4,  60,)  required  the  German  equivalent  to  be 
Rdded,  as 

Am-are-or-ator, 
Lieb-en-e-haber. 
(Lov-e-e-er  i 


366  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

mass  of  rules  and  exceptions  which  overwhelm  the  boys,  who  are 
obliged  to  learn  much  that  is  superfluous,  only  soon  to  forget  it ;  and 
besides,  how  many  false  rules  do  these  grammars  contain  !  "  "  Lip- 
sius,"  continues  Comenius,  "calls  them  silly;  and  Caselius,  more  than 
silly,  and  they  agree  that  it  would  be  better  to  learn  Latin  only  from 
authors."  Comenius,  however,  does  not  coincide  with  them  in  this  ; 
mere  practice,  he  says,  is  blind ;  it  is  only  by  rules  that  they  attain 
to  the  sure  comprehension.  He  says  further,  in  speaking  of  the 
Grammatica  Janualis,  subjoined  to  the  Vestibulum,  that  it  follows 
especially  G.  Vossius. 

The  succession  of  chapters  in  this  grammar  is  :*  De  Litera,  Syl- 
laba,  Voce,  Phrasi,  Sententia,  Periodo,  Oratione.  It  proceeds  from 
the  simple  beginnings  of  the  Grammatica  Vestibularis,  leaving,  how- 
ever, the  subtilities  and  delicacies  of  the  language  for  a  higher  class. 

From  this  grammar  the  scholar  goes  on  to  a  third  part,  a  Janualis 
rerum  et  verborum  contextus,  historiolam\  rerum  continens.  This  is 
a  revision  of^the  earlier  Janua,  reserata,  but  more  extensive  and  com- 
plete, although,  like  it,  containing  a  thousand  paragraphs,  in  a  hun- 
dred sections.  In  the  first  Janua  each  paragraph  usually  consisted 
of  one  short  period ;  but  in  the  second  the  paragraphs  are  often 
much  longer. 

C.     Atrium. 

Comenius  describes  the  Atrium^  in  his  Methodus  novissima  ;  but 
he  first  published  it  for  the  school  at  Patak.§  Like  its  predecessor,  it 
is  divided  into  three  parts ;  but  its  arrangement,  like  that  of  the 
Janua,  varies  from  that  of  the  Vestibulum  ;  a  grammar  coming  first, 
then  the  text,  and  then  the  lexicon.  Comenius  calls  the  grammar 
of  the  Atrium,  Ars  ornatoria,  cive  grammatica  elegans.  He  defines 
it,  "  The  art  of  speaking  elegantly.  To  speak  with  elegance  is,  to 
express  the  thoughts  otherwise  than  the  laws  of  the  mother  tongue 
require,  and  yet  to  be  understood  with  more  pleasure  than  if  we  had 
spoken  according  to  those  laws."'  From  this  definition  it  follows,  that 
Comenius  was  not  speaking  of  what  they  called  fine  Latin,  free  from 
barbarisms,  but  of  such  Latin  as  was  then  used  in  rhetorical  ex- 
ercises. 

After  the  grammar  follows  the  Atrium  itself;  which,  also,  is  an 
encyclopaedia  of  one  thousand  paragraphs,  in  one  hundred  sections, 
but  more  extensive  and  advanced  than  that  in  the  preceding  Janua. 

'  Opp.  did.,  3,  428.  t  Ib.,  474. 

t  Ib.,  451.    There  is  here  a  great  error  in  the  paging ;  p.  451  following  592. 

§  Opp.  did.,  2,  163,  197,  458.  David  Bechner  published  before  Comenius,  In  1636,  a  frag- 
meat  entitled  Proplasma  tempH  Latinitatis,  (O  <  .  did..  1,  318,)  which,  like  the  Atrium,  was 
to  follow  the  Janua, 


JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS.  367 

To  this  Comenius  had  intended  to  add  a  Lexicon  Latino-latinum  y 
which,  however,  did  not  appear. 

V.     THE  CLASSICS. 

After  the  scholars  had  used,  in  their  first  year,  the  Vestibulum,  in  the 
second  the  Janua,  and  in  the  third  the  Atrium,  as  preparatory  manuals, 
they  were  next,  in  a  fourth  class,  to  enter,  from  the  Atrium,  into  the 
palace  of  authors.  "For,"  says  Comenius,*  "  if  we  should  not,  through 
the  Vestibulum,  the  Janua,  and  the  Atrium  introduce  the  scholars 
into  the  palace  of  authors,  we  should  be  as  foolish  as  one  who,  after 
with  much  pains,  seeking,  finding  and  pursuing  his  road  to  the  very 
gates  of  a  city,  should  refuse  to  enter."  The  scholars  of  this  fourth 
class  are,  in  their  first  quarter  of  a  year,  to  practice  the  ordinary 
Latin  style ;  in  the  second,  speeches  from  the  Roman  histories, 
and  the  Ciceronians,  for  the  sake  of  the  oratorical  style ;  in  the 
third,  to  read  Ovid,  Horace  and  Virgil,  to  learn  the  poetical  style ; 
and  afterward  to  study  the  laconic  authors,  especially  Seneca  and 
Tacitus,  and  to  begin  studying  the  composition  of  letters,  speeches 
and  poetry. 

In  his  Methodus  Novi8*ima,\  he  gives  fuller  directions  what  au- 
thors to  read  and  how  to  read  them.  His  three  text-books,  he  says 
here,  enable  the  scholar  to  understand  Latin,  and  to  write  and  read 
it  not  unlatinistically.  He  must  then  proceed  to  the  authors,  in  order 
from  them  to  gain  a  fuller  knowledge  of  real  things,  a  better  style, 
and  practical  readiness.  He  must  not  restrict  himself  to  Cicero,  as 
he  neither  contains  all  Latinity,  nor  all  subjects.  Terence  arid  Plau- 
tus  must  be  read  with  caution,  on  account  of  the  immoral  character 
of  some  of  their  contents.  For  speaking  Latin,  however,  they  are 
the  best ;  as  is  Cicero  for  the  construction  of  periods.  For  the  laconic 
style,  Seneca  is  the  model,  Virgil  for  the  epic,  Ovid  for  the  elegiac, 
and  Horace  for  the  lyric.  An  acquaintance  with  real  objects  can 
be  gathered  from  Pliny,  Vitruvius,  Caasar,  and  others.  Authors  must 
be  read  thoroughly,  and  extracts  and  imitations  may  be  written ;  this 
last  in  part  by  means  of  translations  and  re-translations;  and  then 
abridgments  and  continuations  come,  and  finally  the  .contents  of  the 
classics  are  to  be  transferred  to  other  persons,  relations,  etc.  For  this 
purpose  the  scholar  must  adopt  only  a  single  model,  Cicero  for  in- 
stance, and  train  himself  to  a  style  by  daily  and  hourly  exercisesj 

*  This,  he  says  in  his  treatise  upon  the  school  at  Patak  in  three  classes,  the  necessity  of  ad  - 
ding  a  fourth,  and  its  pnrpose.  See  below,  Schola  pansophica. 

tOpp.  did.,  2.  99. 

J  "  For  he  must  feel  himself  so  transferred  into  his  author's  spirit,  that  nothing  will  be 
grateful  to  h!«  ears,  which  has  not  the  sound  of  Cicero."  Ib.,  205. 


368  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

upon  that  model.  Yet  he  must  be  very  careful  lest  he  become  a 
mere  empty  phraseologer.* 

Comenius  expresses  himself  with  greater  rigor  against  the  heathen 
books,  in  his  earlier  Didactica  Magna.\  "  Our  schools,"  he  says, 
"  are  Christian  only  in  name ;  Terence,  Plautus,  Cicero,  rule  over 
them.  Therefore  it  is  that  our  learned  men,  even  our  theologians,  be- 
long to  Christ  only  in  externals,  while  Aristotle  has  the  real  authority 
over  them:  Day  and  night  they  study  the  classics,  and  neglect  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  Shall  our  boys,  for  the  sake  of  a  style,  study  the 
indecency  of  Terence,  Plautus  and  the  like  ?  Shall  we  in  this  way 
cast  oil  upon  the  fire  of  men  already  lost  ?  Although  these  authors 
have  many  good  portions,  still,  the  evil  they  contain  sinks  at  once 
deep  into  the  souls  of  the  boys.  Even  the  better  of  the  classics, 
Cicero  and  Virgil  for  instance,  have  whole  pages  entirely  unchristian. 
Yet,  as  Israel  took  the  vessels  of  the  Egyptians,];  so  many  learned 
men  of  confirmed  Christian  character,  make  collections  of  extracts 
from  the  classics,  which  may  be  read  by  youth  without  danger.  Per- 
haps Seneca,  Epictetus  and  Plato,  only,  may  be  put  whole  into  the 
hands  of  youth  already  confirmed  in  Christianity."  But  to  avoid  any 
misunderstanding,  as  if  he  had  forbidden  without  explanation,  to  read 
the  classics,  he  refers  to  the  promise  of  Christ,  that  believers  shall  be 
harmed  neither  by  serpents  nor  by  poison.  Only  boys  who  are  yet 
weak  in  the  faith,  must  not  be  exposed  to  such  serpents,  but  fed  with 
the  pure  milk  of  God's  word. 

He  expresses  himself  in  the  strongest  manner  upon  the  study  of  the 
ancients,  in  one  of  his  latest  pedagogical  works,  which  he  has  named 
"The  Winnowing-fan  of  Wisdom."§  Here  he  says,-"  We  have  seen 
in  very  recent  times  frightful  examples  of  kings  and  queens,||  who, 
seduced  by  heathen  books,  have  despised  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel. 
If  such  learned  men  as  Lipsius  and  others,  who  have  become  drunk 
with  the  classics,  should  be  examined,  there  would  be  found  in  them 
nothing  like  David's  pleasure  in  the  law  of  God,  but  on  the  other 
hand  a  disgust  with  it." 

*  "  Not  without  reason  did  the  wise  Buchholtzer  write,  '  I  dislike  the  Italian  Ciceronians, 
because  they  speak  only  words ;  not  things.  Their  rhetoric,  for  the  most  part,  is  KO\O.KSVTIK}I, 
It  is  a  gloss  without  a  text,  a  mil  without  meat,  a  cloud  without  rain.  Their  feathers  are  bet- 
ter than  the  birds  themselves.' "  Comenius  was  evidently  acquainted  with  the  Ciceronianus 
of  Erasmus;  and  like  him,  he  found  especial  fault  with  the  paganism  of  Bembo  and  the 
other  Italians. 

t  Opp.  did.,  147. 

t  This  same  comparison  occurs  in  Augustine's  Confessions,  (7,  9,)  in  relation  to  the  read* 
ing  of  the  heathen  philosophers  by  Christians. 

§  Ventilabrum  sapientiae.    Opp.  did.,  4, 47.    A  remarkable  retractation. 
I  Referring  apparently  to  Christina  of  Sweden. 


JOHN  AMOS  COMEN1US.  369 

As  to  the  reading  of  the  ancients,  Comenius  was  in  the  same  per- 
plexity with  many  other  Christian  teachers.  He  feared  the  influence 
of  the  heathen  books  upon  youth ;  but  at  the  same  time  these  same 
Christian  youth  must  learn  thoroughly  to  speak  and  read  Latin. 
Latin  would  be,  without  doubt,  best  learned  by.  the  repeated  reading 
of  Terence ;  but  then  again  Terence  is  so  indecent !  How  was  this 
dilemma  to  be  solved  ? 

VI.     ORBIS  PICTUS. 

Besides  the  three  school  books  with  which  we  have  become  ac- 
quainted, the  Vestibulum,  the  Janua  and  the  Atrium,  Comenius 
wrote  a  fourth.  This  is  the  Orbis  Pictus,  which,  since  its  first  ap- 
pearance in  the  year  1657,  has  been,  during  nearly  two  hundred 
years,  down  to  the  present  time,  and  in  the  most  various  forms,  the 
favorite  book  for  children.  Comenius  had  deeply  felt  the  imperfec- 
tion of  his  school  books  in  one  respect.  He  desired  that  the  begin- 
ning of  teaching  should  be  always  made,  by  means  of  dealing  with 
actual  things;  and  in  the  school-room,  there  was  nothing  which 
could  be  thus  used.  "  It  may  be  observed,"  he  writes  to  the  book- 
seller, Michael  Endter,  of  Nuremburg,*  "  that  many  of  our  children 
grow  weary  of  their  books,  because  these  are  overfilled  with  things 
which  have  to  be  explained  by  the  help  of  words ;  things  which  the 
boys  have  never  seen,  and  of  which  the  teachers  know  nothing."  By 
the  publication  of  the  Orbis  Pictus,  however,  he  says,  this  evil  will  be 
remedied. 

We  have  seen  that  Comenius  was  desirous  that  the  text  of  his 
Vestibulum,  long  before,  should  contain  pictures ;  but  he  could  find 
no  artists  capable  of  designing  the  pictures,  and  cutting  them  on 
wood  under  his  supervision.  In  the  letter  above  alluded  to,  he  most 
earnestly  thanked  Endter  for  having  undertaken  the  designs.  "  This 
work,"  he  writes  to  him,  "  belongs  to  you ;  it  is  entirely  new  in  your 
profession.  You  have  given  a  correct  and  clear  edition  of  the  Orbis 
Pictus,  and  furnished  figures  and  cuts,  by  the  help  of  which,  the  at- 
tention will  be  awakened  and  the  imagination  pleased.  This  will,  it 
is  true,  increase  the  expense  of  the  publication,  but  it  will  be  cer- 
tainly returned  to  you."  Comenius  says  further,  that  the  book  will 
be  very  welcome  in  schools,  since  it  is  entirely  natural  to  look  at 
pictures ;  and  still  more  welcome,  since  now  instruction  may  progress 
without  hindrance,  and  neither  learning  nor  teaching  need  delay, 
since  what  is  printed  in  words  may  be  brought  before  the  eyes  by 
sight,  and  thus  the  mind  may  be  instructed  without  error. 

*  The  letter  is  dated  at  Lissa,  1655,  and  is  printed  before  the  edition  of  the  Atrium  issued  br 
Endter  in  1659. 


370  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

I  have  thought  it  scarcely  necessary  to  give  a  detailed  description 
of  this  celebrated  school  book,  for,  as  I  have  said,  it  has  been  pub- 
lished in  innumerable  editions,  down  to  the  present  day.  The  old  Or- 
bis  Pictus,  varies  little  as  to  text,  from  the  Janua  reserata  ;  it  is  the 
Janua  with  illustrations.  The  cuts  in  the  later  editions  are  clearer 
than  in  the  old  ;  but  the  variations  of  the  texts  are  not  successful. 
The  comparison  is  especially  strikingbetween  the  forty-second  cut,  en- 
titled "  Of  the  soul  of  man,"  in  the  edition  of  1659,  and  the  same  in 
the  edition  of  1755.  In  the  first,  the  soul  is  very  ingeniously  repre- 
sented in  a  bodily  shape,  by  uniform  points,  without  light  or  shade, 
like  a  phantom.  The  artist  evidently  wished  to  indicate  that  the 
soul,  so  to  speak,  was  present  throughout  the  whole  body.  In  the 
Orbis  Pictus  of  1755,  on  the  other  hand,  the  picture  is  an  eye,  and 
on  a  table  the  figures  I.I. II.  I.I.II.  It  is  difficult  to  recognize  in  this 
an  expressive  psychological  symbol,  and  to  explain  it. 

The  Janua  reserata  of  Coinenius,  notwithstanding  its  former  great 
celebrity,  is  forgotten ;  the  Orbis  Pictus,  on  the  contrary,  is  known 
and  liked  by  many,  if  not  in  its  old  form,  at  least  in  a  new  one.  The 
principle  that  the  knowledge  of  things  and  of  words  should  go  hand 
in  hand,  was,  it  is  true,  laid  down  by  Comenius  in  the  preface  of  the 
Janua,  but  was  not  realized  in  the  book  itself.  Hence,  very  naturally, 
the  complaints  of  teachers  and  scholars,  of  the  incompleteness  of  the 
book. 

But  in  the  Orbis  Pictus  this  principle  was  found  to  be  realized  as 
far  as  possible ;  and  many  persons*  said  that  they  did  not  need  the 
Vestibulum  and  the  Janua,  for  that  the  shorter  way  in  the  Orbis 
Pictus,  was  enough.  There  was,  it  is  true,  A  world- wide  difference 
between  what  Comenius  originally  sought — an  acquaintance  with 
things  themselves,  before  any  knowledge  of  words  relating  to  those 
things — and  the  actual  use  made  of  the  scarcely  recognizable  pictures 
of  these  originals  in  the  Orbis  Pictus,  in  connection  with  the  reading 
of  the  text.  Yet  this  is  at  least  a  beginning ;  and  who  can  tell  what 
may  be,  in  the  course  of  time,  developed  from  it  ?  Basedow's  elemen- 
tary book  is  the  Orbis  Pictus  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Chodo- 
wieck's  pictures  in  this  work,  are  much  superior  to  the  old  wood-cuts 
of  the  Orbis;  but  in  other  respects,  how  far  does  the  godless  Elemen- 
tary Book,  filled  with  false  explanations  and  superficial  and  materialis- 
tic realism,  fall  behind  the  ancient  earnest  and  religious  Orbis  Pictus  f 

A  very  valuable  commendation  of  the  Orbis  Pictus  is  to  be  found 
in  the  Isagoge  of  Joh.  Matth.  Gesner.f  "  For  beginners  in  language," 
says  Gesner,  "  books  are  proper,  from  which,  at  the  same  time,  a 

*  Opp.  did.,  3,  830.  tl,  112. 


JOHN  AMOS  COMEMUS.  371 

knowledge  of  things  themselves  may  be  gained.  For  the  younger 
scholars,  especially,  the  Orbis  Pictus  of  Comenius,  which  I  very  much 
like.  Not  that  the  work  of  Comenius  is  complete ;  but  we  have  no 
better." 

I  repeat,  the  Orbis  Pictus  was  the  forerunner  of  future  develop- 
ment; and  had  for  its  object,  not  merely  the  introduction  of  an  in- 
distinct painted  world  into   the   school,  but,  as  much   as  possible,  a 
knowledge  of  the  original  world  itself,  by  actual  intercourse  with  it. 
VII.     COMENIUS'  PLAN  OF  STUDY. 
A.     Three  schools.     Academy. 

Comenius,  in  his  Didactica  Magna,  gives  a  general  plan  of  study, 
which,  upon  comparison  with  the  school  ordinances  of  Saxony  and 
Wurtemberg,  already  mentioned,  appears  to  have  been  generally 
similar  to  existing  ones.  He  proposes  the  four  following  classes  of 
institutions;  A.  Schola  materna,  (mother's  school;)  B.  Schola  ver- 
nacula,  (vernacular  school ;)  C.  Schola  Latino,  (Gymnasium  ;)  D.  Ac- 
ademia,  (University.) 

A  mother's  school,  he  says,  should  be  in  every  house ;  a  vernacu- 
lar school  in  every  municipality ;  a  Latin  school  in  every  city,  and  a 
university  in  each  kingdom  or  large  province. 

Pupils  are  to  remain  in  the  mother  school  until  their  sixth  year, 
from  the  sixth  to  the  twelfth  in  the  German,  and  from  the  twelfth  to 
the  eighteenth  in  the  Latin,  and  from  the  eighteenth  to  the  twenty- 
fourth  at  the  university.  In  the  mother  school  the  external  senses 
especially  are  to  be  trained  in  the  right  apprehension  of  things;  in 
the  German  school,  the  inner  senses;  the  imagination  and  the 
memory.  Here,  also,  must  the  pictures  of  things  which  are  impressed 
upon  the  mind  through  the  external  senses,  be  together  brought  out 
into  expression,  by  the  hand  and  the  tongue,  by  reading,  writing, 
drawing,  singing,  etc.  In  the  gymnasium,  the  understanding  and  the 
judgment  are  to  be  trained  by  comparing,  distinguishing,  and  the 
deeper  investigation  of  things.  In  the  university,  the  will  is  to  be 
cultivated. 

After  this  Comenius  proceeds  to  describe  each  of  his  four  schools, 
A.     The  Mother  School. 

We  should  pray  for  the  Mens  sana  in  corpore  sano,  but  should 
use  means  for  it  also.  Even  during  pregnancy,  the  mother  should 
pray  for  the  well-being  of  the  embryo,  should  live  upon  suitable  diet, 
and  should  keep  herself  as  quiet  and  comfortable  as  possible.  She 
herself  must  nurse  the  new-born  child  ;  it  is  a  most  injurious  custom 
which  prevails,  especially  among  noble  ladies,  of  emplovinjr  nurses ; 


372  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

a  custom  harmful  both  to  mothers  and  children,  and  contrary  to 
God  and  to  nature.  Even  the  wolves  and  the  swine  suckle  their  own 
young.* 

From  vanity  or  convenience,  nurses  are  often  employed  who  are 
weaker  than  the  mothers  themselves. 

No  high-seasoned  food  should  be  given  to  children,  and  still  less 
any  heating  drink ;  the  Spartans  dared  drink  no  wine  until  their 
twentieth  year.  Unnecessary  medicine  is  poison  to  children.  They 
should  be  allowed  to  play  as  much  as  they  wish. 

During  the  first  six  years,  the  foundation  should  be  laid  for  all  that 
they  are  to  learn  in  all  their  lives. 

In  physics,  they  should  begin  to  learn  to  know  stones,  plants, 
beasts,  etc. ;  and  the  names  and  uses  of  the  members  of  their  own 
body. 

In  optics,  they  should  begin  to  distinguish  light  and  darkness  and 
colors ;  and  to  delight  their  eyes  with  beautiful  things. 

In  astronomy,  they  should  learn  to  know  the  sun.  moon,  and  stars, 
and  that  the  moon  is  sometimes  full  and  sometimes  sickle-shaped. 

They  should  begin  geography  with  the  knowledge  of  the  cradle, 
the  room,  the  farm,  the  streets,  the  fields ;  chronology,  with  the 
knowledge  of  day  and  night,  hours,  weeks,  and  festivals ;  history, 
with  the  knowledge  of  what  happened  to  themselves  yesterday  and 
the  day  before ;  politics,  with  the  knowledge  of  domestic  economy ; 
arithmetic,  with  counting,  etc. ;  geometry,  with  understanding  the 
ideas  of  length  and  breadth,  lines,  circles,  an  inch,  an  ell,  etc. ;  music, 
with  hearing  singing,  (in  the  third  year  they  will  be  able  to  join  in 
psalm  singing;)  grammar,  with  the  pronunciation  of  syllables  and 
easy  words ;  rhetoric,  with  the  making  of  gestures,  and  the  under- 
standing of  the  gestures  of  others. 

Thus  we  see  the  beginning  of  all  the  sciences  and  arts,  in  the 
earliest  childhood.  Even  then  the  children  will  take  pleasure  in 
poetry,  rhythm  and  rhyme.f 

Comenius  now  proceeds  to  the  beginning  of  the  first  or  ethical  part 
of  religious  instruction  ;  he  requires  above  all  things,  that  the  par- 
ents should  set  a  good  example ;  and  he  inveighs  strongly  against 
the  unjustifiable  spoiling  of  children,  and  the  want  of  a  wholesome 

*  '•  Have  you  nourished  with  your  own  blood  the  child  which  you  carried  beneath  your 
heart  for  so  many  months,  to  deny  it  milk  now,  when  that  very  milk  was  given  by  God  for 
the  child,  not  for  the  mother  ?  It  is  much  more  conducive  to  the  health  of  the  infant,  to 
suckle  its  own  mother  than  a  nurse,  because  it  has  in  the  womb  already  become  accustomed 
to  nutriment  from  its  mother's  blood." 

t  Comenius  gives  specimens  of  rhymes  to  amuse  the  children,  as : 
"  O  mtpulle,  mipueJIe,  dormi  belle  ; 
Claude  bellos  tu  ocellos,  euros  pelle." 


JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS.  373 

strictness.*  He  also  gives  directions  how  to  train  them  to  modera- 
tion, purity,  and  obedience ;  and  to  silence,  as  soon  as  they  can  speak 
fluently,  and  not  to  speak  merely  in  order  to  learn  to  speak.  In 
baptism,  children  should  be  given  back  to  their  Creator  and  Saviour ; 
and  from  that  time  they  should  be  prayed  for  and  taught  to  pray ; 
should  learn  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  creed,  &c. 

In  the  sixth  year  the  child  will  be  ready  to  go  to  school,  which 
should  not  be  described  to  him  as  an  institution  of  punishment.  We 
often  hear  people  say,  "  If  you  are  not  good  I  will  send  you  to  school, 
and  there  you  will  be  kept  in  order  with  the  rod."  It  should  rather 
be  represented  as  delightful,  so  that  the  child  shall  be  pleased  with 
the  idea  of  going. 

B.     German  School. 

1.  This  is  peculiarly  a  school  of  the  mother  tongue.f 

In  this  school,  says  Comenius,  the  children  should  not  be,  as  many 
would  have  them,  put  at  first  to  the  study  of  Latin. 

All  children  should  be  instructed.  Whether  or  no  they  prove  apt 
at  study,  and,  therefore,  proper  to  be  carried  forward  to  the  Latin 
school,  is  not  a  thing  to  be  determined  in  the  sixth  year.  That 
school  is  not  for  the  children  of  the  noble  alone ;  the  wind  bloweth 
whither  it  listeth,  and  does  not  begin  to  blow  at  any  fixed  time. 
My  method,  continues  Comenius,  does  not,  by  any  means,  look  sim- 
ply to  the  Latin,  most  often  so  vainly  beloved,  but  rather  regards  a 
common  way  of  instruction  in  all  the  mother  tongues.  To  teach  a 
scholar  a  foreign  tongue  before  he  knows  his  own,  is  to  instruct  him 
in  riding  before  he  can  walk.J  Finally  he  says,  I  aim  at  knowledge 
of  real  things ;  these  can  be  learned  just  as  well  in  the  mother 
tongue  as  in  Latin  or  Greek ;  and,  above  all,  all  technical  terms 
should  be  learned  in  German,  instead  of  in  Latin  or  Greek. 

He  then  proceeds  to  enumerate  the  studies  in  the  German  school ; 
as,  to  read  German,  to  write  well,  to  reckon,  so  far  as  ordinary  life 
will  require,  to  measure,  to  sing  common  melodies,  to  learn  certain 
songs  by  rote,  the  catechism,  and  the  Bible,  a  very  general  knowledge 
of  history,  especially  of  the  creation,  the  fall  of  man,  and  the  re- 
demption ;  a  beginning  of  cosmography,  and  a  knowledge  of  trades 
and  occupations.  All  these  are  necessary,  not  only  for  those  who  are 
to  be  students,  but  also  for  future  farmers,  mechanics,  <fec.  The  Ger- 

*  "  I  can  not  refrain  from  reproving  the  apish  and  asinine  conduct  of  some  parents  to- 
ward their  children. 

t  Opp.  did.  172. 

J  At  a  subsequent  period  Comenius  found  fault  with  himself  for  having  written  his  Vesti- 
bidum'm  Latin,  "nota  docendo  per  ignota,  vernaculum  per  Latinam.  Quicquid  nottus  est 
praecedat,  vernacula  Lafinae  semper praetat."  Opp.  did.  4.  51. 


374  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

man  school  should  be  divided  into  six  classes,  and  for  each  class  a 
text-book  should  be  prepared  in  German. 

C.     The  Latin  School 

Here  are  to  be  learned  four  languages,  and  the  seven  studies  of  the 
Trivium  and  the  Quadrivium ;  grammar,  dialectics  and  rhetoric ;  and 
arithmetic,  geometry,  music,  and  astronomy.  Also  physics,  chronol- 
ogy, history,  ethics,  and  biblical  theology.  The  school  is  to  be  di- 
vided into  the  six  following  classes,  to  pass  through  which  will  require 
six  years  :  1.  grammar,  2.  physics,  3.  mathematics,  4.  ethics,  5.  dia- 
lectics, 6.  rhetoric. 

The  scholars  are  to  finish  their  studies  in  German  and  Latin,  and  to 
gain  a  sufficient  grammatical  knowledge  of  Greek  and  Hebrew. 

Dialectics  and  rhetoric,  says  Comenius,  are  to  be  learned  only  after 
a  knowledge  of  real  things  has  been  acquired.  Without  the  knowl- 
edge of  things,  it  is  impossible  for  one  to  speak  practically  upon 
them.*  He  places  physics  before  the  abstract  mathematics,  as  ad- 
dressed to  the  senses,  and,  therefore,  easier  for  beginners.f 

D.     The  University. 

Although,  Comenius  says,  his  method  does  not  extend  to  the  univer- 
sity, yet  he  will  express  a  few  views  concerning  it.  For  a  university  he 
would  have  a  universal  course  of  study,  and  an  examination  of  all 
students  entering,  to  determine  for  what  pursuit  each  is  best  fitted, 
&c.  He  has  one  remarkable  recommendation ;  to  found  a  schola 
scholarum  or  collegium  didacticum,  for  those  of  all  countries.  The 
learned  men,  members  of  this,  should  bind  themselves  to  use  their 
united  powers  to  promote  the  sciences,  and  to  make  new  discoveries. 
He  thus  suggests  the  idea  of  an  academy  of  sciences,  before  the  Royal 
Society  of  London,  the  first  academy  of  the  kind,  was  established  ; 
following  Bacon,  however,  in  this  also. 

B.     Schola  pansophica. 

In  1650,  as  before  related,  Comenius  was  invited  to  Patak  in  Hun- 
gary, to  reorganize  the  schools  there.  The  plan  which  he  drew  up 
bears  the  strange  title,  Scholae  pansophicae  delineatio.%  And  the 
plan  itself  is  strange.  The  names  of  the  seven  classes  are,  in  part, 
given  upon  very  singular  grounds.  The  school  books  of  the  three 
lower  classes,  the  vestibularis,  janualis  and  atrialis^werQ  the  Vestibu- 
lam,  Janua,  Atrium.  After  the  Atrium  came,  as  class  fourth,  the 

*  Ut  virginem  non  impraegnatam parere  imposaibile  est,  Ha  res  rationabiliter  eloqui  impoa 
sibile  eum,  qui  re.rum  cognilione  praeimbutus  non  est. 

t  Apparently  following  Bacon's  remark,  "  Mathematica  quae  philosophiam  naturalem  ter 
minare,  non  generare  out  procreare  debet."  Nov.  Org.  1,  96. 

t  Opp  did.  3,  20. 


JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS.  375 

philosophical ;  then  the  logical,  political,  and  theological  or  theosophi- 
cal.  These  seven  classes  were  arranged  to  occupy  the  seven  years 
from  the  tenth  to  the  seventeenth. 

From  Comenius'  plan,  it  appears  that  it  was  not  his  intention  that 
Latin  and  real  studies,  from  the  three  above  named  books,  should  be 
the  only  occupation  of  the  three  lower  classes.  The  catechism,  writ- 
ing, arithmetic,  geometry,  and  music,  were  to  be  added. 

The  idea  of  proceeding  methodically  from  the  elements  forward,  is 
to  be  recognized  everywhere.  The  first  class  is  to  study  geometry, 
with  points  (!)  and  lines  ;  the  second  with  plane  figures,  and  the  third 
with  solids.* 

In  the  fourth  class,  Greek  was  to  be  studied,  and  Latin  quite  passed 
over ;  so  that  it  was  in  the  fifth  that  the  Latin  authors  were  first  to 
be  read,  for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  a  style.f 

In  each  week  Comenius  set  apart  an  hour  for  the  reading  of  the 
newspapers  of  the  day,J  in  order  to  learn  cotemporary  history  and 
geography.  Sacred  music  was  to  be  sung  daily,  and  no  one  not  even 
of  noble  birth,  was  to  be  excused ;  and  specified  hours  were  set  for 
choral  music. 

Plays  and  gymnastics,  he  says,  are  so  far  from  being  to  be  forbid- 
den, that  they  are  rather  to  be  promoted ;  as,  for  instance  running, 
jumping,  wrestling,  ball,  ninepins,  &c. ;  and  walks  are  to  be  taken 
*vith  the  boys. 

Comenius  strongly  recommends  dramatic  exhibitions,  among  other 
reasons,  because  the  boys  will  learn  "  to  act  well  any  part."  He, 
however,  forbids  the  immodest  pieces  of  the  ancients,  and  instead, 
recommends  other  strange  ones,  which  may  be  played  by  the  classes. 
Thus,  the  fourth  class  may  play  Diogenes,  the  Cynic,  or  Compendi- 
ous Philosophy.  "  The  fifth,"  he  says,  "  may  give  a  very  beautiful  play, 
namely,  the  Contest  of  Grammar,  Logic  and  Metaphysics,  who  strive 
for  the  preeminence,  and  in  the  end  kiss  each  other  in  a  friendly 
manner,  thus  showing  how  they  will  all  labor  wisely  together  in  the 
realm  of  wisdom,  which  drama,  including  fifty  persons,  is  very  de- 
lightful." The  sixth  class  is  to  represent  Solomon,  and  the  Seventh 
David. 

The  walls  of  the  school-room  of  each  class  are  to  be  ornamented 
with  pictures  and  inscriptions,  relating  to  the  employments  of  the 
classes. 

*  These  examples  indicate  the  same  error  which  afterward  appeared  in  the  Pestalozzian 
school. 

t  "  Verba  rara,  phrases  pulchras,  imprimis  eriam  sententias  elegantes,  et  sic  succum  om- 
tiem  extrahant,  aus  Cicero,  Sallust,  &c." 

+  Ib.,28.  "  praelegantur  ordinariae  mercatorum  novellae."  The  Mercurius  Gallo-Belgicus, 
inr  example 


376  JOHN   AMOS    COMENIUS. 

The  whole  school  and  each  single  class,  should  represent  a  repub- 
lic, and  should  have  a  senate,  consul,  and  praetor. 

Of  the  hours  of  study,  three  should  come  in  the  forenoon  and 
three  in  the  afternoon,  and  between  each  two  study  hours,  a  half 
hour  of  recess  should  come. 

Only  the  three  lower  classes  of  the  pansophistic  school  went  into 
operation  ;  the  Hungarian  nobility  not  approving  of  the  four  others, 
which  very  much  grieved  Comenius.  "  When  only  patchwork  is  re- 
quired," he  says,  "  a  more  complete  course  of  study  is  impossible ; 
and  nothing  new  can  come  to  pass  when  people  stick  to  their  old  hab- 
its." He,  however,  accommodated  himself  to  his  station,  and  com- 
posed the  treatises  "  upon  an  easy,  short,  and  convenient  way  to  read 
the  Latin  authors  fluently  and  to  understand  them  clearly,  in  schools 
of  three  classes."* 

VIII.     LATIN  AND  THE  MOTHER  TONGUE. 

According  to  Comenius,  the  mother  tongue  was  to  be  studied. 
For  this  purpose  he  required  a  schola  vernacula,  through  which  each 
child  was  to  pass,  whether  afterward  to  become  a  student  or  not.  If 
he  was,  then  he  was  to  go  from  the  schola  vernacula  into  the  schola 
Latina.  He  expresses  himself  most  strongly  opposed  to  the  neglect 
of  the  mother  tongue,  and  speaks  with  approbation  of  Schottel  and 
the  Society  of  Usefulness,  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  German. f 

Why  did  he  insist  upon  having  Latin  so  diligently  studied  by  the 
boys  ?  His  strictness  in  this  respect  was  not  surpassed  by  that  of 
Trotzendorf  or  Sturm,  who  altogether  neglected  the  German.  Come- 
nius requires  from  the  boys  "  daily,  even  hourly  exercises  in  Latin 
style ;"  and  imitation  of  Cicero  even  to  entire  Ciceronization,  and  the 
constant  speaking  of  Latin,  both  in  and  out  of  school.]) 

His  object  was  that  Latin  should  become  a  universal  language  upon 
the  earth,  as  an  antidote  against  the  confusion  of  tongues  at  BabeL 
What  the  Romish  church  sought  for  the  unity  of  the  church,  Come- 
nius sought  for  the  unity  of  humanity ;  that  all  nations  should  be 
able  to  understand  each  other  by  means  of  a  common  speech. 

He  laid  down  the  principle,  that  the  Latin  must  be  understood  in 
its  fullest  extent.§  By  this,  however,  he  did  not  mean  that  every 
man  must  understand  every  word  of  the  language.  Even  Cicero 
himself  did  not  understand  the  expressions  of  artizans ;  and  very  rea- 
sonably, because  he  had  not  studied  their  business.  In  like  manner, 
we  do  not  blame  any  one  for  not  understanding  similar  expressions  in 

*  Opp.  did.  3,  113.    The  treatise  is  dated  1651  ;  and  includes  many  things  which  ComeniuB 
u*d  already  said  in  the  Methodus  Novissima. 

t  Opp.  did. 2,  219.  Jib.,  204,  205.  Ub.,  152.  &c. 


JOHN   AMOS   COMENIUS.  3  77 

his  own  language.  But  what  he  means  by  the  understanding  of  the 
language  in  its  whole  expression  is,  an  understanding  according  to 
each  man's  own  condition  and  necessities.  All  must  understand  the 
common  portions  of  the  language,  and,  in  addition  to  this,  the  apoth- 
ecary must  know  the  technical  terms  of  medicine,  the  theologian 
those  of  theology,  &c.* 

Comenius  has  not  remained  true  to  this  correct  principle  in  his 
school  books.  They  are  crammed  with  esoteric  and  technical  ex- 
pressions, which  are  expected  to  serve  the  purposes  of  general  educa- 
tion. He  has  collected,  with  inexpressible  industry,  a  multitude  of 
phrases  in  trade-Latin  and  market-Latin,  it  is  difficult  to  say  whence  ; 
and  many  of  them  are,  probably  of  his  own  composition.  Such  La- 
tin, Doderlein  himself  would  never  understand ;  and  he  would  usual- 
ly seek  in  vain  for  aid  from  the  lexicon.  Take,  for  instance,  the  chap- 
ter on  baking,  butchering,  or  cooking.  In  the  Latin  we  read  ;  "  Pla- 
centarum  species  sunt ;  similae,  spirae,  crustulae,  lagana,  liba,  scribli- 
tae,  (striblitae,)  teganitae,  globuli,  boletini,  obeliae,  tortae,  artoereata." 
Comenius  had  good  reason  for  adding  a  translation  here;  the  kinds 
of  cake  are,  wheat  bread,  pretzels,  iron-cakes,  pan-cakes,  short-cakes," 
&c.  The  poor  boys  are  to  be  pitied  who  had  to  study  such  words  as 
lucanicae,  botuli,  tomatula,  hillae,  apexabones,  tuceta,  isicia,  <fec.  And 
for  what  purpose  are  they  to  be  studied  ?  to  talk  Latin  to  the  butch- 
er ?  and  if  native  Germans  were  to  be  addressed  in  classical  Latin, 
what  should  they  say  in  reply  ?  in  fact,  what  have  been  their  criti- 
cisms upon  the  Latin  of  the  Janua  reserata?  "  Scatet  barbarismis 
Janua"  says  Morhof,  for  instance.  Comenius  allowed  that  boys  and 
even  men  know  as  little  of  most  of  the  technical  terms  in  their  na- 
tive language,  as  Cicero  did  of  those  in  his.  Why,  therefore,  does 
he  lay  upon  the  boys  the  unendurable  labor  of  learning  them  all  in 
Latin  ?  Even  if  Latin  were  to  become  the  universal  language  of  all 
nations,  of  which  there  is  not  the  remotest  prospect,  it  is  altogether 
impossible  that  a  German  butcher  would  be  able  to  converse  with  a 
Turkish  or  Japanese  butcher,  in  Comenian  butchers'  Latin. 

Eventual!}^  therefore,  the  Latin  of  one-third  and,  probably,  of  one- 
half,  of  the  Orbis  Pictus,  is  of  no  use  to  the  scholar ;  so  that  the  half 
of  the  book  would  be  of  more  value  than  the  whole. 

But  what  was  it  that  caused  Comenius  to  write   so  superfluous  a 

*  See  Didactica  Magna,  p,  127 ;  where  Comenius,  agreeably  to  our  citation  from  the  Mf.th' 
odus  Nnvissima,  says  ;  '•  Thence  it  follows,  that  the  knowledge  of  the  whole  of  a  language  is 
not  necessary  to  any  one  ;  and  that  if  any  one  undertakes  it,  he  will  only  make  himself  ridic- 
ulous and  silly.  For  Cicero  himself,  even,  did  not  know  the  whole  of  the  Latin  language  ; 
he  himself,  confessed  that  he  was  ignorant  of  the  technics  of  artizans;  he  had  never  sought 
the  conversation  of  shoemakers,  butchers,  and  the  like,  to  examine  their  operations  and  to 
learn  the  names  of  all  their  works  and  tools.  And  to  what  end  would  he  have  learned  them  1" 


378  JOHN  AMOS  COMEN1US. 

school  book,  in  opposition  to  the  principle  which  he  himself  had  laid 
down  ?  I  think  it  was  his  view  of  the  parallelism  between  things 
and  words.  A  world  of  language  corresponding  to  a  world  of  things 
was  the  ideal  before  his  mind.*  And  if  the  Orbis  Pictus  was  to  in- 
clude the  whole  real  world,  the  verbal  explanation  of  the  illustrations 
in  it  must  be  equally  comprehensive. 

IX.     METHODUB  NovissiMA.f 

Twenty  years  after  Coraenius  wrote  the  Didactica  Magna,  he  pub- 
lished the  Methodus  Novissima,  which  he  had  written  on  the  requisi- 
sition  of  Chancellor  Oxenstiern.  This  work  has  not  the  freshness 
and  boldness  of  the  Didactica,  but  is  constructed  upon  a  more  reg- 
ular plan.  In  truth  it  was  intended  to  be  a  plan  of  studies  ;  to  con- 
tain the  principles  which  must  lie  at  the  basis  of  every  rational  plan 
of  study  .J 

In  this  work  Comenius  names,  as  the  three  chief  principles  of  his 
method,  the  parallelism  of  things  and  words,  the  uninterrupted  suc- 
cession of  introduction,  and  the  easy,  natural,  and  rapid  progress 
made  by  his  system  ;  the  scholar  being  kept  in  continual  activity.§ 
"  If  the  method,"  he  says,  **  could  be  as  clearly  written  out  as  it  lies 
in  my  thoughts,  it  would  be  like  a  well  made  clock,  that  goes  on  stead- 
ily, and,  by  its  movements,  marks  out  the  hours  for  sleeping  and  for 
all  occupations,  without  varying  ;  and,  if  it  does  vary,  is  easily  set 
right  again.  || 

The  mind  thinks,  the  tongue  speaks,  the  hand  makes  ;  hence 
sciences  of  things,  and  arts  of  working  and  speaking. 

In  God  are  the  ideas,  the  original  types,  which  he  impresses  upon 
things  ;  things,  again,  impress  their  representations  upon  the  senses, 
the  senses  impart  them  to  the  mind,  the  mind  to  the  tongue,  and  the 
tongue  to  the  ears  of  others,  by  a  bodily  intercourse  ;  for  souls,  shut 
up  in  bodies,  can  not  understand  each  other  in  a  purely  intellectual 


Any  language  is  complete,  in  proportion  as  it  possesses  a  full  no 
menclature  ;  has  words  for  every  thing  ;  as  the  signification  of  its 
words  are  consistent  ;  and  as  it  is  constructed  after  fixed  grammatical 
laws.** 

It  is  a  source  of  errors,  when  things  are  made  to  accommodate 
themselves  to  words,  instead  of  words  to  things.ff 

*  "  Condendam  suademus  rerum  et  verborum  tabulaturam  quandam  universalem,  in  qua 
nrandi  fabrica  tola  et  sermonis  humani  apparatus  totus,  parallele  disponantur."  Opp.  did. 
2,53. 

t  Opp.  did.  2,1,  Ac. 

J  Various  extracts  from  the  Methodus  will  be  given  in  the  proper  place 

§Ib.211.  lib.  14.  lib..  24.  **Ib.50.  tUb.  52 


JOHN  AMOS  COMEMUS.  3*79 

The  same  classification  prevails  for  words  as  for  things ;  and  who- 
ever understands  the  relation  of  words  among  themselves,  will,  so 
much  the  more  easily,  study  the  analogous  relations  among  things.* 

The  most  complete  language,  says  Vives,  would  be  that  in  which 
the  words  express  the  nature  of  things,  such  as  must  have  been  the 
speech  of  Adam,  in  which  he  gave  names  to  things.  Comenius  be- 
lieved that  there  could  be  composed  a  real  language,  in  which  each 
word  should  be  a  definition,  and  which,  even  by  its  nouns,  should  re- 
present the  nature  of  the  things  spoken  of.f 

To  know,  isj  to  be  able  to  represent  any  thing,  either  by  the 
mind,  or  the  hand,  or  the  tongue.  For  all  is  done  by  such  repre- 
senting and  imagining  of  the  pictures  of  things.  If,  for  instance, 
I  perceive  a  thing  by  the  senses,  its  image  is  impressed  upon  the 
brain ;  if  I  represent  a  thing,  I  impress  its  image  upon  the  material. 
But  if  I  express  in  words  the  thing  which  I  have  thought  of  or  re- 
presented, I  impress  it  upon  the  atmosphere,  and  through  this  upon 
the  ear,  brain  and  mind  of  another.  The  first  kind  of  representation 
is  called  scire,  wissen;  the  second  and  third  kinds  are  called  scire, 
kbnnen.  Thus,  Comenius  includes  in  one  idea  of  representation, 
knowing,  the  power  of  representing  and  the  art  of  speaking.  To 
know  is  to  him  a  mode  of  representing  in  which  the  individual  holds 
himself  in  a  receptive  condition,  and  the  mind  receives  impressions 
through  the  senses,  like  a  living  daguerreotype  plate.  Such  is  his 
process  of  conception.  Opposed  to  this  is  a  process  of  expression,  in 
which  the  mind  performs  its  creative  operations  by  the  arts  of  repre- 
sentation and  speech. 

In  every  thing  known,  continues  Comenius,  there  are  three  things ; 
which  he  calls  Idea,  Idea-turn,  and  Ideans.  Idea  is  the  original  image, 
(Imago  archetypal)  of  the  object  of  knowledge ;  Ideatum  the  con- 
ception, the  product  of  the  knowledge ;  and  Ideans  the  producing 
instrument,  the  sense,  the  hand,  the  tongue. 

To  learn,  is§  to  proceed  from  something  known,  to  the  knowledge 
of  something  unknown  ;  in  which  there  are  also  three  things,  viz., 
the  unknown,  the  known,  and  the  mental  effort  to  reach  the  unknown 
from  the  known. 

*  Meth  nov. ,  62.  tlb.,67,68. 

Jib.,  94.  This  difficult  passage  is,  in  the  original,  "  Scire  est  aliquid  effigiare  posse;  seu 
mente,  seu  manu,  seu  lingua.  Omnia  enim  fiunt  effigiando.  seu  imaginando,  h.  e.  imagines 
et  simulacra  rerum  effingendo.  Nempe  cum  rem  sensu  percipio,  impritnitur  imago  ejus  ce- 
rebro.  Cum  similem  efficio,  imprimo  imaginem  ejus  materiae.  Quando  vero  id  quod  cogito, 
aut  efficio,  lingua  enuntio,  imprimo  ejusdem  rei  imaginem  ae'ri,  et.  per  aerem  alterius  auri, 
cerebro,  meiiti.  Primo  modo  imaginari  dicitur  Scire,  Wissen  :  secundo,  et  tertio  posse  im« 
aginari,  dicitur  Scire,  Konnen." 

§  Ib.,  95. 


380  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

Every  thing  is  to  be  learned  by  examples,  rules  and  practice.  Be- 
fore the  understanding,  truth  must  be  held  up  as  the  example  ;  before 
the  will,  the  good  ;  and  before  the  forming  powers,  the  possible ;  and 
to  this  must  be  added  practice,  under  the  government  of  rules.  Rules 
should  not  be  given  before  examples.  Artizans  understand  this  well. 
None  of  them  would  give  their  apprentice  a  lecture  upon  his  trade, 
but  would  show  him  how  he,  the  master,  went  about  it,  and  then 
would  put  the  tools  into  his  hands,  and  show  him  how  to  do  the  like, 
and  to  imitate  himself.*  Doing  can  only  be  learned  by  doing,  writ- 
ing by  writing,  painting  by  painting. 

A  second  pointf  must  not  be  undertaken  until  the  first  is  learned ; 
and,  with  the  second,  the  first  must  be  repeated. 

Learning;];  is  by  steps,  and  proceeds  from  the  easy  to  the  difficult ; 
from  little  to  much ;  from  the  simple  to  the  compound ;  from  the 
nearer  to  the  more  distant ;  from  the  regular  to  the  anomalous. 

We  first  proceed  toward  knowledge  by  the  perception  and  under- 
standing of  the  present,  and  afterward  go  on  from  the  present  to  the 
absent,  by  the  information  of  others. § 

Sight  will  supply  the  place  of  demonstration.  It  is  good  to  use 
several  senses  in  understanding  one  thing.||  A  thing  is  understood 
when  one  comprehends  its  inward  nature  as  well  as  he  does  its  out- 
ward nature,  by  his  senses.  To  this  inner  conception  are  requisite  a 
healthy,  intellectual  perception,  a  distinct  subject,  and  deliberate 
consideration.^]" 

The  attention  should  be  fixed  upon  only  one  object  at  a  time  ;  and 
upon  the  whole  first  and  the  parts  afterward. 

By  the  understanding,  are  compared  the  original  object  and  its  re- 
presentation. (Ideatum  cum  idea.)** 

The  memory  has  three  offices ;  to  receive,  to  retain,  and  to  recol- 

leettt 

The  subject  to  be  apprehended  must  be  clear,  consistent,  and  or- 
derly ;  the  faculty  to  be  directed  to  it  must  not  be  too  full  of  impress- 
ions, which  are  liable  to  confuse  each  other ;  it  must  be  calm,  direct- 
ed only  to  one  thing,  and  that  with  love,  (animo  affectuoso,)  or  rever- 
ence. 

Retaining  will  be  made  easier  by  repetition,  extracts,  etc. ;  recol- 
lecting by  means  of  the  inner  relations  of  things. 

The  youngest  must  be  instructed  in  visible  things  ;  pictures  impress 
themselves  upon  their  memory  most  firmly  ;JJ  for  these  are  suitable 
examples,  copies,  but  not  abstract  rules. 

*  Meth.  nov.,  103, 129.        fib.,  106.       Jib.,  109.        §  Ib.,  113.        lib.,  114.        ITIb.,116. 
**  Ib.,  120.  ttlb.,  121.  « Ib.,  132. 


JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

The  teacher  should  not  be  intellectually  too  quick ;  or  if  he  be,  let 
him  learn  patience.*  Cicero  says  well,  that  the  more  skillful  and  in- 
tellectual the  teacher  is,  the  more  irritably  and  impatiently  will  he 
teach  ;  since  it  will  annoy  him  to  see  his  scholars  slow  in  learning 
what  he  learned  quickly. 

The  scholars  who  learn  quickest  are  not  always  the  best.f 

The  scholar's  indolence  must  be  made  up  by  the  teacher's  industry. 

Beginners  must  keep  strictly  to  the  copy ;  those  more  advanced 
may  go  on  more  independently  of  it ;  beginners  must  work  slowly, 
and  the  more  advanced  faster  and  faster. 

Whoever  wishes  to  teach  rapidly,  must  fasten  his  eyes  at  once  up- 
on his  object,  and  go  straight  toward  it,  without  regarding  collateral 
points;  must  have  all  his  instrumentalities  ready  at  hand;  and  one 
and  the  same  method  for  all  studies ;  so  that  his  scholars  need  not 
be  required,  at  the  same  time,  to  undertake  new  matter  and  new 
forras.J 

Learning  will  become  easy  to  the  scholars,  if  their  teacher  lin- 
ages them  in  a  friendly  manner,  and  according  to  the  dispositions  of 
each  one  ;  if  he  explains  to  them  the  object  of  their  work ;  not  only 
makes  them  look  on  a  lesson,  but  take  part  in  the  work  and  conver- 
sation ;  and  is  careful  to  have  a  proper  variety.§ 

To  teach  thoroughly!  are  necessary,  distinct,  carefully  chosen  illus- 
trations and  copies,  reliable  rules,  and  persevering  drill ;  solid  founda- 
tions of  knowledge,  a  judicious  continuation  of  it,  and  completeness, 
examining  and  repetition.  It  is  of  especial  importance  that  every 
scholar  be  made  himself  to  teach.  Fortius  says  that  he  learned  much 
from  his  teachers,  more  from  his  fellow  scholars,  and  most  from  his 
own  scholars.1]" 

The  school  is  a  manufactory  of  humanity  ;  it  ought  to  work  its 
subjects  into  the  right  and  skillful  use  of  their  reason,  speech  and 
talents  for  occupation ;  into  wisdom,  eloquence,  readiness,  and  shrewd- 
ness. 

Thus  will  the  teacher  shape  these  little  images  of  God,  or  rather 
fill  up  the  outlines  of  goodness,  power  and  wisdom  impressed  upon 
them  by  the  divine  power.** 

The  art  of  teaching  is  no  shallow  affair,  but  one  of  the  deepest 
mysteries  of  nature  and  salvation. 

X.       UNUM    NECESSARIOM. 

As  we  have  looked  back  upon  the  predecessors  of  Comenius,  so  we 

* Meth.  nov.,  133.         t Ib.,  134.        Jib.,  139,  &c.        § Ib.,  142,  &c.        |  Ib.,  145. 

u  Ib  ,  150.    Saepe  rogare  ;  rogata  tenere ;  retenta  docere.    Haectria  discipulum  faciunt  su- 
perare  magistrum. 

**  Ib..  251 


382  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

may  look  forward  for  a  glance  at  his  followers.  Erasmus,  Vives,  Cam- 
panella,  and  especially  Bacon,  had,  as  we  have  seen,  great  influence 
upon  him.  A  fifth  stands  in  still  closer  relation  to  him,  both  in  time 
and  intellectual  connection  ;  namely,  Wolfgang  Ratich.*  Many  of 
Comenius'  principles  seem  to  have  been  taken  from  Ratich.  Among 
these  are,  the  recommendation  of  the  natural  method  instead  of  the 
prevailing  unnatural  one,  the  insisting  upon  the  study  of  the  mother 
tongue,  the  rejection  of  punishment  in  instruction,  the  preference  of 
practice  over  theoretical  rules,  the  acquisition  of  a  knowledge  of  sub- 
stances before  the  analytical  treatment  of  their  accidents,  &c.  By  a 
comparison  of  our  descriptions  of  the  characters  of  Ratich  and  Co- 
menius, the  reader  will  find  still  other  similarities,  and  also  important 
differences.  Although,  for  example,  both  were  Christians;  Ratich 
was  a  decided  adherent  of  the  Lutheran  confession,  while  Comenius' 
highest  ideal  was  a  union  of  all  confessions.  Ratich's  method  of 
teaching  Latin  is  entirely  different  from  Comenius' ;  for  while  the  lat- 
ter requires  every  scholar  to  be  continually  taking  an  active  part  in 
the  instruction,  Ratich  makes  the  teacher  only  read,  and  imposes  up- 
on the  scholar  a  Pythagorean  silence. 

The  influence  of  Comenius  upon  later  pedagogues,  and  especially 
upon  the  Methodians,  is  immeasurable.  It  is  often  difficult  to  judge 
whether  they  knew  him,  or  in  their  own  way  discover  the  same 
things.  In  Rousseau,  Basedow,  and  Pestalozzi,  we  shall  find  much 
that  is  entirely  in  agreement  with  Comenius,  of  which,  however,  I 
will  not  here  anticipate  my  description.  In  the  course  of  this  history 
I  shall  have  frequent  occasion  to  mention  this  extraordinary  man,  for 
the  reason  that  his  works  contain  the  germs  of  so  many  later  devel- 
opments. 

Comenius  is  a  grand  and  venerable  figure  of  sorrow.  Wandering, 
persecuted  and  homeless,  during  the  terrible  and  desolating  thirty 
years'  war,  he  never  despaired ;  but  with  enduring  and  faithful  truth, 
labored  unweariedly  to  prepare  youth,  by  a  better  education,  for  a 
better  future.  His  undespairing  aspirations  seem  to  have  lifted  up,  in 
a  large  part  of  Europe,  many  good  men,  prostrated  by  the  terrors  of 
the  times,  and  to  have  inspired  them  with  the  hope,  that  by  a  pious 
and  wise  system  of  education,  there  would  be  reared  up  a  race  of 
men  more  pleasing  to  God.  Adolph  Tasse,f  a  learned  professor  at 
Hamburg,  writes :  "  In  all  the  countries  of  Europe,  the  study  of  a 
better  art  of  teaching  is  j  ursued  with  enthusiasm.  Had  Comenius 

*  Comenius.  as  we  have  related,  applied  to  Ratich  by  letter,  for  information  respecting  the 
hitter's  method,  but  received  no  answer.  He,  however,  knew  Helwig's  Report ;  and  proba 
oly  the  Methodus  institutionis  nova  Ratichii  et  Ratichianorum,  which  appeared  in  1C26. 

t  Tasse,  author  of  many  mathematical  works,  died  1654.  The  letter  seems  to  be  dated,  1610. 
Opp.  did.,  1.  155. 


JUHN  AMOS  COMENIUS.  383 

attempted  nothing  more  than  to  sow  such  a  seed  of  suggestions  in 
the  souls  of  all,  he  would  have  attempted  enough." 

I  have  mentioned  that  Comenius  wrote,  in  his  77th  year,  a  Con- 
fession, from  which  we  may  become  acquainted  with  his  piety,  his 
deep  love,  his  unwearied  aspirations  to  do  good  in  the  most  various 
ways.  The  title  of  this  book  is,  "  The  one  thing  needful  to  know  ; 
needful  in  life,  in  death,  and  after  death,  which  the  old  man,  Amos 
Comenius,  weary  with  the  uselessness  of  this  world,  and  turning  to 
the  one  thing  needful  for  himself,  in  his  77th  year,  gives  to  the  world 
to  consider."  I  will  conclude  my  description  with  an  extract  from* 
this  remarkable  book.* 

"  I  have  described  the  universal  labyrinthf  of  the  human  race ; 
shall  I  now  record  my  own  errors  ?  I  would  pass  them  over  in  silence^ 
did  I  not  know  that  there  have  been  spectators  of  my  deeds  and  of 
my  sorrows ;  did  I  not  fear  to  cause  scandal  by  errors  not  repaired. 
But  since  God  gives  me  a  heart  desirous  of  serving  the  common  good, 
and  has  caused  me  to  play  a  public  part ;  and,  since  some  of  my  ac- 
tions have  been  blamed,  I  have  thought  it  necessary  to  make  mention 
of  it,  to  the  end  that,  although  some  have  thought  me,  or  still  think 
ine,  a  model  of  forwardness  and  gratuitous  pains,  they  may  see,  by 
my  example,  how  a  man  may  err  with  the  best  intentions,  and  rnay 
learn,  by  my  recollections,  either  to  avoid  the  same,  or,  like  me,  to 
repair  them.  The  apostle  says,  '  For  whether  we  be  beside  ourselves, 
it  is  to  God ;  or  whether  we  be  sober,  it  is  for  your  cause.'  This 
ought  every  true  servant  of  God  to  apply  to  himself,  so  that  if  he  has 
committed  any  error,  he  may  confess  it  to  God,  and  if  he  has  learned 
to  amend  it,  ho.  may,  as  soon  as  possible,  make  use  of  his  knowledge. 

"  I  also  thank  God  that  I  have,  all  my  life,  been  a  man  of  aspira- 
tions. And,  although  he  has  brought  me  into  many  labyrinths,  yet 
he  has  so  protected  me  that  either  I  have  soon  worked  my  way  out 
of  them,  or,  he  has  brought  me  by  his  own  hand,  to  the  enjoyment 
of  holy  rest.  For  desire  after  good,  if  it  is  always  in  the  heart,  is  a 
living  stream  that  flows  from  God,  the  fountain  of  all  good.  The 
blame  is  ours  if  we  do  not  follow  the  stream  even  to  its  source,  or  to 
its  outflow  into  the  sea,  where  is  fullness  and  satiety  of  good.  Yet,  be- 
sides, by  the  goodness  of  God,  who  always  brings  us  through  the  many 
errors  of  our  labyrinths,  by  the  sacred  Ariadne's  clue  of  his  wisdom, 
in  the  end,  back  again  into  himself,  the  spring  and  ocean  of  all  good. 

*  The  Latin  title  of  the  book,  which  lies  before  me,  is:  "  Unum  necessariuin  in  vita  et 
morte  et  post  mortem,  quod  non-necessariis  mundi  fatigatus  et  ad  unum  necessarium  sese 
recipiens  senex  J.  A.  ("omenius  anno  aetati  suae  77  mundo  expendendum  offert.  Terent 
Ad  omnia  aetate  sapimus  rectius.  Edit  Amstelodami  1668,  nunc  vero  recusum  Lipsiae  1734." 

t  In  the  beginning  of  the  book  he  explains  the  story  of  the  labyrinth  of  Minos,  as  an  in- 
structive picture  of  the  manifold  errors  of  man  ;  hence  the  frequent  references  to  it. 


384  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

To  me,  also,  this  has  happened  ;  and  I  rejoice,  that  after  so  innume 
rable  longings  after  better  things,  I  have  always  been  brought -nearer 
to  the  end  of  all  my  wishes ;  since  I  see  that  all  my  doings  hitherto 
have  been  the  mere  running  up  and  down  of  a  busy  Martha,  (yet 
from  love  to  the  Lord  and  his  children !)  or  a  change  from  running 
to  rest.  But  now,  at  last,  I  lie  with  Mary  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  and 
say,  with  David,  '  This  is  my  delight,  that  I  believe  in  God !' 

"One  of  my  chief  employments  has  been  the  improvement  of 
schools ;  which  I  undertook,  and  continued  for  many  years,  from  the 
desire  to  deliver  the  youth  in  the  schools,  from  the  difficult  labyrinth 
in  which  they  are  entangled.  Some  have  held  this  business  foreign 
to  the  office  of  theologians ;  as  if  Christ  had  not  connected  together 
and  given  to  his  beloved  disciple,  Peter,  at  the  same  time,  the  two 
commands :  *  Feed  my  sheep,'  and,  *  Feed  my  lambs  !'  To  him,  my 
everlasting  love,  I  give  everlasting  thanks  that  he  has  put  into  my 
heart,  and  blest,  such  a  love  to  his  lambs,  that  things  have  turned  out 
as  they  have.  I  hope  and  confidently  expect  it  from  my  God,  that 
my  plans  will  come  into  life,  now  that  the  winter  of  the  church  is 
over,  the  rain  has  been  heard,  and  the  flowers  are  springing  in  the 
land  ;  when  God  shall  give  to  his  flock  shepherds  after  his  own  heart, 
who  will  feed  not  themselves,  but  the  Lord's  flock ;  and  when  the 
enmity  which  is  directed  against  the  living,  shall  cease,  after  theii 
death. 

"  My  second  wearisome  and  difficult  labyrinth  was,  my  labors  after 
peace ;  or  my  desire  to  unite  together,  if  it  should  please  God,  the 
parties  of  Christians  who  were  contending  together  over  various  arti- 
cles of  faith,  in  a  most  harmful  manner ;  which  effort  cost  me  much 
pains.  Upon  this  subject,  I  have  not  committed  any  thing  to  print ; 
but  may  yet  do  it.  That  I  have  not  published  any  thing,  is  by  rea- 
son of  the  implacableness  of  certain  people,  whose  furious  hatred  true 
friends  thought  it  unadvisable  for  me  to  draw  upon  myself.  But  I 
will  yet  publish  it,  for,  after  all,  we  must  fear  God  rather  than  men.* 
Our  times  have  been  like  the  experience  of  Elias  upon  Horeb,  when 
be  did  not  dare  come  forth  from  the  cave,  by  reason  of  the  storm- 
wind,  the  fire  and  the  earthquake  from  before  the  Lord.  But  the 
time  will  come  when  Elias  shall  hear  the  still  small  voice,  and  shall 
recognize  in  it  the  voice  of  the  Lord.  To  each  one  his  own  Babylon 
yet  seems  beautiful ;  and  he  believes  it  the  very  Jerusalem,  which 
must  give  precedence  to  none,  but  all  to  it.  It  is  called  insolence,  if 
any  one,  trusting  in  God  and  his  own  good  purposes,  dares  to  address 
himself  to  the  whole  world,  and  to  admonish  it  to  amendment.  We 

*  This  work  remained  unaccomplished,  on  account  of  his  death. 


JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS.  385 

are  all  assembled  together  upon  the  great  theatre  of  the  world,  and 
what  happens  here  or  there  concerns  all.  We  are  all  one  great 
family.  By  the  same  right  by  which  one  member  of  a  family  comes 
to  another  for  help,  ought  we  to  be  helpful  to  our  fellow  men.  The 
whole  of  the  Holy  Scripture  preaches  love  of  our  neighbor,  and  sound 
reason  teaches  the  same.  Socrates  died,  rather  than  not  to  teach 
goodness ;  and  Seneca  says,  that  if  wisdom  were  to  be  given  him  for 
himself  only,  and  he  were  not  to  communicate  it  to  any  other,  he 
would  rather  not  have  it. 

"  Besides  this,  I  fell,  but,  according  to  the  will  of  God,  into  another 
strange  labyrinth :  in  that  I  published  the  divine  prophecies  which 
have  been  accomplished  down  to  our  times,  under  the  title,  Lux  in 
tenebris,  or  e  tenebris.  This  brought  upon  me  much  pains  and  labor, 
and  also  much  fear,  enmity,  and  hate ;  and  I  was  derided  for  my  cre- 
dulity. Although  some  of  these  prophecies  may  not  come  to  fulfill- 
ment, I  shall  avoid,  being  angry  thereat,  as  Jonah  was,  to  his  sorrow. 
For  perhaps  God  has  cause  to  change  his  purposes,  or,  at  least,  the 
revelation*  of  them ;  perhaps  he  chooses  thus  to  show  that  without 
him  men  know  nothing ;  in  order,  at  a  future  time  to  show  what  he 
can  do  without  man,  or  by  means  of  them,  if  he  shall  have  brought 
them  into  accordance  with  his  own  will. 

"  Where  shall  I  now  begin,  after  so  many  labyrinths  and  Sisyphian 
stones,  with  which  I  have  been  played  all  my  life  ?  Shall  I  say  with 
Elias  :  *  Now,  Oh  Lord,  take  away  my  life  from  me,  since  I  am  no  bet- 
ter than  my  fathers ;'  or  with  David  :  '  Forsake  me  not,  Oh  Lord,  in 
my  age,  until  I  shall  have  prophecied  all  that  thine  arm  shall  bring 
to  pass.'  Neither,  that  I  may  not  be  unhappy  with  painful  longing 
for  the  one  or  the  other;  but  I  will  have  my  life  and  death,  my  rest, 
and  my  labor,  according  to  the  will  of  God ;  and  with  closed  eyes 
will  follow  wherever  he  leads  me,  full  of  confidence  and  humility, 
praying,  with  David :  '  Lead  me  in  thy  wisdom,  and  at  last  receive 
me  into  glory.'  And  what  I  shall  do  hereafter,  shall  happen  no  oth- 
erwise than  as  if  directed  for  me  by  Christ,  so  that  the  longer  I  live 
the  more  I  may  be  contented  with  what  is  needful  for  me,  and  may 
burn  up  or  cast  away  all  that  is  unnecessary.  Would  that  I  were 
soon  to  depart  to  the  heavenly  country,  and  leave  behind  me  all 
earthly  things !  Yea,  I  will  cast  away  all  the  earthly  cares  which  I 
yet  have,  and  will  rather  burn  in  the  fire,  than  to  encumber  myself 
further  with  them. 

"To  explain  this,  my  last  declaration,  more  clearly,  I  say  that  a  little 
hut,  wherever  it  be,  shall  serve  me  instead  of  a  palace ;  or  if  I  have 

no  place  where  to  lay  my  head,  I  will  be  contented  after  the  example 
25 


386  JOHN  AMOS  COMENIUS. 

of  my  master,  though  none  receive  me  under  his  roof.  Or  I  will  re- 
main under  the  roof  of  the  sky,  as  did  he  during  that  last  night 
upon  the  Mount  of  Olives,  until,  like  the  beggar  Lazarus,  the  angels 
shall  receive  me  into  their  company.  Instead  of  a  costly  robe,  I  will 
be  contented,  like  John,  with  a  coarse  garment.  Bread  and  water 
shall  be  to  me  instead  of  a  costly  table,  and  if  I  have  therewith  a  few 
vegetables,  I  will  thank  God  for  them.  My  library  shall  consist  of 
the  threefold  book  of  God ;  my  philosophy  shall  be  with  David,  to 
consider  the  heavens  and  the  works  of  God,  and  to  wonder  that  He, 
the  Lord  of  so  great  a  kingdom,  should  condescend  to  look  upon  a 
poor  worm  like  me.  My  medicine  shall  be  a  little  eating  and  frequent 
fasting.  My  jurisprudence,  to  do  unto  others  as  I  would  that  they 
should  do  unto  me.  If  any  ask  after  my  theology,  I  will,  like  the 
dying  Thomas  Aquinas — for  I,  too,  shall  die  soon — take  my  Bible, 
and  say  with  tongue  and  heart,  *  I  believe  what  is  written  in  this 
book.'  If  he  asks  further  about  my  creed,  I  will  repeat  to  him  the 
apostolical  one,  for  I  know  none  shorter,  simpler,  or  more  expressive, 
or  that  cuts  off  all  controversy.  If  he  ask  for  my  form  of  prayer,  I 
will  show  him  the  Lord's  Prayer ;  since  no  one  can  give  a  better  key 
to  open  the  heart  of  the  father  than  his  only  son,  his  own  offspring. 
If  any  ask  after  my  rule  of  life,  there  are  the  ten  commandments  ; 
for  I  believe  no  one  can  better  tell  what  will  please  God  than  God 
himself.  If  any  seek  to  know  my  system  of  casuistry,  I  will  answer, 
every  thing  pertaining  to  myself  is  suspicious  to  me;  therefore  I  fear 
even  when  I  do  well,  and  say  humbly,  *  I  am  an  unprofitable  servant, 
have  patience  with  me !' 

"  But  what  will  admirers  of  earthly  wisdom  say  to  this  ?  they  will, 
no  doubt,  laugh  at  the  old  fool,  who,  from  the  highest  pinnacle  of  his 
honors,  falls  to  the  lowest  self-abasement.  Let  them  laugh,  if  it 
pleases  them ;  my  heart  will  also  laugh,  that  it  has  escaped  from 
error.  '  I  have  found  the  harbor,  farewell  fate  and  Accident  i*  says 
the  poet.  I  say,  I  have  found  Christ ;  depart,  ye  vain  idols !  He  is 
all  to  me.  His  footstool  is  more  to  me  than  all  the  thrones  of  the 
earth,  and  his  lowliness  more  than  all  grandeur.  It  seems  to  me  that 
I  have  found  a  heaven  below  the  heavens,  since  I  see  more  clearly 
than  of  old  the  footsteps  of  this  guide  toward  heaven.  To  follow 
these  footsteps  without  departing  from  them,  will  be  my  surest  way  to 
heaven.  My  life  here  was  not  my  native  country,  but  a  pilgrimage ; 
my  inn  was  ever  changing,  arid  I  found  nowhere  an  abiding  resting 
place.  But  now  I  see  my  heavenly  country  near  at  hand,  to  whose 
gates  my  Leader,  my  Light,  my  Saviour,  who  has  gone  before,  to 
prepare  a  place  for  me  in  his  father's  house,  has  brought  me.  He 


PEDAGOGICAL  WORKS  OF  COMENIUS.  3gf 

will  soon  come  to  take  me  to  be  where  he  is.  Yea,  Lord  Jesus,  I 
thank  thee,  thou  beginner  and  finisher  of  my  faith,  who  hast  brought 
me,  a  foolish  wanderer,  straying  a  thousand  ways  from  the  direction 
of  my  journey,  diverted  and  delayed  in  a  thousand  by-occupations,  so 
far  that  now  I  see  before  me  the  bounds  of  the  promised  land,  and 
have  only  to  cross  the  Jordan  of  death,  to  attain  even  unto  thy  love- 
liness. I  praise  and  glorify  thy  holy  wisdom,  O  my  Saviour,  that 
thou  hast  given  me  on  this  earth  no  home ;  but  that  it  has  been  for 
me  only  a  place  of  banishment  and  pilgrimage ;  and  I  can  say  with 
David,  *  I  am  thy  pilgrim  and  thy  citizen.'  I  can  not  say,  like  Ja- 
cob, 'My  days  are  few,  and  they  attain  not  unto  the  days  of  my  fa- 
thers,' for  thou  hast  caused  it  to  come  to  pass  that  they  surpass  the 
days  of  my  father  and  my  grandfather,  and  many  thousands  who 
have  passed  with  me  through  the  desert  of  this  life.  Why  thou  hast 
done  this,  thou  knowest.  I  commit  myself  into  thine  hands.  Thou 
hast  always  sent  an  angel  unto  me,  as  unto  Elias  in  the  desert,  with 
a  morsel  of  bread  and  a  draught  of  water,  that  I  should  not  die  of 
hunger  and  thirst.  Thou  has  preserved  me  from  the  universal  foolish- 
ness of  men,  who  always  mistake  pleasure  for  real  good ;  the  road 
for  the  destination;  striving  after  rest;  the  inn  for  a  home;  and  pil- 
grimage for  their  country ;  but  me  hast  thou  led,  and  even  forced,  to 
thy  Horeb.  Blessed  by  thy  holy  name !" 

PEDAGOGICAL  WORKS  OF  COMENIUS. 

1.  JANUA    LINGUARUM   RESERATA    AUREA    SIVE    SEMINARIUM    LINGUARUM    ET 
SCIENTIARUM  OMNIUM,  hoc  est,  compendiosa  Latiriam  (et  quamlibet  aliam)  linguam, 
una  cum  scientiarum  artium  que  omnium  fundamentis,  perdiscendi  methodus,  sub 
titulis  centum,  periodis   mille  comprehensa.     Editio  postrema,  prioribus  castiga- 
tior  et  mille  eirciter  vocabulis  auctior,  cum  versione  Germanica  et  Gallica,  abso- 
lutissimoque  titulorum  et  vocum  indice.     Amstelodami  apud  Joannem  Janssoni- 
um.     1642. 

I  am  not  acquainted  with  the  first  edition.  Comenius'  preface  is  signed  with 
*'  Scribebam  in  exilio  4  Martii.  1631." 

2.  PHYSICAE  AD  LUMEN  DIVINUM  REFORMATAE   SYNOPSIS.     Lipsiae,  1633. 

3.  ORBIS  SENSUALIUM  PICTUS,  hoc  est  omnium  fundamentalium  in  mundo  re- 
rum  et  in  vita  actionum,  pictura  et  nomenclatura.     Editio  secunda,  multo  emaeu- 
latior  et  emendatior.     Noribergae  typis  et  sumptibus  Michaelis  Endteri,  1659. 
The  visible  world  ;  that  is,  the  representation  and  names  of  all  the  principal 
things  of  the  world  and  occupations  of  life. 

I  am  unacquainted  with  the  first  edition.  Of  the  later  ones,  I  have  an  Orbis 
Pictus  Quadrilinguis,  in  Latin,  German,  Italian,  and  French,  which  was  edited  by 
Coutelle  and  published  by  Endter,  in  1755. 

4.  OPERA  DIDACTICA  OMNIA,  vai'iis  hucusque  occasionibus  scripta,  diversis  que 
locis  edita,  nunc  autem  non   lantum  in  unum,  ut  simul  sint,  collecta,  sed  et  ultimo 
conatu  in  systema  unum  meehanice  constructum,  redacta.     Amsterdam!  impen- 
sis  D.  Laurentii  de  Geer  excuderunt  Christophorus  Conradus  et  Gabriel  a  Roy. 
Anno,  1657.     4  vols.,  folio. 

Volume  I.  contains  the  following,  written  between  1627  and  1642  : 

1.  De  primis  occasionibus  quibus  hue  studiorum  delatus  fuit  author,  brevissima 
relatio. 

2.  Didactica  Magna.     Omnes  omnia  docendi  artificia  exhibens. 

3.  Schola  materni  gremi,  sive  de  provida  juventutis  primo  sexennio  educatione. 


388  PEDAGOGICAL  WORKS  OF  COMENIUS. 

4.  Scholae  vernaculae  delineatio. 

5.  Janua  Latinae  linguae  primum  edita.     (The  first  edition  of  the  Janua.) 

6.  Vestibulum  ei  praestructa. 

7.  Proplasma  templi  Latinitatis  Dav.  Vechneri. 

8.  De  sermon  is  Latini  studio. 

9.  Prodromus  Pansophiae. 

10.  Variorum  de  eo  cerisurae,  &c. 

Volume  II.  contains  treatises  written  from  1642  to  1650;  especially  those  of 
his  Swedish  engagement,  viz. : 

1.  De  novis  didactica  studia  continuandi  occasionibus. 

2.  Methodus  linguarum  novissima. 

3.  Latinae  linguae  vestibulum,  rerum  et  linguae  cardines  exhibens. 

4.  Januae  linguarum  novissimae  clavis,  grammatica  Latino-vernacula. 
Volume  III.  contains  treatises  written  by  Comenius  in  Hungary,  from  1650  to 

1654,  viz.: 

1.  De  vocatione  in  Hungarian!  relatio. 

2.  Scholae  pansophicae  delineatio. 

3.  De  repertis  studii  pansophici  obicibus. 

4.  De  ingeniorum  cultura. 

5.  De  ingenia  colendi  primario  instrumento,  libris. 

6.  De  reperta  ad  authores  Latinos  prompte  legendos  et  clare  intelligendos  faci- 
li,  brevi,  amoenaque  via. 

7.  Eruditionis  scholasticae  pars  1.     Vestibulum,  rernm  et  linguae  fundaments 
ponens.     ' 

8.  Eruditionis  seholasticae  pars  II.     Janua  rerum  et  linguarum  structuram  ex- 
ternam  exhibens.     This  includes 

a.  Lexicon  januale. 

b.  Grammatica  janualis. 

c.  Janualis  rerum  et  verborum  contextus,  historiolam  rerum  continens.     This  is 
a  revision  of  the  Janua  reserata,  in  one  hundred  chapters  and  one  thousand  para- 
graphs, as  in  the  first  edition. 

9.  Eruditiones  scholasticae  pars  III.     Atrium,  rerum  et  linguarum  ornamenta 
exhibens.     This  is,  like  the  Janua,  in  one  hundred  chapters  and  one  thousand 
paragraphs,  but  one  grade  above  it. 

10.  Fortius  redivivus,  sive  de  pellenda  scholis  ignavia. 

11.  Praecepta  morum  in  usurn  juventutis  collecta.     Anno  1653. 

12.  Leges  bene  ordinatae  scholae. 

13.  Orbis  Pictus.     Merely  a  sort  of  announcement  of  the  work. 

14.  Schola  ludus  ;  hoc  est,  Januae  linguarum  praxis  comica.     This  is,  substan- 
tially the  contents  of  the  Janua  linguarum  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue. 

15.  Laborum  scholasticorum   in  Hungaria  obitorum   coronis.     An  educational 
address  delivered  at  his  departure  from  Patak,  in  1654. 

Volume  IV.  includes  the  treatises  written   by  Comenius   in  Amsterdam,  up  to 
the  year  1 657,  viz. : 

1.  Vita  gyrus,  sive  de  occasionibus  vitae  et  quibus  autorem  in  Belgium  deferri, 
iterumque  ad  iutermissa  didactica  studia  redire  contigit. 

2.  Parvnlis  parvulis,  omnibus  omnia,  hoc  est,  Vestibuli  Latinae  linguae  aucta 
rium,  voces  primitivas  in  sententiolas  redigens. 

3.  Apologia  pro  Latinitate  Januae  linguarum. 

4.  Ventilabrum  sapientiae,  sive  sapienter  sua  retractandi  ars. 

5.  E  scholasticis  labyrinth  us  exitus  in  planum,  sive  machina  didactica  mechan- 
ice  constructs. 

6.  Latium  redivivum,  hoc  est,  de  forma  erigendi  Latinissimi  collegii,  seu  novae 
Romanae  civitatulae,  ubi  Latina  lingua  usu  et  consuetudine  addiscatur. 

7.  Typographeum  vivum,  hoc  est;  arscom  pendiose  et  tamen  copiose  ac  ele- 
ganter  sapientiam  non  chartis  sed  ingeniis  imprimendi. 

8.  Paradisus  juventuti   Christianae  reducendus,  sive  optim us  scholarum  status, 
ad  primae  paradisiacae  scholae  ideam  delineatus. 

9.  Traditio  lampadis,  hoc  est  studiorum  sapientiae  Christianaeque  juventutis  et 
scholarum,  Deo  et  hominibus  devota  commendatio. 

10.  Paralipomena  didactica. 

It  may  be  added,  that  Comenius  revised  an   edition  which  appeared  in  1661, 
of  the  Theologia  naturalis  sive  liber  creaturarum  of  Raymundus  de  Sabunde. 


DUKE  ERNEST  THE  PIOUS. 


SCHOOL   METHOD — 1643. 

DUKE  ERNEST,  founder  of  the  House  of  Saxa-Gotha,  was  the  first  to 
introduce  the  principles  and  methods  of  the  Progressives  into  Common 
Schools.  In  his  efforts  to  repair  the  devastations  of  the  war  in  his  prin- 
cipality, and  improve  the  condition  of  the  peasantry,  he  called  to  his 
assistance  Andrew  Reyher,  rector  of  a  gymnasium  in  Schleusingen, 
(born  May  4th,  1601,  in  Heinrichs,  near  Suhl.)  Reyher  was  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  principles  of  the  greatest  pedagogues  of  that  time, 
viz.,  Ratich  and  Comenius,  and  was,  as  a  teacher,  himself  a  represent- 
ative of  his  age.  The  first  thing  the  duke  desired  him  to  do  was  to  draw 
up  a  methodus  docendi  for  the  lower  classes  of  the  gymnasium,  but 
arranged  in  such  a  manner  that  it  might  be  useful  for  the  whole  country. 
Reyher,  whose  whole  life  had  been  devoted  to  nothing  but  "  didacticae," 
— as  he  declared  in  his  letter  to  the  consistory  of  the  duchy— went  vig- 
orously to  work  at  once.  The  duke  faithfully  assisted.  Reyher  relates : 
"  His  Grace  often  caused  me  repeatedly  to  alter  what  I  had  written,  until 
I  had  at  last  satisfied  him."  The  result  of  these  combined  labors  was 
received  in  Germany  partly  with  derision,  partly  with  astonishment  and 
enthusiasm.  It  bears  the  title  :  "  School-method,  or  special  and  par- 
ticular report,  stating  how,  under  the  protection  of  the  Lord,  the  boys 
and  girls  of  villages,  and  the  children  belonging  to  the  lower  class  of  the 
population  of  towns,  of  this  principality  of  Gotha  can  and  shall  be 
plainly  and  successfully  taught.  Written  by  the  order  of  his  Grace  the 
Prince,  and  printed  in  Gotha  by  Peter  Schmieden  in  the  year  1642."  This 
manual  of  school  method,  republished  with  alterations  in  1648,  1653, 
1662,  1672,  and  1685,  contained  minute  regulations  about  every  thing 
that  concerned  schools  and  teachers,  school  superintendence  and  govern- 
ment, parents  and  children.  The  manual  consists  of  thirteen  chapters. 
Chapter  /,  treats  of  the  nature  of  the  schools  in  general;  of  the  obligation 
of  the  children  to  attend  school,  (there  was  at  that  time  no  legal  obliga- 
tion ;)  of  their  admission  when  they  had  completed  their  fifth  year  ;  of 
attendance  at  school  in  Winter  and  Summer ;  of  vacations  ;  of  the  means 
to  obtain  the  school-books ;  of  a  didactic  and  methodical  instruction  of 
the  teacher.  It  is  interesting  to  meet  here  with  the  remark  that  the 
teacher  should  pay  particular  attention  to  the  poor  and  backward  chil- 
dren who  do  not  get  on  very  well  in  their  studies,  and  further  that  the 
teacher  himself  should,  in  pronouncing  words,  very  carefully  discriminate 
between  different  letters  which  are  vulgarly  sounded  alike.  Chapter  //, 
treats  of  the  instruction  in  the  lowest  class.  It  is  laid  down  as  a  rule, 
that  the  beginners  should  learn  Bible  verses,  the  Lord's  prayer,  the  arti- 


390  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION   IN   SAXE  COBURG  GOTHA. 

cles  of  faith,  the  ten  commandments,  and  morning  and  evening  prayers. 
The  method  of  teaching  the  elements  of  reading  is  similar  to  that  of 
Ratich  of  Kolhen,  with  which  the  duke  was  familiar,  Ratich  having  been 
instructor  to  the  duke's  mother.  The  manual  expects  of  this  class  that 
the  children  should  advance  from  spelling  to  reading  in  less  than  one 
year.  Chapter  III,  treats  of  the  instruction  in  the  intermediate  class. 
Here,  too,  we  find  extravagant  demands  made  upon  the  children  in  the  les- 
sons in  religion,  Luther's  catechism  to  be  committed  to  memory,  so  also  a 
number  of  psalms,  prayers  in  rhymes,  &c. ;  then  follow  instructions 
about  reading  lessons.  Penmanship  is  to  be  commenced  and  practiced  ; 
the  teacher  shall  correct  what  is  written,  and  pay  particular  attention  to 
orthography.  In  arithmetic,  addition  and  subtraction  shall  be  taught, 
and  the  multiplication  table  practiced.  Hymns  are  to  be  learned  in  the 
singing  lessons.  At  the  close  of  the  chapter,  the  reading  lessons  in  this 
class  are  again  emphasized.  Chapter  IV->  treats  of  the  instruction  in  the 
upper  class.  The  subjects  of  study  are  :  Religion,  reading,  writing, 
arithmetic,  &c.  Then  follow  special  instructions  for  composition,  and 
themes  for  composition  are  recommended  :  such  as  points  of  doctrine,  the 
art  of  dying,  certain  prayers,  and  the  secular  sciences,  e.  g.,  family  life, 
laws  of  the  country,  politics,  regulations  for  marriage,  baptism,  burial,  and 
dress;  prohibition  of  hard  drinking.  In  regard  to  orthography,  the 
methodus  states :  "  If  there  should  be  any  doubt  about  the  proper  spell- 
ing of  a  word,  either  the  minister  or  the  reading- book,  or  particularly 
the  Bible,  will  decide  the  point  in  doubt."  Chapter  V,  treats  of  the  les- 
sons in  school-hours.  For  every  school-hour  a  lesson  is  prescribed. 
Thus  :  Monday  morning,  first  hour,  catechism,  then  recitation  of  hymns, 
then  examination  about  Sunday's  sermon,  &c.  Chapter  VI,  treats  of  the 
method  to  teach  the  catechism  understandingly .  The  author  takes  the 
same  view  that  Luther  first  advanced  in  the  preface  to  his  smaller  cate- 
chism, viz.,  the  children  should  thoroughly  learn  the  catechism  by  heart, 
every  word ;  later,  (in  the  upper  class,)  that  shall  be  explained  which  has 
been  firmly  fixed  upon  the  memory.  The  minister  is  expected  to  assist 
the  teacher  once  every  week,  and  to  give  an  explanation  of  parts  of  the 
catechism  in  presence  of  the  teacher.  Chapter  VII,  treats  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  sermon  is  to  he  remembered  and  examined.  The  children 
shall  assemble  in  the  school-room  at  the  first  bell  on  Sunday  morning, 
and  proceed,  two  abreast,  with  the  preceptor,  to  church  on  the  second 
bell.  There  they  shall  pray,  and  write  down  the  sermon,  paying  atten- 
tion to  (a,)  the  prefatory  remarks;  (&,)  text  and  division  ;  (c,)  treatment 
of  each  point;  (d,)  the  blessed  application.  Chapter  VIII,  treats  of  nat- 
ural and  other  useful  sciences,  and  how  to  teach  them.  This  chapter,  cer- 
tainly the  most  interesting  of  the  whole  method,  and  remarkably 
similar  to  the  views  of  Amos  Comenius,  decides  that  this  branch  of 
instruction  shall  begin  when  the  children  have  done  their  other  lessons. 
Natural  science  should  first  be  spoken  of,  and  mensuration  and  surveying 
shall  only  be  taught  to  boys,  (a,)  Natural  science :  the  teacher  shall 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  SAXE-COBURG  GOTIIA. 


391 


explain  the  length  of  an  hour  by  an  hourglass  or  sundial ;  explain  the 
twelve  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  the  rising  and  setting  of  sun  and  moon. 
Speaking  of  shooting  stars  and  ignis  fatuus,  the  teacher  shall  mention 
the  flying  fire,  called  dragon,  condemn  all  superstitions,  and  teach  "  that 
it  is  not  always  the  Evil  One  who  plays  with  natural  objects,  but  that 
God  also  does  so  sometimes."  When  explaining  thunder  and  lightning, 
the  preceptor  shall  fire  a  gun,  and  demonstrate  that  the  flash  is  seen  first 
and  the  report  heard  later.  In  geography,  he  shall  show  the  points  of 
the  compass  by  stating  that  the  altar  of  the  church  is  always  in  the  East, 
that  hence,  when  looking  at  it,  West  will  be  found  in  the  rear,  South  on 
the  right,  North  on  the  left  of  the  observer.  Having  comprehended  this, 
the  children  should  observe  the  wind,  and  say  from  what  point  it  blows. 
The  principal  phenomena  of  earthquakes  are  to  be  explained.  But  the 
children  should  become  most  intimately  acquainted  with  herbs,  trees, 
and  shrubs,  and  the  preceptor  should  therefore  use  all  his  influence  to 
induce  neighbors  to  grow  such  plants  in  their  gardens,  and  also  to  obtain 
dried  and  stretched  plants  to  show  them  to  the  children,  calling  their 
attention  particularly  to  wood,  willow,  elder,  &c.  In  Zoology  the  chil- 
dren should  learn  to  see  in  what  one  animal  differs  from  another,  e.  g.,  a 
frog  from  a  toad,  and  the  preceptor  should  take  the  children  to  a  place 
where  a  pig  or  any  other  animal  is  killed,  point  out  and  give  the  proper 
names  to  the  several  parts,  and  remark  that  the  bodies  of  animals  agree 
in  many  parts  with  that  of  man.  (6,)  In  the  chapter  on  things  ecclesi- 
astic and  secular,  the  preceptor  shall  instruct  the  children  about  Thu- 
ringia ;  the  difference  between  villages  and  towns  ;  what  may  be  seen  in 
either,  as  ditches,  water-mills,  ramparts,  hospitals,  &c.  And  then  (150 
years  before  Pestalozzi)  we  find  here  the  principle  :  "  Every  thing  that 
can  be  shown  to  children  should  be  shown."  The  preceptor  shall  also 
give  information  about  government,  courts  of  justice,  laws,  taxes,  &c.,  of 
merchants  and  pedlars,  and  make  it  understood  what  a  blessing  good 
schools  are.  Lastly,  the  preceptor  shall  imprint  on  the  children's  minds 
a  number  of  good  domestic  rules,  (e,)  Among  the  other  sciences,  the 
manual  first  mentions  surveying.  The  teacher  should  not  only  give  the 
name  of  the  measure  and  of  the  carpenter's  rule,  but  show  them.  If 
any  thing  is  taught  that  can  be  drawn,  like  angles,  circles,  &c.,  the 
teacher  should  first  draw  it  on  the  tablet  (blackboard,)  and  then  cause 
the  children  to  imitate  it.  The  measuring  line,  the  plummet,  the  square, 
the  scale  of  reduction,  &c.,  are  to  be  explained.  When  speaking  of  cir- 
cles, it  should  be  shown  that  a  string  stretched  round  the  crown  of  a  hat 
is  a  little  more  than  three  times  its  diameter.  The  children  should 
then  be  taught  to  measure  and  compute  figures,  being  taken  into  gardens 
and  public  places  for  the  purpose.  The  same  should  be  done  with  ref- 
erence to  casks  and  other  hollow  measures.  To  render  the  instruction 
in  natural  philosophy  effective,  it  is  prescribed  that  there  shall  be  kept  in 
every  superintendent's  office,  a  balance  with  weights,  a  lever,  a  number 
of  blocks  with  rollers  and  ropes,  &c.,  with  which  the  preceptor  should 


392  PUBLIC   INSTRUCTION  IN  FAXE  COBURG-GOTHA 

experiment.  Chapter  IX,  speaks  of  Christian  discipline  and  godliness. 
The  necessity  of  a  good  school-discipline  is  pointed  out,  aiid  especially 
the  value  of  good  example  shown.  In  regard  to  punishments,  it  is  de- 
sired that  the  preceptor  should  not  inflict  punishment  when  angry  ;  he 
should  punish  with  temperance,  and  in  mixed  schools  without  offense  to 
the  other  sex.  Chapter  X,  treats  of  the  duties  and  of  the  conduct  of  the 
children.  The  moral  conduct  of  the  children  should  engage  the  greatest 
attention;  they  should  regularly  attend  school,  say  devoutly  their 
prayers  at  morning,  noon,  and  evening ;  sit  straight  in  school,  never 
walk  negligently  and  stoopingly ;  they  must  not  eat,  whisper,  laugh, 
play,  or  prompt ;  must,  when  answering,  speak  distinctly,  loud  and  not 
too  fast ;  they  must  be  always  tidy,  keep  quiet  at  school,  politely  bow  in 
the  street  to  all  ecclesiastic  and  secular  dignitaries ;  when  at  play,  not 
quarrel  or  use  bad  language ;  they  must  honor  their  parents,  not  steal, 
not  lie,  not  throw  stones,  not  bathe  cold,  &c.  Chapter  XI,  treats  of  the 
preceptor's  and  assistants  duties.  He  who  teaches  children  should  re- 
member that  to  neglect  a  pupil  is  to  commit  a  flagrant  sin.  He  should 
treat  the  children  kindly,  and  show  a  hearty  interest  in  them.  All  abu- 
sive language  is  prohibited,  and  such  words  as  scamp,  thief,  devil's  child, 
cur,  &c.,  must  not  be  used.  Punishment  is  to  be  inflicted  in  this  way  : 
the  child  is  to  be  reprimanded  and  threatened,  if  the  offense  be  not  great ; 
if  this  should  not  produce  the  desired  effect,  punishment  should  follow,  not 
however  with  sticks,  books,  keys,  or  fists ;  nor  is  the  delinquent  to  be 
pulled  by  the  hair,  nor  pushed,  nor  kicked  ;  but  the  rod  is  to  be  used, 
more  or  less  severely,  according  to  circumstances.  If  the  offense  should 
be  too  severe,  the  minister's  decision  should  be  requested.  The  pre- 
ceptors are  desired  faithfully  to  use  their  gifts,  bestowed  on  them  by  God  ; 
diligently  to  read  the  manual  and  to  act  accordingly  ;  to  pay  strict 
attention  to  the  sermon,  and  to  live  according  to  its  precepts.  He  is  ex- 
pected to  keep  school  very  punctually,  to  keep  careful  account  of  the 
absentees,  to  lead  a  godly,  quiet,  retired  life,  to  keep  good  fellowship  with 
his  colleagues,  and  to  show  due  respect  and  obedience  to  his  superiors, 
viz.,  the  superintendent,  the  assistant,  the  minister,  and  the  other  in- 
spectors. Chapter  XII,  treats  of  the  dutie*  of  parents  and  guardians. 
Parents  are  obliged  to  send  their  children  regularly  and  punctually  to 
school,  and  make  them  act  as  good  children  should.  According  to  the 
manual,  a  fine  is  to  be  levied  of  one  groschen  for  every  hour's  absence, 
for  the  first  offense ;  two  groschen  for  the  second  offense,  and  so  on  to 
six  groschen  for  each  hour's  absence.  The  money  thus  collected  by  fines 
shall  be  employed  for  the  purchase  of  school-books,  &c.,  for  indigent 
children.  The  chapter  closes  with  an  exhortation  addressed  to  the 
parents,  to  keep  good  discipline  at  home.  Chapter  XIII,  treats  of  the 
annual  examination.  There  shall  be  held  an  examination  every  year,  a 
week  before  harvest,  at  which  the  teacher  is 'required  to  exhibit  minute 
tables,  showing  the  number  of  pupils,  the  proficiency  and  absences  of 
each  child  ;  they  shall  also  show  how  far  the  children  have  advanced  in 


PUBLIC  LNSTRUCTION  IN   SAXE  COBURG  GOTHA.  393 

the  catechism,  articles  of  faith,  proverbs,  psalms,  reading,  writing,  sing- 
ing, arithmetic,  &c.  ;  they  shall,  lastly,  show  whether  there  has  been  any 
deficiency  of  books,  paper,  pens,  and  ink.  The  superintendents  or  as- 
sistants are  instructed  to  have  the  last  year's  tables  with  them,  to  collate 
them  with  those  of  the  present  year,  and  thus  arrive,  independently,  at 
a  result  about  the  progress  of  the  children.  Every  child  is  required  to 
write  a  copy,  do  a  sum,  and  read  in  the  examination,  in  order  to  prove 
that  the  report,  as  exhibited  in  the  tables  of  the  schoolmaster,  corres- 
ponds with  the  fact.  The  examination  closed,  the  examiners  shall  pro- 
nounce the  utranslocation,"  and  give  a  vacation  to  the  school. 

These  are  the  contents  of  the  school-manual,  (methodus,)  the  grandest 
work  of  the  many  grand  creations  of  Ernest  the  Pious,  and  that  in  a  time 
when  life  and  property  were  trodden  into  the  dust,  and  when  licentious 
mobs  stubbornly  resisted  the  establishment  of  schools — a  work  which 
was  destined  to  be  the  foundation  of  a  new  edifice  in  Germany,  because 
A.  H.  Franke,  (whose  father  was  counselor  to  the  duke,)  carried  into 
effect  subsequently  the  principles  of  the  school-methodus  in  Halle,  and 
rendered  it  thus  available  for  all  schools.  The  new  regulations  were  re- 
ceived with  laughter  and  derision  in  the  principality  of  Gotha  itself;  yet 
the  duke  was  not  disconcerted.  He  first  obtained  better  teachers,  built 
twenty  new  school-houses  as  models,  established  a  new  school-inspection, 
and  charged  rector  Reyher  to  get  the  necessary  school-books  for  teachers 
and  pupils.  "  The  German  Hornbook  and  Speller  for  children  of  the 
principality  of  Gotha'1'1  was  published,  1641;  "The  German  Reader" 
1642;  and  both  were  given  gratis  to  each  child,  an  instruction  which  is 
still  in  force.  Reyher  published  later  the  "Arithmetical"  and  (1656) 
the  "  Short  Instruction"  in  natural  objects,  in  some  useful  sciences,  in 
ecclesiastic  and  secular  institutions  of  the  country,  and  in  some  domestic 
prescripts;"  and  in  1655  he  published  some  patterns  of  catechising  on 
penitence,  the  virtues  and  vices  spoken  of  in  the  Ten  Commandments, 
on  the  va'ue  of  the  holy  communion,  &c.  When  it  was  reported  to  the 
duke  that  some  teachers  did  not  study  satisfactorily  for  their  self- 
improvement,  he  issued  an  order  that  they  should  study  arithmetic  and 
writing  more  earnestly,  either  by  themselves  or  with  their  pastors,  or  the 
inspectors  of  schools.  To  improve  the  domestic  education  of  the  chil- 
dren, a  "short  instruction  "  was  published,  1654,  "on  the  behavior,  &c., 
of  children,"  when  going  to  school,  at  dinner,  at  home,  in  church,  at 
play,  at  supper,  when  going  to  bed,  when  in  company  of  strangers, 
on  rising  early,  &c.  This  instruction  was  not  only  posted  in  every 
village,  but  the  duke  decreed,  May  1,  1654,  that  it  should  be  read 
in  every  school  on  examination  day,  in  presence  of  the  mayor,  citizens, 
and  elders  of  every  township.  But  it  is  not  only  for  the  inner  improve- 
ment of  schools  that  the  duke  labored  so  honestly  and  faithfully ;  it  is 
also  astonishing  how  much  he  did  to  improve  the  material  condition  of 
the  teachers,  by  raising  their  salaries  and  their  official  position.  Some 
facts  may  find  a  place  here.  There  existed  till  1646,  in  the  duchy  of 


394         PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  SAXE  COBURG  GOTHA. 

Gotha,  the  unreasonable  custom,  degrading  to  the  teacher,  by  which  he, 
like  the  cowherd  and  night-watchman,  was  compelled  to  renew  every  year 
the  petition  to  be  continued  in  his  office  and  to  receive  again  a  few 
groschen  as  an  earnest  (Leihkavf.)  The  duke  put  a  stop  to  this  practice 
by  the  decree  of  August  7th,  1646,  and  ordered  that  the  schoolmasters 
should  be  appointed  once  for  all  by  the  proper  authority.  Nobody  had 
thought  of  caring  for  the  teacher's  widow  and  orphans  until  he,  in  1645, 
visiting  a  school  in  the  bailiwic  of  Reinhardsbrunn,  and  finding  the 
teacher  sick  in  bed,  and  yet  faithfully  and  diligently  instructing  the  chil- 
dren, who  were  standing  around  him,  resolved  to  institute  a  fund  for 
invalid  teachers,  and  in  case  of  death,  their  widows.  And  how  much 
did  the  pious  prince  do  for  the  increase  of  the  teachers'  salaries!  First, 
he  set  aside,  from  his  private  property,  a  capital  of  27,000  m.  fl.,  at  I 
thalers  Prussian,)  partly  for  the  increase  of  salaries,  partly  for  the  pur- 
chase of  spelling-books  and  readers  for  the  children.  Then,  in  1650,  he 
prevailed  upon  the  estates  of  the  principality  to  vote  three  levies  of  taxes, 
in  three  succeeding  years,  amounting  in  all  to  30,750  m.  fl.,  for  the  in- 
crease of  the  ministers'  and  teachers'  salaries;  in  1660,  when  Henneberg 
was  annexed,  he  again  devoted  20,000  m.  fl.,  and  subsequently  increased 
this  foundation  for  other  charitable  purposes  (orphans,  poor,  church  and 
school  inspections)  to  142.021  m.  fl.,  9  groschen,  at  that  tinu  an  enor- 
mous sum.  He  gave,  moreover,  from  his  private  purse,  additional 
pay  to  those  teachers  who  distinguished  themselves  by  fidelity  and 
diligence  in  the  performance  of  their  duty.  This  amounted  to  l,657fl. 
in  1666.  Well,  therefore,  might  the  duke  recite  with  great  satisfaction 
to  Weller,  minister  of  state  at  Dresden,  on  the  12th  of  August,  1653,  that 
every  schoolmaster's  salary  in  his  country  amounted  at  least  to  50  fl.  in 
coin,  (equal  to  200  thalers  Prussian  money  at  present,)  and  besides  a 
house,  two  rations  of  bread  grain,  kitchen  vegetables,  wood,  &c.  This 
was,  in  fact,  a  respectable  salary  at  a  time  when  a  bushel  of  rye  flour  cost 
1  m.  fl.,  a  bushel  of  barley  15  groschen,  a  bushel  of  oats  9  gr.,  a  cord 
of  wood,  l£  thalers,  20  eggs  5  gr.,  a  yard  of  linen  (£  wide)  2  gr.,  8 
pfennigs.  The  duke,  "  mindful  of  his  Christian  duty  and  the  heavy 
responsibility  before  God's  throne  of  judgment,"  considered  the  increase 
of  salary  necessary.  These  improvements  in  the  condition  of  the  teach- 
ers receive,  however,  their  true  lustre  from  the  circumstance  that  the 
duke  was  not  induced  to  take  these  steps  by  personal  vanity,  but  by  true 
devotion  to  God  and  true  love  of  his  people,  and  secondly  from  the  cir- 
cumstance that  the  duke  proved  how  well  he  appreciated  the  hard  labor 
of  faithful  schoolmasters,  "  who,  in  their  schools,  lay  the  first  foundation 
of  true  Christianity,  performing  thus  the  most  important  and  most  dif- 
ficult task ;  wherefore  they  should  receive  a  sufficient  compensation." 
As  for  himself,  he  had  few  wants  ;  he  spent  his  income  for  others  *  "  A 

*Dr.  A.  Beck  relates,  in  his  Life  of  Ernest  the  Pious,  (Weimnr,  Bohlati,)  the  following  charac- 
teristic traits,  illustrating  the  duke's  economy:  The  duke  wrote  to  bailiff  Hackspnn,  in  Zella, 
giving  order  that  he  should  send  a  milch-cow  to  Reinhardsbrunn  as  a  birth-day  present  to  his 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  SAXE  COBURG  GOTHA. 


395 


prince,"  he  used  to  say,  "must  not  only  consider  that  Tie  is  a  man,  but 
that  his  subjects  too  are  men."  Knowing  all  this,  it  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at  that  the  people  in  all  Germany  said  :  "  The  duke's  peasants  are 
more  wide  awake  than  citizens  and  noblemen  elsewhere."  The  pious 
duke,  who,  during  his  life,  had  not  only  been  a  praying-Ernest  (Earnest) 
but  also  a  working-Ernest,  (Earnest,)  died  on  the  26th  of  March,  1675. 
On  his  death-bed  even,  he  admonished  the  officers  of  the  State  to  keep  up 
good  order  and  propriety  in  church  and  school.  His  body  has  moldered  in 
the  tomb  of  Margaret  church,  but  the  memory  of  this  just  man  remains 
a  blessing ! 

After  Ernest's  death,  the  land  was  divided  into  seven  portions,  and  Fred- 
eric I,  the  late  duke's  eldest  son,  succeeded  him  as  duke  of  Gotha- Alten- 
burg.  He  governed  from  1675  to  1691,  and  showed  the  deepest  reverence 
for  his  father's  admirable  institutions ;  yet  he  did  not  realize  the  expect- 
ations which  the  people  had  formed  of  the  pious  duke's  son  and  successor. 
He  had  the  best  will  to  further  the  condition  of  the  common  schools,  but 
he  was  deficient  in  insight,  energy,  and  money.  There  were  three  causes 
of  the  deficiency  in  money.  Firstly,  Frederic  was  but  duke  of  Gotha- 
Altenburg,  and  had  therefore  only  two-sevenths  of  his  father's  income. 
Secondly,  he  was  wanting  in  the  virtue  of  economy ;  he  spent  too  much 
for  his  court,  which  he  had  established  after  the  fashion  of  Louis  XIV, 
and  expended  a  large  portion  of  his  revenues  on  the  chase,  the  theatre, 
fireworks,  splendid  dresses,  expensive  dishes,  &c.  But,  thirdly,  the 
greatest  portion  of  his  revenue  was  swallowed  up  by  an  army,  which  he 
raised  to  six  regiments  of  cavalry  and  four  of  infantry  ;  an  armed  force 
so  extravagant  that  the  German  emperor,  in  1691,  grew  suspicious  of  the 
duke's  hostile  intentions  toward  him.  Thus  did  the  little  country  of 
Gotha  prove,  what  has  later  been  confirmed  by  other  and  larger  States, 
that  schools  never  flourish  where  the  military  is  too  much  favored.  The 
common  schools  visibly  deteriorated  in  Gotha,  and  alchemy,  to  which 
the  duke  had  devoted  himself  with  great  zeal  and  confidence,  proved  to 
be  incapable  of  procuring  the  means  necessary  for  the  prosperity  of 
schools.  Nor  was  the  son  of  Frederic  I,  duke  Frederic  IT,  (from  1693  to 
1732,)  able  to  stop  the  decline  of  the  common  schools.  He  imitated,  as 
his  father  had  done,  the  expensive  court  of  Versailles,  and,  in  spite  of 
the  earnest  remonstrances  of  the  assembly,  increased  the  annual  expenses 
for  the  army  to  165,124  thalers,  at  that  time  an  enormous  sum. 
The  bad  results  of  such  extravagance  could  not  be  neutralized,  either  by 
a  supplement  to  the  school-methodus,  published  in  1698,  or  by  the  other 
decrees  issued  in  the  interest  of  the  schools,  e.  g.,  1701,  directing  school 
statistics  to  be  carefully  kept;  1720,  his  grandfather's  school-laws  to 

duchess,  but  that  its  price  should  not  be  higher  than  five  florins.  Once,  when  passing  a  night  in 
one  of  his  castles,  he  extinguished  two  of  the  four  candles  placed  in  his  chamber,  and,  observing 
that  the  bailiff  used  two  candles  for  himself,  he  extinguished  one  of  them  too,  saying  that  these 
were  but  sorry  times.  Luxury,  he  used  to  say,  is  an  insatiable  glutton  ;  expensive  festivities,  the 
chase,  theatres,  ballets,  fireworks,  &c.,  are  apt  to  be  oppressive  to  the  subjects  of  a  prince. 


396  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  SAXECOBURG  GOTHA. 

be  read  once  every  year  in  school;  1726,  the  children  to  be  taught  to 
understand  the  difference  between  Catholics  and  Protestants,  &c.  Even 
the  ten  seminaria  scholastic^  founded  by  him  in  Friemar,  Eschenbergen, 
Ichtershausen,  Wolfis,  Leina,  Tambach,  Sattelstedt,  Erfa  or  Friedrichs- 
werth,  Wangenheim,  and  Kranigfeld,  were  very  soon  discontinued,  in 
consequence  of  the  want  of  money. 

During  the  reign  of  duke  Frederic  III,  (1732  to  1772,)  the  storm  of  the 
Seven  Years'  War  desolated  the  country,  and  it  relapsed  from  the 
condition  of  having  no  debt,  as  was  the  case  at  the  death  of  duke 
Ernest,  into  that  of  being  overwhelmed  with  debt.  The  schools  did 
not  improve,  but  quite  the  reverse  ;  misery  and  wretchedness  prevailed 
every  where.  Duke  Ernest's  school-manual  existed  still  de  jure,  but 
the  common  schools  had  received  no  encouragement.  Their  contin- 
uance was  all  that  had  been  cared  for ;  their  gradual  improvement  had 
been  neglected.  Thus  it  resulted  that  the  teacher  held  the  school- 
method  no  longer  in  proper  estimation,  as  it  had  become  altogether 
a  forgotten  document,  interesting  only  to  the  antiquary.  How  fearful 
the  demoralization  must  have  been,  can  be  learned  from  the  decrees 
issued  by  Frederic  III.  Thus  we  read  in  the  circular  of  the  consistory, 
(Sept.  llth,  1741 :)  "We  have,  with  great  displeasure,  perceived  that  a 
great  many  persons  make  teaching  their  profession  without  sufficient 
cultivation  of  their  faculties.  Many  of  the  teachers  have  employed  inca- 
pable masters  to  teach  them  a  little  instrumental  and  vocal  music,  which 
is  not  an  important  requisite,  but  they  are  unable  to  awaken  in  the  chil- 
dren's heads  a  true  understanding  of  the  catechism,  unable  to  jot  down 
the  sermon,  to  hear  the  children  recite,  much  more  unable  to  give 
instruction  about  any  thing  in  nature.  They  know  little  of  penmanship 
and  arithmetic,  and  yet,  in  spite  of  their  ignorance,  twenty  apply  for  one 
vacancy  in  a  school,  because,  as  they  say,  they  have  learned  noth- 
ing else  by  which  to  make  a  living.  They  do  so  from  love  of  a  com- 
fortable life,  and  from  fear  of  the  plough  ;  but  this  must  and  shall  be 
stopped,  and  our  most  gracious  duke  has  therefore  pleased  to  decree 
that  you  (superintendents)  are  required  to  select  teachers  from  }'oung 
men  of  ability,  who  will  devote  themselves  for  life  and  with  enthusiasm 
to  this  work,  and  to  reject  bungling  boys,"  &c.  How  little  such  decrees 
effected,  and  how  little  power  the  consistory  possessed  to  give  force  to 
such  decrees,  is  shown  by  the  number  of  monitory  decrees  of  Oct.  11, 
1746;  July  7,  1750;  Oct.  2,  1750;  April  16,  1760.  The  chairs  of  the 
teachers  remained  occupied  by  the  poorest  pupils  of  a  gymnasium,  dis- 
charged corporals,  bankrupt  tradesmen,  and,  above  all,  by  servants  of 
the  household  of  a  count,  (patron  of  a  school,)  who  had  outlived  their 
usefulness  in  the  family.  They  brought  the  once  celebrated  Gotha 
schools  into  discredit. 

These  abuses  were  checked  with  a  vigorous  hand  by  duke  Ernest  IT, 
of  Gotha- Altenburg  (1772  to  1804.)  It  was  "Ernest  the  Wise,"  son  of 
Frederic  III,  who  called,  in  1783,  Christian  Gotthilf  Salzrnann,  teacher 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN   SAXE  COBURG  GOTHA.  39*7 

of  religion  at  the  Philantropin  in  Dessau,  to  Gotha,  and  assisted  him 
most  liberally  in  the  establishment  of  the  educational  institute  atSchnep- 
fenthal  in  1784,  partly  by  a  donation  of  4,000  thalers,  partly  by  the  loan 
of  5,000  thalers  without  interest,  and  partly  by  other  privileges  and 
grants.  It  was  Ernest  II,  the  great  contemporary  of  Joseph  II,  and  in- 
timate friend  of  Goethe  and  Herder,  who  founded,  in  1780,  the  seminary 
for  teachers  in  Gotha,  and  appointed  John  Ernest  Christian  Haun,  min- 
ister to  the  orphan  asylum,  to  be  its  senior  teacher  and  "  master  of 
method."  It  was  Ernest  II,  the  savant  among  contemporary  princes, 
who  raised  the  Gotha  schools  again  to  eminence,  and  made  them,  for  the 
second  time,  patterns  for  all  countries.  As  Ernest  the  Pious  had  em- 
ployed Reyher  for  the  execution  of  his  reformatory  plans,  so  Ernest  II 
employed  Haun.  The  latter  received  his  appointment  as  inspector  of 
the  country  schools  in  1783,  and  it  was  his  privilege  and  duty  to  subject 
all  schools,  except  the  town-schools,  to  a  vigorous  and  minute  inspection. 
Haun  discharged  this  mission,  during  the  eighteen  years  he  held  the 
position,  in  a  manner  which  does  credit  to  his  judgment  as  an  educator, 
and  to  his  character  as  a  man.  Of  a  nature  like  Elias,  inexorable  and 
unyielding,  Haun  rushed  like  a  whirlwind  into  the  corrupt  Gotha  schools, 
cleansing  them  thoroughly  from  the  chaff  of  incapable  teachers.  He  was 
not  only  a  terror  to  all  good-for-nothing  teachers,  but  he  performed  a 
more  -meritorious  work,  viz.,  he  applied  his  practical  ability  to  the  edu- 
cation of  a  new  generation  of  teachers,  and  cleared  the  way  for  the 
introduction  of  the  latest  improvements  into  the  common  schools.  Haun 
required  that  any  piece,  singled  out  for  declamation,  should  be  explained 
to  the  child  before  committing  it  to  memory  ;  he  desired  clear  under- 
standing in  place  of  senseless  memory-work,  and  practical  and  logical 
instruction  in  place  of  the  old  stupefying  method.  He  abolished  the 
tyrannical  school-discipline  ;  he  forbade  teachers  to  put  irons  around  the 
boys'  necks,  to  cover  them  with  mud,  or  to  make  them  kneel  on  peas. 
He  punished  those  teachers  severely  who  gave  holydays  without  per- 
mission. The  old  servants  of  noblemen,  when  not  equal  to  the  new  work, 
were  superseded.  In  a  short  time  the  inert  mass  became  animated  with 
life,  and  the  germs  of  a  new  and  better  period  began  to  develop  every 
where.  It  was  but  natural  that  Haun,  "the  wicked  innovator,"  made  many 
enemies  by  his  energetic  proceedings  ;  yet  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  his 
worst  enemies  were  just  those  who  ought  to  have  assisted  him  most  vigor- 
ously, viz.,  the  clergy  of  the  country.  Their  opposition  assumed  a  shape 
which  we,  in  our  days,  can  scarcely  believe.*  What  the  clergy,  in  alliance 
with  the  worthless  among  the  schoolmasters,  could  not  effect,  was  tried 
by  the  feudal  lords  and  noble  school-patrons.  The  counts  and  knights, 
as  well  as  the  late  Hohenlohe  counselors,  protested  in  the  assembly 
against  any  tax  on  church-property,  to  be  applied  as  a  contribution 
toward  the  salary  of  the  land-school  inspector,  and  utterly  refused  to 
employ  those  teachers  who  had  been  educated  in  Haun's  seminary.  But 

*  Second  annual  Report  of  the  Gotha  Seminary  for  teachers,  p.  31,  seq. 


398 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION   IN  SAXECOBURG  GOTHA. 


Haun  came  out  of  all  these  struggles  a  victor.  Thus  was  attained  what, 
twenty  years  before,  would  have  been  considered  impossible,  viz. :  the 
Gotha  common  schools  were  reconstructed  from  their  very  foundation,  a 
superior  generation  of  teachers  was  educated,  and  sensible  methods  of 
teaching  were  introduced.  "  The  common-school  methodus,  or  practical 
instruction  for  inspectors  and  teachers  of  every  kind  of  elementary 
schools,  also  for  private  teachers ;  illustrated  by  correct  tables  con- 
structed by  J.  E.  Christian  Haun  ;  published  (1801)  by  Geo.  Adam 
Keyser,  in  Erfurt,"  contains,  according  to  a  statement  in  the  preface,  a 
description  of  the  methods  of  teaching  in  the  Gotha  schools ;  and  ren- 
ders it  therefore  a  speaking  witness  of  the  spirit  of  that  time.  It  would 
lead  too  far  to  give  here  the  contents  of  Haun's  school  methodus,  but  this 
one  remark  may  be  allowed,  that  this  work,  tested  by  the  pedagogic  prin- 
ciples of  the  period  preceding  and  following,  shows  all  the  deficiencies 
and  merits  which  are  peculiar  to  the  deism  and  philanthropinism  of  the 
last  century,  and  that  undoubtedly  the  schools  which  were  taught  ac- 
cording to  Haun's  methodus,  were  the  best  of  their  time.  The  book, 
in  spite  of  the  utilitarianism  it  displays,  gives  evidence  of  a  strictly  moral 
spirit,  a  clear  comprehension,  a  strict  discrimination,  earnest  exertions, 
and.  above  all,  practical  applicability.  It  is  a  pity  that  the  indefatigable 
Haun  should  have  fallen  so  soon  a  sacrifice  to  his  zeal  and  his  exertions ; 
he  died,  only  53  years  old,  March  22d,  1801.  But  it  is  much  more  to 
be  regretted  that  Haun's  untimely  death  should  have  been  followed  by 
a  long  pause  in  the  development  of  the  common  schools.  The  Gotha 
schools  shine  for  a  time,  after  duke  Ernest's  death,  in  the  reflected  light 
of  their  past  glory,  but  then  disappear  altogether  from  the  history  of  edu- 
cation. 

As  the  party  of  reaction  had  seized  upon  the  Gotha  public  schools 
after  the  death  of  Ernest  the  Pious  ;  so  did  they  now,  after  the  death  of 
Ernest  II.  What  was  done  in  reference  to  schools  under  his  successors, 
down  to  the  extinction  of  the  line  of  Gotha's  princes  and  to  the  consoli- 
dation of  Gotha  with  Coburg  in  1826,  is  not  worth  mentioning.  The 
successors  of  practical  Haun  labored  neither  in  the  seminary  nor  as 
inspectors  of  schools,  in  the  spirit  of  sound  pedagogic  science.  The  mis- 
take made  was  simply  this,  that  those  gentlemen  were  learned  ecclesi- 
astics, but  certainly  not  practical  educators,  without  a  clear  understanding 
of  the  nature  of  schools,  and  without  interest  in  their  successful  devel- 
opment. Thus  it- will  be  understood  why  Ernest's  school-plan,  though 
still  the  law,  was  in  fact  neglected,  and  why  Haun's  school  methodus  was 
not  followed.  Nobody  caring  for  the  monthly  plans  of  lessons,  the 
public  schools  had,  for  a  long  time,  no  plan  at  all,  no  method  what- 
ever. Every  one  did  what  he  liked,  as  he  liked  it,  and  because  he 
liked  it.  Voight's  scientific  text-book,  which  had  been  used  in  the 
Gotha  schools,  was  discarded  by  the  consistory,  "because  it  is  un- 
necessary to  teach  in  elementary  schools  the  German  language,  history, 
and  geography;  the  teaching  of  these  branches  make  men  neither  better. 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  SAXE  COBURG  GOTHA 


390 


nor  wiser,  nor  more  diligent,  nor  more  happy."  The  School-Reader, 
composed  by  superintendent-general  Loeffler,  was  discarded  with  the 
remark,  "  that  instruction  in  religion  by  proverbs  and  verses,  only,  was 
not  sufficient ;  that  the  articles  of  faith  were  passed  over,  and  that  morals 
were  not  taught  in  detail."  The  principle  of  object-teaching  was  ridi- 
culed ;  a  person  of  quality  saying  "  that  exercises  in  comparing  and  dis- 
criminating visible  objects,  as  a  dwelling-house  and  a  church,  a  sheep 
and  a  goose,  &c.,  were  laughed  at  by  the  parents ;  such  objects  could  be 
taken  one  for  the  other  by  a  lunatic,  only  ;  that  there  were  invisible  ob- 
jects enough  to  exercise  the  understanding  of  children  by,  as  moral 
ideas,  the  difference  between  economy  and  stinginess,  of  mirth  and  wan- 
tonness, &c."  The  post  of  an  inspector  of  country  schools  was  repealed 
in  1817.  The  teachers  were  henceforth  no  longer  specially  inspected  at 
their  ordinary  work ;  they  passed  again  under  the  general  control  of 
ecclesiastics,  who  took  the  school,  for  inspection,  into  their  churches. 
The  local  inspection  by  the  local  ministers  was  either  altogether  neg- 
lected, or  very  rarely  and  superficially  performed.  Prussia  and  the 
neighboring  states  of  Thuringia,  viz.,  Weimar,  Meiningen,  Rudolstadt, 
sent  delegates  to  Pestalozzi,  in  order  to  study  his  system  of  teaching, 
with  a  view  of  engrafting  it  upon  their  own  systems.  Gotha  thought  it 
not  worth  her  while  to  notice  a  phenomenon,  which  marked  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of  teaching.  The  most  reasonable 
requests  of  Mr.  Waitz,  director  of  the  seminary,  were  refused.  It  will 
scarcely  be  believed,  and  yet  it  is  true,  that  the  seminary  for  teachers  in 
Gotha,  together  with  the  seminary  school,  were,  till  1846,  penned  up  in 
one  single,  small,  damp  hired  room  of  the  penitentiary,  and  that  it  was 
seriously  proposed  to  dissolve  the  school  altogether,  "in  order  that  the 
more  important  might  not  suffer  by  the  less  important."  A  somewhat 
more  decent  locality  was  at  last  found  in  1846;  a  Reader  for  common 
schools  was  published  in  1854,  but  a  plan  of  studies,  a  programme  for 
the  internal  work,  was  not  issued  before  1860.  In  brief,  the  consistory 
dissolved  in  1858,  and  committed  so  many  and  so  great  blunders,  was 
guilty  of  so  great  a  neglect  of  the  schools,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at,  that  things  came  to  such  a  pass  in  Gotha.  It  is,  however,  the 
duty  of  truthfulness  and  gratitude  distinctly  to  state,  that  the  author- 
ities in  Gotha  have  done  every  thing,  since  1848,  to  atone  for  the 
mistakes  of  the  past,  and  that  particularly  the  State  ministry  have  done 
all  in  their  power  to  prevent  the  differences  between  church  and  school 
from  widening  into  a  complete  rupture.  They  have  not  been  wanting  in 
good  will,  devotion,  and  sacrifice  ;  yet  as  every  sin  is  revenged  on  earth, 
so.  it  happens  in  this  case.  The  seeds  of  the  past  have  yielded  their 
fruit.  The  controversy  grew  more  and  more  pointed,  the  wildly  surging 
waves  of  hostility  engulfed  the  well-meant  mediation  of  the  State  min- 
istry, and  buried  in  their  flood  the  whole  relation  that  had  hitherto 
existed  between  church  and  school.  The  organization  of  common  schools, 
published  in  1863,  gave  clear  expression  to  the  tendencies  of  the  spirit 


400  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  SAXE  COBURG  GOTHA. 

of  our  time,  and  proclaimed  the  separation  of  school  and  church,  or 
rather  the  discontinuance  of  clerical  supervision  over  the  schools. 

B.  THE  PRESENT  CONDITION  OF  SCHOOLS. 

A  programme  of  instruction  regulates  the  inner  life  of  the  common 
schools,  the  organic  statute  regulates  their  other  relations.  Superintend- 
ent-general Dr.  Petersen  speaks  about  the  programme  in  the  assembly,  in 
1863,  in  this  manner  :  "A  so-called  table  of  lessons  was,  at  the  beginning 
of  this  century,  (1810.)  prescribed  for  our  common  schools.  It  referred 
originally  only  to  recitations  from  memory,  but  was  gradually  applied  to 
other  subjects  of  instruction.  This  table  of  lessons,  used  in  our  schools 
for  a  long  time,  has  by  degrees  disappeared ;  nor  could  any  copies  be 
found  at  the  office  of  the  consistory.  The  public  schools  had,  moreover, 
in  their  general  development,  gone  much  farther  than  the  table  pre- 
scribed. The  government,  therefore,  found  itself  under  the  necessity  of 
composing  a  new  programme  in  agreement  with  the  demands  of  our 
time.  Many  preliminary  labors  had  to  be  gone  through ;  the  local 
managers  held  meetings  to  hear  the  opinions  of  the  teachers,  and  reported 
from  each  district ;  an  enormous  pile  of  documents  accumulated.  When 
these  preliminary  labors  were,  after  some  years,  so  far  completed  as  to 
allow  a  general  survey,  the  results  of  these  accumulated  official  docu- 
ments and  of  the  experience  of  the  common  schools  in  Germany  in  gen- 
eral, had  to  be  worked  into  a  system.  Though  the  programme  has  thus 
been  constructed,  yet  the  government  did  not  consider  it  right  to  issue 
that  document  at  once  as  an  instruction.  A  special  committee  was  ap- 
pointed, to  which  there  were  called  three  of  our  most  able  teachers, 
Fitter,  Keher,  Burbach,  and  three  ministers,  Harter,  Anacker,  Bieber. 
The  committee  examined  section  after  section,  and  thus  a  programme 
was  composed  which  is  the  result  not  only  of  the  experience  in  our  own 
schools,  but  also  in  those  of  all  Germany."  The  programme,  of 
which  Liibin  says,  that  it  is  in  every  respect  equal  to  all  the  demands  of 
the  science  of  teaching,  and  that  it  shows  none  of  the  mistakes  which 
have  been  committed  by  the  Prussian  instructions,  is  noticeable  also  for 
this,  that  it  marks  down  "  Diesterweg's  guide  to  education,  for  German 
teachers,"  in  the  "catalogue  of  books  of  reference"  recommended  to 
teachers. 

The  programme  contains,  in  six  chapters,  the  whole  mechanism  of 
public  schools :  Chapter  /,  treats  of  the  division  of  the  school  into 
classes,  and  prescribes  that  every  common  school,  in  which  all  the  chil- 
dren are  taught  by  one  teacher,  shall  be  divided  into  four  classes,  viz.  : 
1st  class,  children  in  their  first  school-year ;  2d  class,  children  in  their 
second  and  third  year  ;  3d  class,  children  in  their  fourth  and  fifth  year, 
and  4th  class,  children  in  their  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  years.  Chap- 
ter //,  treats  of  the  number  of  recitations  and  their  order  during  the  day, 
of  the  time  of  beginning  the  school,  &c.  Chapter  III,  treats  of  the  sub- 
jects of  instruction  in  the  different  classes,  viz.  :  Religion,  German, 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  SAXE-COBURG-QOTHA. 


401 


(reading  and  writing,)  arithmetic,  geography  and  history,  singing,  draw- 
ing. In  girls'  schools,  needle-work  is  obligatory  and  regulated  by  special 
instructions.  Chapter  IV,  contains  hints  about  the  plan  of  teaching  in 
'•  divided  "  or  graded  schools.  Chapter  F,  contains  the  method  which 
characterizes  the  spirit  of  the  whole  programme.  Some  extracts  may 
profitably  find  a  place  here  :  "  Teaching  attains  its  full  value  only  when 
it  promotes  education  and  nourishes  a  moral  religious  sense  in  the  young. 
It  is  a  fundamental  law  that  the  school  shall  not  only  be  an  institution 
for  instruction,  but,  above  all,  an  institution  for  education.  The  teacher 
must,  by  his  personal  conduct,  always  maintain  a  moral  influence  over 
the  children  in  his  trust,  and  treat  the  subjects  taught  in  such  a  manner 
that  he  may  educate  through  his  instruction."  "The  teachers  should 
always  bear  in  mind,  that  the  children  must  be  properly  educated  for 
practical  life  by  his  teaching.  Cramming  and  reciting  the  lessons  will 
therefore  not  at  all  answer  the  purpose  ;  the  teacher  should  rather  ear- 
nestly labor  to  produce  a  perfect  understanding  of  the  lesson,  to  assim- 
ilate it  with  the  mind  of  the  child,  and  to  continue  the  exercises  until  the 
child  is  prepared  to  make  independently  a  practical  application  of  it. 
Care  should  at  the  same  time  be  taken  that  the  faculties  of  the  children 
be  naturally  developed.  The  important  principle,  "  to  instruct  in  such  a 
manner,  that  the  child  understands  you  perfectly,"  should  not  be  taken 
as  a  general  law  only,  but  be  also  applied  to  every  special  case.  To  treat 
a  subject  so  as  to  make  it  the  absolute  property  of  the  child,  necessarily 
involves  a  certain  routine  and  technical  skill  in  teaching.  And  yet 
teaching  and  learning  must  not  be  a  mere  mechanism ;  it  should  rather 
be  a  quickening  activity  of  the  mind,  the  mechanism  but  the  means, 
skillfully  applied,  to  attain  the  end."  "  The  school  is  intended  to  educate 
for  work  in  general,  by  leading  children,  in  appropriating  and  applying 
the  subject  taught  to  them,  to  exercise  their  own  powers  vigorously  and 
freely,  and  at  the  same  time  carefully  and  strictly.  Let  the  teacher  set 
an  example  by  performing  his  daily  round  of  duties  with  cheerful  devo- 
tion, conscientious  even  in  the  smallest  details,  that  the  children  may 
learn  to  devote  themselves  with  cheerful  devotion  and  great  carefulness 
to  their  labors  in  school.  This  exercise  in  doing  work  is  a  main  object 
of  school  teaching.  But  the  pleasure  in  and  love  of  work  in  school  must 
be  excited  by  that  instruction  which  renders  a  thorough  understanding 
and  practical  application  possible.  The  teacher,  therefore,  must  always 
bear  in  mind,  first,  that  every  child,  even  the  smallest,  should  be  oc- 
cupied in  school  with  a  work  for  which  its  understanding  and  its  powers 
have  previously  been  prepared,  and,  secondly,  that  every  subject  of 
instruction,  as  soon  as  it  is  understood,  should  be  applied  to  independent 
exercises.  Such  work  is  intended  to  exercise  the  faculties  and  powers 
of  a  child  in  such  a  manner  as  to  enable  it  to  perform  every  labor  in 
practical  life  with  cheerful  devotion,  and  at  the  same  time  with  careful- 
ness and  ability."  "A  mechanical  method  should  be  particularly  avoided 
in  the  religious  instruction,  as  it  might  mislead  the  children  to  consider 

26 


402  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN   SAXE-COBURG  GOTHA. 

religion  to  be  something  external.  The  memory  exercises  should,  there- 
fore, be  more  than  "learning  by  rote ;"  the  children  should  be  accus- 
tomed, from  the  very  beginning,  to  lay  hold  of  that  which  they  commit  to 
memory,  both  with  the  understanding  and  the  heart,  and  to  store  it 
up  for  application  in  life."  "  The  method  of  teaching  how  to  read  may 
be  left  to  the  option  of  each  teacher,  but  he  should  very  carefully  avoid 
making  it  a  purely  mechanical  exercise.  The  younger  teachers,  how- 
ever, are  required  to  employ  one  of  the  modern  methods."  "  The  chil- 
dren are  to  be  accustomed  to  read  with  attention,  and  to  remember  what 
they  have  read."  "  The  principal  laws  of  the  formation  of  words  and  sen- 
tences should  be  practiced,  in  connection  with  the  reading  exercise,  in  this 
manner,  that  the  children,  by  degrees,  learn  to  point  out  the  general  rules 
and  the  principal  laws  of  the  language."  "  In  arithmetic,  mental  calcula- 
tions mainly  should  be  practiced ;  exercises  on  the  slate  should,  however, 
always  be  connected  with  them."  To  instruct  the  children  in  general 
knowledge  of  the  earth  and  its  products,  it  is  desirable  that  the  teacher 
should  collect,  with  the  children's  assistance,  a  number  of  natural  objects 
"  Completeness  and  systematic  order  are,  however,  not  necessary  ;  i't 
suffices  if  a  number  of  stones,  dried  plants,  seeds  and  similar  objects  arc> 
kept  cleanly  and  neatly  in  boxes,  and  used  according  to  need.  Fresh 
plants,  flowers  and  fruits  can  be  used  for  instruction  in  Spring,  Summer, 
and  Autumn.  During  Winter,  examine  objects  merely  as  to  their  shape 
and  their  boundaries  by  planes  and  lines ;  take  for  that  purpose 
regular  solids,  such  as  cubes,  spheres,  prisms,  pyramids,  cylinders, 
cones,  &c.,  which  the  teacher  may  easily  construct  of  pasteboard. 
Let  not  the  teacher  attend,  in  the  beginning,  to  so-called  systematic  di- 
visions and  classifications,  nor  let  him  be  contented  with  dry,  isolated 
notices,  but  let  him  give  animated  descriptions  of  nature.  The  system- 
atic classification  should  be  given  at  the  closing  chapter  of  the  whole 
instruction  in  the  highest  class.  Every  thing  that  has  connection  with 
agriculture  claims  particular  attention  ;  horticulture  should,  if  possible,  be 
practically  taught  to  the  pupils  of  the  highest  class.  Let  the  teacher 
bear  in  mind  that  in  imparting  to  the  children  the  knowledge  of  the  earth 
and  its  products,  he  should  not  only  communicate  to  them  useful  inform- 
ation, but  also  awaken  and  nourish  in  them  a  sense  of  the  beautiful  and 
magnificent  in  nature  and  that  which  is  noble  and  good  in  history."  The 
object  of  the  drawing  lesson  is  "correct  measuring  by  the  eye,  skill  in 
using  the  ruler,  which  should  also  be  used  as  a  carpenter's  rule,  and 
facility  in  sketching  simple  figures."  "  The  culture  of  the  voice  should 
be  highly  valued.  Let  the  teacher  understand  that  singing  can  and  must 
be  one  of  the  principal  levers  of  education ;  that  its  influence  is  great 
and  lasting."  "  In  connection  with  the  culture  of  the  children's  in- 
tellects, the  most  earnest  attention  should  be  paid  to  their  bodily  welfare. 
The  school  can  and  must  have  a  salutary  influence  on  the  after  life,  by 
producing  habits  of  order,  cleanliness,  and  good  manners.  The  carriage 
of  the  body  should  always  be  under  the  watchful  eye  of  the  teacher ;  he 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION   IN    SAXE  COBURG  GOTH  A.  ^QQ 

must  keep  his  school  also,  in  this  respect,  in  good  discipline,  that  the 
children  avoid  carelessness  in  sitting,  walking,  or  standing,  and  that  they 
always  show  by  their  deportment  a  firm  government  over  their  body. 
Systematic  gymnastics  serve  this  purpose  best,  and  ought,  therefore, 
to  be  diligently  practiced. 

Such  is  the  programme  of  the  Gotha  common  schools.  The  spirit  of 
modern  education  pervades  it,  and  it  shows  this  spirit  principally  by  the 
accompanying  decree,  in  which  the  following  passage  occurs:  "The 
ephori  are  lastly  enjoined  henceforth  to  enumerate  in  their  reports  on 
school-visitations  and  conferences,  their  observations  and  experiences  in 
regard  to  this  programme  ;  for  it  is  the* intention  to  complete  and  rectify 
it,  wherever  necessary,  according  to  the  collected  observations  and  ex- 
periences, so  that  it  may  be  improved  more  and  more  satisfactorily  as  the 
theory  and  practice  of  teaching  improve." 

The  law  of  common  schools  for  the  duchy  of  Gotha,  issued  in  June, 
1863,  is  in  perfect  harmony  with  this  programme.  It  is  arranged  under 
eight  sections,  which  are  subdivided  into  one  hundred  articles ;  it  is  an 
exponent  of  the  principles  on  which  modern  schools  rest.  Section  7, 
Art.  1  to  5,  treats  of  the  general  rights  and  duties  of  the  citizens,  as 
regards  the  instruction  of  the  young.  Art.  1,  The  duty  to  attend  school 
as  a  general  law.  Art.  2,  treats  of  the  branches  of  instruction  in  a 
common  school.  The  instruction — says  this  law — shall  embrace  the  fol- 
lowing branches  :  Religion,  German  language,  exercises  in  reading  and 
writing,  arithmetic,  geography,  history,  natural  history  and  philosophy, 
singing,  drawing,  and  gymnastics.  The  teaching  of  religion  in  common 
schools  shall  be  founded  on  Bible  history,  particularly  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament. When  the  children  commence  to  receive  instruction  to  qualify 
them  for  their  first  communion,  they  will  be  excused  from  this  branch  of 
instruction  in  the  school.  Art.  3,  treats  of  the  objects  the  common  school 
has  in  view,  and  the  means  to  attain  them.  "  The  common  school  is 
intended  to  educate  children  to  a  self-conscious,  moral  activity,  and  to 
develop  their  intellectual  faculties."  There  shall  not  be  taught  any  thing 
which  is  above  the  perceptive  faculties  of  children ;  their  memory  shall 
not  be  burdened  with  any  thing  that  has  not  previously  been  perfectly 
explained."  "  The  disciplinary  power  of  the  teacher  shall  be  in  harmony 
with  the  paternal  character  of  the  office  of  a  teacher."  Art.  4,  extends 
the  obligation  to  attend  school  over  a  period  of  eight  years.  Art.  5,  pro- 
vides for  the  attendance  in  a  higher  class  of  schools,  or  proper  private 
instruction,  as  a  discharge  from  the  obligation  to  attend  the  public  school. 
Section  //,  Art.  6  to  11,  defines  the  duties  and  rights  of  the  school- 
districts,  concerning  organization  and  maintenance  of  schools.  Art.  6, 
determines  the  limits  of  school-districts  ;  and  the  consolidation  of  several 
into  one.  Art.  7,  provides  for  every  district  one  common  school,  and 
more  if  necessary.  Art.  8,  fixes  the  normal  number  of  children  in  a 
common  school  at  eighty.  The  number  of  teachers,  as  well  as  of  school- 
rooms, must  be  increased  in  proportion  to  the  excess  over  this  number. 


404  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  SAXE  COBURG  GOTHA. 

Art.  9,  ordains  that  every  school  must  be  kept  in  a  house  used  for  no 
other  purpose  ;  all  the  rooms  designed  for  the  use  of  the  school  must  be 
built  and  furnished  in  harmony  with  the  demands  of  instruction  and  of 
health.  Art.  10,  provides  that  exceptions  under  Art.  7,  8,  and  9,  should  be 
regulated  by  the  administration.  Art.  11,  Every  school  must  be  in  pos- 
session of  all  the  necessary  materials  ;  particular  care  should  be  taken  to 
obtain  a  library.  Art.  12,  It  is  the  duty  of  the  district  to  defray  the 
expenses  of  common  schools,  so  far  as  they  have  not  been  hitherto  paid 
from  other  sources.  Art.  15,  The  annual  tuition  fee  shall,  in  towns,  not 
exceed  four  thalers  for  one  child,  six  thalers  for  two  children,  eight 
thalers  for  three  and  more.  The  fee  shall,  in  the  other  places,  not  exceed 
half  the  above  amount.  Art.  16,  Those  districts  which  have  given  evi- 
dence that  they  can  not  possibly  defray  the  whole  of  the  expenses  of  the 
public  school,  shall  receive  the  necessary  assistance  from  the  State 
treasury.  Section  III,  Art.  17  to  28.  relates  to  particular  duties  and 
rights  of  parents  and  guardians  of  children  liable  to  attend  school.  Art. 
17,  regulates  the  age  when  the  duty  to  attend  school  begins,  (after  the 
completion  of  the  sixth  year.)  Art.  18,  The  children  are  but  once  a  year 
admitted  as  scholars,  viz.,  at  the  beginning  of  the  scholastic  year,  the 
week  after  Easter.  Art.  19,  Children  leave  school  at  Easter  of  that  year 
in  which  they  have  completed  their  fourteenth  year.  Art.  20,  regulates 
the  dispensation  from  attendance  at  the  instruction  in  religion.  Articles 
21  and  22,  speak  of  the  place  where  school  shall  be  kept,  and  the  regu- 
larity of  attendance  at  school.  In  cases  when  absences  are  not  at  all  or 
not  satisfactorily  accounted  for,  the  local  school-board  ma}^  (Art.  23)  en- 
force a  fine  of  not  more  than  five  thalers,  or  equivalent  imprisonment. 
Art.  24,  regulates  complaints  of  parents  against  teachers,  and  distinctly 
states  that  nobody  is  permitted  to  enter  the  school-room  for  such  a  pur- 
pose, or  to  call  a  teacher  personally  to  account.  Trespassers  shall  pay  a 
fine  of  not  more  than  ten  thalers,  or  shall  be  punished  by  equivalent 
imprisonment.  Art.  25,  treats  of  the  exclusion  of  children  from  the  priv- 
ilege of  attending  school,  for  reasons  of  discipline,  of  police  or  of  crim- 
inal law,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  such  children  shall  receive  private 
instruction.  The  private  instruction  and  its  control  is  regulated  in  Ar- 
ticles 26,  27,  and  28.  Section  JF,  Art.  29  to  36,  is  "on  the  training  of 
common  school  teachers ;  the  matriculation  and  obligations  of  candidates." 
Art.  29,  The  State  charges  itself  with  the  training  of  common  school 
teachers  in  the  seminary.  Art.  30,  Admission  to  the  seminary  not  before 
the  applicant  has  completed  his  sixteenth  year.  Art.  31,  Conditions  for  ad- 
mission :  («,)  certificate  of  qualification  for  the  Secunda  of  the  gymnasium 
at  least,  or  (&,)  certificate  of  qualification  for  the  Prima  of  the  progymna- 
siurn  atOhrdruf,  or  (c,)  the  candidate  must  pass  an  examination  equivalent 
to  the  above  demands.  Art.  32,  In  regard  to  the  subjects  of  instruction, 
the  law  requires  that  besides  the  course  of  the  gymnasium,  (except  for- 
eign languages,)  at  least  the  following  shall  be  added  :  Pedagogy  and  its 
history,  anthropology  and  physiology,  literature,  and  music.  Art.  33, 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION   IN   SAXE  COBURG  GOTHA.  495 

The  studies,  began  at  the  gymnasium,  are  partly  to  be  completed,  par- 
ticularly mathematics  and  natural  philosophy,  partly  to  be  reviewed  with 
a  view  to  their  treatment  at  the  common  school.  The  instruction  in  reli- 
gion is  essentially  historical,  embracing  the  history  of  the  progress  of 
Christianity,  in  connection  with  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments, and  history  of  the  progress  of  the  Christian  Church.  Art.  34, 
The  number  of  students  to  be  admitted  is  not  limited.  The  tuition  is 
free  to  natives,  and  to  foreigners  on  the  payment  of  twenty  thalers  a  year. 
Art.  35,  treats  of  the  matriculation  of  the  candidate.  Art.  36,  places  the 
matriculated  candidate  under  the  obligation  to  serve  as  assistant  or  sub- 
stitute for  a  longer  or  shorter  portion  of  two  years.  Section  F,  Art.  37 
to  41,  is  on  the  appointment  of  teachers  at  common  schools.  Art.  37, 
The  privilege  of  election  rests  with  the  district,  provided  it  has  not  re- 
ceived any  pecuniary  assistance  for  its  schools  from  the  State,  during  the 
five  years  preceding  the  time  when  the  vacancy  occurs.  The  election 
requires  the  confirmation  of  the  government.  Art.  38,  regulates  the  right 
of  election  of  the  patrons.  Art.  39,  treats  of  the  appointments  by  the 
government.  The  latter  is  authorized  to  appoint  a  teacher,  when  the 
district  has  received  assistance  from  the  State  to  defray  the  expenses  of 
the  school  within  the  last  five  years,  or  when  the  district  or  patron  has 
not  filled  the  vacancy  within  four  months  from  the  day  the  vacancy  com- 
menced. Art.  40,  The  first  appointment  of  a  teacher  is,  as  a  rule,  only 
provisional ;  this  provisorium  shall,  however,  last  no  longer  than  two 
years.  Art.  41,  treats  of  the  appointment  of  female  teachers.  It  is  pre- 
scribed that  examined  female  teachers  may,  with  the  consent  of  the  dis- 
trict and  the  minister  of  State,  be  intrusted,  in  the  prescribed  manner, 
with  the  instruction  of  children  of  the  first,  second,  and  third  years  of 
their  attendance  at  school.  Section  VI,  Art.  42  to  62,  treats  of  the  rights 
and  duties  of  teachers  of  common  schools.  Art.  42,  The  salary  varies 
according  to  the  appointment  being  revocable  or  irrevocable,  and  ac- 
cording to  the  number  of  pupils.  (A.)  The  teachers  who  are  revocably 
appointed  shall  receive  as  a  minimum,  (a,)  150  thalers  and  free  lodging,  or 
an  equivalent  indemnification  when  they  are  vicars  or  assistants  ;  (5,)  175 
and  lodging,  or  indemnification  when  they  are  provisionally  appointed 
teachers.  (B.)  There  are  three  classes  of  irrevocably  appointed  teachers: 
(a,)  at  a  school  in  the  country  with  50  or  less  pupils,  the  minimum  salary 
shall  be,  from  the  first  to  fifth  year  included,  200  thalers  and  free  lodg- 
ing ;  from  the  fifth  to  tenth  year,  230  thalers ;  from  the  tenth  to 
fifteenth  year,  260  thalers ;  from  the  sixteenth  year,  290  thalers  ;  (&,)  at  a 
school  in  the  country  with  more  than  50  pupils,  (including  the  schools  in 
the  towns  of  Friedrichsrode  and  Zella,)  the  minimum  shall  be ;  from  the 
first  to  fifth  year,  200  thalers;  from  the  fifth  to  tenth  year,  240 
thalers ;  from  the  tenth  to  fifteenth  year,  280  thalers  ;  from  the  sixteenth 
year,  320  thalers;  (c,)  at  the  schools  in  the  towns  of  Gotha,  Ohrdruf,  and 
Waltershausen,  the  minimum  shall  be  :  from  the  first  to  fifth  year,  250 
thalers,  (no  free  lodging ;)  from  the  fifth  to  tenth  year,  300  thalers ;  from 


406  PUBLIC   INSTRUCTION   IN  SAXE  COBURG  GOTHA. 

the  tenth  to  fifteenth  year,  350  thalers ;  from  the  sixteenth  year,  400 
thalers.  Included  in  the  salaries  of  those  teachers  who  have  to  perform 
church  duties  as  cantors,  organists  or  sacristans,  are  the  emoluments  and 
perquisites  connected  with  these  duties.  Other  income,  which  the  teach- 
ers derive  as  clerks  of  the  district  or  book-keeper  of  the  church,  are  not 
included  in  the  salary.  Art.  43,  treats  of  the  computation  of  the  number 
of  pupils,  and  of  the  time  the  teachers  have  served.  Art.  44,  treats  of 
the  manner  of  paying  the  salary,  (teachers  in  the  country  must  take- part 
of  their  salary  in  kind.)  Art.  45,  Estimates  of  salaries.  Art.  46,  How 
to  divide  the  salary  between  the  new  teacher  and  the  one  who  retires. 
Art.  47,  Of  the  extra  occupation  of  teachers  of  common  schools.  Art. 
48,  .Of  the  particular  privileges  of  teachers  appointed  irrevocably. 
These  rights  are  :  (a,)  claims  to  be  pensioned  (after  ten  years  or  less  of 
service,  40  per  cent,  of  the  salary  ;  for  every  additional  year  or  fraction 
of  it,  Ij  per.  cent,  more  ;)  (&,)  admission  to  the  widow  fund,  (by  paying  4 
per  cent,  a  year  of  his  salary,  the  widow  or  children  of  a  teacher  shall 
receive  one-fourth  of  the  salary  until  the  youngest  child  has  reached  the 
age  of  21  ;)  (c,)  the  right  and  duty  to  be  a  member  of  those  charitable 
institutions  which  are  organized  for  the  benefit  of  common  school  teach- 
ers. Art.  49,  The  maximum  number  of  hours  a  teacher  may  be  em- 
ployed is  thirty  per  week.  The  Board  may  grant  furloughs.  Art.  50, 
Marriage  licenses  of  teachers.  Articles  51  to  62,  Penal  code  concerning 
teachers  charged  with  dereliction,  viz.  :  suspension,  waiting  order,  dis- 
mission, removal.  Section  VII,  Art.  63  to  84,  treats  of  the  inspection  of 
public  schools.  The  law  discriminates  between  two  classes  of  inspection 
of  public  schools,  viz.,  inspection  by  the  district  and  by  the  government. 
The  district  inspection  is  vested  in  the  Board,  consisting  of  the  chairman 
of  the  councilmen  (mayor  or  bailiff,)  the  minister  of  the  place,  the  teach- 
ers of  the  place,  and  as  many  citizens  of  the  district  as  there  are  teachers 
in  the  Board.  The  minister  may,  but  must  not  necessarily,  be  chair- 
man ;  directors  of  schools  and  teachers  are  not  allowed  to  be  chairmen. 
A  modification  of  this  organization  takes  place,  when  several  districts  are 
consolidated  into  one,  and  in  towns.  The  government  has  three  classes 
of  inspectors  :  (<?,)  the  district  school  inspectors,  Art.  85,  requiring  that 
they  should  be  selected  from  among  practical  schoolmen ;  (5,)  school- 
courts,  consisting  of  the  district  administrator — or  in  towns  the  mayor 
— and  the  district  inspector;  (c,)  the  ministry  of  State,  being  the  highest 
school  authority,  which  (Art.  91)  appoints  a  practical  schoolman  as 
inspector-general,  who  shall  assist  as  counselor  in  all  that  concerns  edu- 
cation and  instruction  in  public  schools,  at  the  sessions  of  the  ministers 
of  State.*  Section  VIII,  Art.  93  to  100,  contains  final  and  transitory 
decrees,  which  have  mostly  accomplished  their  purpose. 

This  short  extract  will  enable  the  reader  to  understand  the  character 
which  distinguishes  the  common  school  law  of  Gotha. 

*  Instruction  for  district  school-inspectors  in  the  duchy  of  Gotha,  in  Dr.  K.  Schmidt's  History 
of  the  Public  Schools  in  Gotha.    Kothen  :  P.  Schettler,  1863. 


AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE. 

[Translated  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education,  from  the  German  of  Karl  von  Raumer.J 


AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE,  the  founder  of  the  Orphan  House 
at  Halle,  and  of  all  the  institutions  which  cluster  around  it,  was  born 
March  22,  1663,  in  Lubeck,  where  his  father  was  syndic  of  the  cathe- 
dral-chapter of  the  town.  In  1666,  the  father  removed  to  Gotha,  and 
became  privy  counselor  and  counselor  of  justice  under  Duke  Ernst  the 
Pious;  but  died  in  1671.  The  orphan  boy  attended  the  gymnasium 
at  Gotha,  where  he  was  declared  ready  to  graduate  in  his  fourteenth 
year.  He,  however,  did  not  go  to  the  university  of  Erfurt  until  his 
sixteenth  year ;  whence  he  removed  in  the  same  year  to  Kiel,  where 
he  studied  chiefly  under  the  instruction  of  Kortholt.  Under  him  he 
heard  lectures  on  metaphysics  and  ethics ;  under  Morhof  on  physics, 
natural  history  and  universal  history.  He  also  read  carefully  the 
rhetoric  of  Aristotle.  Theology  was  with  him  only  an  affair  of  the 
head. 

From  Kiel,  he  went  to  Hamburg,  in  1682,  where  he  studied  Hebrew 
for  two  months  under  Ezra  Ezard.  He  then  lived  in  Gotha  for  a 
year  and  a  half,  in  which  time  he  read  the  Hebrew  Bible  seven  times, 
and  studied  French  and  English.  In  1684,  he  went  to  Leipzig,  where 
he  took  his  degree  and  habilitated  himself  by  a  disputation  De  Gram- 
matica  Hebraea.  His  most  important  lectures  were  a  biblical  course. 
He  explained,  after  the  afternoon's  sermon,  a  chapter  from  the  Old  and 
one  from  the  New  Testament,  first  philologically  and  then  practically. 
Spener,  then  court  chaplain  at  Dresden,  took  much  interest  in  these 
lectures,  which  were  attended  by  an  extraordinarily  large  number  of 
hearers.  About  the  same  time,  Franke  translated  two  works  of 
Molinos,  for  which  reason  he  was  considered  a  friend  of  Quietism 
and  of  Catholicism. 

In  1687,  Franke  went  to  Luneburg,  to  superintendent  Sandhagen. 
Piously  brought  up,  he  had  always  prayed,  from  a  boy,  that  his  whole 
life  might  be  devoted  only  and  entirely  to  the  glory  of  God.  But 
when,  at  the  university,  theology  became  to  him  merely  a  heartless 
study,  his  inward  peace  of  mind  left  him.  In  Luneburg  he  grew  un- 
easy, and  was  assailed  by  painful  doubts.  He  himself  relates  that 
his  opinion  of  the  Bible  became  quite  uncertain.  The  Jews,  he  often 


408  AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE. 

reflected,  believe  in  the  Talmud,  and  Turks  in  the  Koran,  and  Chris- 
tians in  the  Bible.  Which  is  right  ?  This  contest  of  doubt  had 
arisen  to  its  greatest  hight,  when  it  became  his  duty  to  preach  upon 
the  words, — "But  this  is  written ;  that  ye  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
the  Son  of  God,  and  that  ye  have  life  through  faith  in  his  name." 
He  was  to  speak  of  true  and  living  faith,  and  was  conscious  that  he 
himself  had  not  this  faith.  He  was  already  thinking  of  refusing  to 
preach  the  sermon,  when  he  besought  God  for  help  in  his  perplexity. 
He  was  quickly  heard,  and  all  his  doubts  were  removed.  "  I  was  assured 
in  my  heart,"  he  says  "of  the  grace  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ ;  and  I 
could  call  him  not  only  God,  but  my  father."  Forty  years  afterward, 
in  this  last  prayer,  he  referred  to  this,  his  real  conversion. 

From  Luneburg  he  went,  in  1687,  to  Hamburg,  where  he  remained 
until  Easter,  1 688.  Here  he  established  an  infant  school,  which  was 
numerously  attended.  Teaching  gave  him  self-knowledge ;  by  it  he 
learned  patience,  love,  forbearance.  "  Upon  the  establishment  of  this 
school,"  he  says,  "I  learned  how  destructive  is  the  usual  school 
management,  and  how  exceedingly  difficult  the  discipline  of  children ; 
and  this  reflection  made  me  desire  that  God  would  make  me  worthy  to 
do  something  for  the  improvement  of  schools  and  instruction."  The 
result  of  his  experience  he  put  together  in  a  work,  "  Upon  the  educa- 
tion of  children  to  piety  and  Christian  wisdom.'1''  He  often  said  that 
this  work  of  instructing  youth  at  Hamburg  was  the  basis  of  all  that 
God  afterward  did  through  him.  It  was  upon  the  remembrance  of  it 
that  he  said,  at  Halle,  that  education  would  never  be  bettered  by  mere 
writing  of  books ;  but  by  working  at  it. 

From  Hamburg  he  went,  after  two  months,  to  Spener,  at  Dresden, 
then  published  his  biblical  lectures  at  Leipzig,  and,  in  1690,  was  in- 
vited to  become  deacon  in  the  church  of  St.  Augustine,  at  Erfurt. 
Here,  however,  he  soon  became  suspected  of  being  the  founder  of  a 
new  sect,  for  which  reason  he  was,  by  a  decree  of  the  elector  of  Mainz* 
and  a  vote  of  the  council,  of  September  18th,  1691,  prohibited  from 
any  further  filling  of  his  office. 

Just  at  that  time  the  university  of  Halle  was  founded,  chiefly  by 
the  efforts  of  Spener,  who  was  appointed,  in  1691,  high  consistorial 
counselor  and  provost  at  Berlin.  On  the  21st  of  December,  1691, 
Franke  was  designated  as  a  suitable  man  for  professor  of  Greek  and 
Oriental  languages,  in  the  new  university ;  and  at  the  same  time  the 
pastorate  of  the  suburb  of  Glaucha  was  offered  him.  On  January  7th, 
1692,  he  removed  to  Halle,  where  he  lived  and  labored  for  thirty-five 
years  afterward,  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

The  opening  of  the  year  1694  is  to  be  considered  the  time  of  the 


AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE.  409 

beginning  of  all  the  great  institutions  of  Franke.  They  commenced 
as  follows.  The  poor  were  accustomed  to  come  every  Thursday  to 
the  parsonage.  Instead  of  giving  them  bread  before  the  door,  Franke 
called  them  into  the  house,  catechised  the  younger,  in  the  hearing  of 
the  elder,  and  closed  with  a  prayer ;  and  in  his  own  poverty  he  began 
to  lay  by  money  for  the  poor,  by  depriving  himself  for  a  long  time  of 
his  supper;*  and,  in  1695,  he  fixed  up  a  poor's  box  in  his  room,  with 
the  following  text. 

"  Whoso  hath  this  world's  goods,  and  seeth  his  brother  have  need,  and  shut- 
teth  up  his  bowels  of  compassion  from  him,  how  dwelleth  the  love  of  God  in 
him?"— 1  John,  iii.  17. 

"  Every  one,  according  as  he  purposeth  in  his  heart,  so  let  him  give ;  not 
grudgingly  or  of  necessity;  for  God  loveth  a  cheerful  giver." — 2  Cor.  ix.,  17. 

In  this  he  once  found  seven  florins,  left  by  a  benevolent  lady.  Upon 
taking  out  this,  he  said,  "  this  is  a  handsome  capital ;  I  must  found 
some  good  institution  with  it.  I  will  found  a  poor  school."  On  the 
same  day  he  bought  two  thalers  worth  of  books,  and  employed  a  poor 
student  to  teach  the  children  two  hours  daily.  Of  twenty-seven  books 
given  it,  only  four  were  brought  back.  But  Franke  bought  new 
books,  made  a  schoolroom  of  a  room  next  his  study,  and  gave  the 
children  alms  three  times  a  week.  The  children  of  citizens  soon 
began  to  attend,  each  of  whom  paid  one  grosch  as  tuition  fee,  so  that 
the  teacher  was  better  paid,  and  was  enabled  to  give  five  hours  of 
teaching  daily.  During  the  first  summer,  the  number  of  children  in 
the  school  reached  sixty. 

The  reputation  of  Franke's  great  activity  in  the  cause  of  the  poor 
soon  spread  abroad,  and,  from  that  time,  contributions  began  to  come 
to  him  from  far  and  near ;  in  proportion  as  this  increased,  his  plans 
enlarged.  Still,  it  often  happened  that  in  firm  faith  he  undertook 
something  great  without  any  means,  and  that  these  means  came  to 
him  at  the  necessary  time  in  the  most  wonderful  manner. 

His  parsonage  soon  became  too  small  for  the  school.  He  hired  a 
room  in  the  neighboring  house  and  made  two  classes,  one  of  the  poor 
and  the  other  for  the  citizens'  children,  each  with  its  own  teacher. 

The  wish  soon  sprung  up  in  Franke's  mind  not  only  to  instruct, 
but  also  to  educate  the  children ;  a  wish  to  found  an  orphan-house. 
A  friend  gave  him  for  this  purpose  five  hundred  thalers,  and  in  Novem- 
ber, 1695,  nine  orphans  were  already  assembled,  who  were  brought  to 
him  by  citizens.  Neubauer,  a  student  of  theology,  was  employed  as 
overseer. 

In  the  same  year,  1695,  three  young  persons  of  noble  family  were 

*  He  sent  to  a  friend,  who  was  in  want  about  this  time,  one  hundred  and  fifty  thalers,  which 
he  had  received  from  the  bookseller  for  his  Biblical  Improvement. 


410  AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE. 

put  under  Franke's  care  to  be  instructed  and  educated.  This  was  the 
first  beginning  of  the  present  Paedagogium. 

In  1696,  Franke  bought  a  second  house.  The  number  of  orphan 
children  in  these  two  houses,  in  that  June,  reached  fifty-two.  At  the 
same  time  he  established  a  free  table  for  students,  at  which  forty-two 
were  fed  in  three  months. 

As  the  number  of  children  increased,  Franke  determined  to  build 
an  orphan-house.  For  this  purpose  he  sent  Neubauer,  the  overseer  of  his 
orphan  children,  as  early  as  1696,  to  Holland,  in  order  to  gather  informa- 
tion. At  his  return,  this  true  and  intelligent  man  took  the  direction 
of  the  building  of  the  orphan-house ;  and  the  corner  stone  was  laid, 
July  24,  1698.  There  were  already  one  hundred  orphans,  and  five 
hundred  children  were  receiving  instruction. 

It  is  impossible  to  read  without  edification  how  the  blessing  of  God 
was  with  all  which  Franke,  in  his  unselfish  Christian  love,  undertook. 
We  can  here  mention  only  a  few  of  the  many  examples  of  these  bless- 
ings, which  he  himself  relates.  Once,  his  want  of  money  was  ex- 
treme. "  When  I  went  out  into  the  beautiful  weather,"  relates  Franke, 
"  and  looked  upon  the  clear  heavens,  my  heart  was  much  strengthened 
in  faith,  so  that  I  thought  within  myself,  how  beautiful  it  is,  when, 
although  man  is  nothing  of  himself,  and  has  nothing  to  rely  upon,  he 
recognizes  the  living  God,  who  made  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and 
puts  all  his  trust  in  him,  so  that  even  in  want  he  can  be  peaceful. 
Upon  my  return  to  the  house,  there  came  an  overseer  who  wanted 
money  for  the  work-people.  'Has  any  thing  come  in  ? '  he  asked.  I 
answered,  'No;  but  I  have  faith  in  God.'  Scarcely  had  I  uttered 
the  words,  when  a  student  was  announced  to  me,  who  brought  thirty 
thalers,  from  some  one  whose  name  he  refused  to  give.  Then  I  went 
back  into  the  room  and  asked  the  other  how  much  he  wanted  to  pay 
the  workmen.  He  answered,  thirty  thalers.  I  said,  here  they  are ; 
and  asked  whether  he  wanted  more.  He  said,  No ;  which  much  en- 
couraged both  of  us,  since  we  saw  in  it  so  evidently  the  hand  of  God, 
who  had  given  what  was  needful  in  the  very  moment  when  it  was 
wanted." 

In  1698,  relates  Franke  further,  "I  sent  to  a  pious  and  distressed 
Christian  woman  one  ducat.  She  replied  to  me,  that  the  ducat  had 
come  to  her  at  a  time  when  she  was  in  much  need  of  it ;  and  that 
she  had  prayed  God  that  he  would  bestow  upon  my  poor  orphans  a 
heap  of  ducats  in  return.  Soon  afterward  were  brought  to  me  four 
ducats,  and  twelve  double  ducats.  On  the  same  day,  two  ducats 
were  sent  to  me  from  a  good  friend  in  Sweden.  Not  long  afterward, 
I  received  bv  the  post  twenty-five  ducats,  the  giver  of  whom  was  not 


AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE.  41 1 

named.  Twenty  ducats  were  also  sent  me  at  the  same  time  from  one 
of  my  patrons.  Prince  Ludwig,  of  Wurtemberg,  died  about  the 
same  time,  and  I  was  told  that  he  had  left  a  sum  of  money  to  the 
orphan-house.  It  was  five  hundred  ducats  in  gold.  They  were  sent 
to  me  at  a  time  when  I  was  in  the  greatest  need  of  them  for  the 
building  of  the  orphan-house.  When  I  saw  this  heap  of  ducats  upon 
the  table  before  me,  I  thought  upon  the  prayer  of  the  pious  woman, 
that  God  would  give  to  my  poor  orphans  a  heap  of  ducats  in 
return."* 

In  innumerable  other  cases  like  these,  Franke  received  help  from 
the  Lord.  Two  productive  sources  of  income  are  especially  worthy 
of  mention.  A  young  theologian,  named  Elers,  had  joined  himself  to 
Franke.  In  1698,  he  took  charge  of  the  printing  of  one  of  Franke's 
sermons,  entitled,  "  On  duty  toward  the  poor."  Elers  laid  this  and  a 
few  other  sermons  upon  a  little  table  at  the  Leipzig  fair,  for  sale.  This 
was  the  first  beginning  of  the  orphan-house  bookstore,  which,  under 
the  careful  and  intelligent  management  of  Elers,  soon  so  much  in- 
creased that  it  opened  branches  at  Berlin,  and  Frankfort-on-the-Main. 
There  were  sold  in  them,  among  other  things,  all  of  Franke's  very 
popular  works,  besides  many  school-books,  some  of  which  passed 
through  a  great  number  of  editions.  All  the  gains  of  the  bookstore 
went  into  the  treasury  of  the  orphan-house. 

Franke's  second  fruitful  source  of  income  was  from  the  medicines  of 
the  apothecary's  shop  of  the  orphan-house.  With  this  he  had  a 
singular  experience.  One  Burgstaller,  upon  his  death-bed,  left  to 
Franke  a  legacy  "for  the  establishment  of  a  very  splendid  apothecary's 
shop."  Franke  appointed  to  the  management  of  the  shop,  Christian 
Friedrich  Richter,  well  known  for  his  deeply  pious  divine  songs.  After 
the  expenditure  of  large  sums  of  money,  the  enterprise  began  to  be 
profitable  in  January,  1701.  The  orphan-house  medicines  began  to  be 
in  demand  everywhere,  wonderful  effects  were  related  of  them,  and 
great  sums  accrued  to  the  orphan-house  from  their  sale. 

It  would  require  too  much  time  to  narrate  how  the  institutions  grew 
with  each  year ;  it  must  suffice  to  give  their  condition  at  two  periods. 

In  1705,  there  were  in  existence  the  following  of  Franke's  institu- 
tions.f 

1.  The  orphan-house  proper,  containing  fifty-five  boys  engaged  in 

*  King  Frederic  I,  of  Prussia,  also  gave  2,000  thalers,  100,000  brick,  and  30,000  tiles,  for  the 
building.  In  1702.  he  granted  to  the  Orphan  House  and  the  Paedagogium  some  very  valuable 
privileges.  "  Footsteps,"  p.  121  and  136. 

Envious  adversaries  accused  Frankg  "  of  having  embezzled  many  thousand  thalers ;  item 
that  the  people  had  sent  him  money;  item,  that  he  caught  at  the  money  of  papists  and  all 
manner  of  visionaries."  "  Footsteps,"  ch.  3,  94. 

t  Franke's  Institutions,  1,  382. 


412  AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKB. 

study,  forty-five  in  mechanic  arts ;  twenty-five  girls,  and  seventeen  per- 
sons in  the  household. 

2.  The  seminary  for  teachers ;  supporting  seventy -five  persons,  whose 
board  was  free. 

3.  The  extraordinary  free  table  for  sixty-four  very  poor  students. 

4.  Eight  school  classes  ;  with  eight  hundred  scholars,  including  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  orphan  children;  and  sixty-seven  teachers. 

5.  The  Psedagogium  ;  with  seventy  scholars,  and  seventeen  teachers. 

6.  Bookstore  and  printing  office ;  fourteen  persons. 

7.  Apothecary's  shop ;  eight  persons. 

8.  Widows'  house  ;  four  widows. 

9.  Oriental  college;  eleven  persons. 

In  1727,  at  Franke's  death,  the  following  return  of  the  institution 
was  made  to  King  Friedrich  Wilhelm  L* 

1.  The  Paedagogium,  eighty-two  scholars,  and  seventy  teachers  and 
others. 

2.  The  Latin  school  of  the  orphan-house ;  with  three  inspectors, 
thirty-two  teachers,  four  hundred  scholars,  and  ten  servants,  &c. 

3.  The  German  burgher  school ;  with  four  inspectors,  ninety-eight 
teachers,  eight  female  teachers,  one  thousand  and  twenty-five  boys 
and  girls. 

4.  Orphan  children ;  one  hundred  boys,  thirty-four  girls,  and  ten 
overseers  and  female  overseers. 

5.  Persons  boarded  free ;  two  hundred  and  fifty-five  students,  and 
three  hundred  poor  scholars. 

6.  Household,  apothecary's  shop,  booksellers ;  fifty-three  persons. 

7.  Institutions  for  females;  fifteen  in  the  girls'  institution,  eight  in 
the  boarding  house  for  young  women,  six  widows. 

This  sketch  of  the  exterior  condition  of  Franke's  institution  does 
not  however  show  by  any  means  the  whole  of  his  sphere  of  labor; 
especially  in  his  pastorate,  for  the  university,  the  spread  of  the  Bible, 
and  missions.  How  wide  soever  were  the  extensions  of  these  labors, 
they  all  sprang  from  the  same  root ;  from  Franke's  inward  Christian 
love  toward  God  and  his  neighbor.  Only  in  the  name  of  Christ 
would  he  labor  or  plan  ;  and  his  expressed  wish  was,  to  bring  to  Christ 
all  whom  he  taught,  from  the  student  down  to  the  youngest  of  the 
orphan  children. 

In  this,  as  in  his  views  of  the  study  of  theology,  he  agreed  entirely 
with  his  friend  Spener.  They  both  repeatedly  insisted  upon  the  con- 

*  Frankg's  Institutions,  2,  296.  In  1707,  there  were,  in  the  Paedagogium,  and  the  other 
schools,  one  thousand  and  ninety-two  pupils,  under  three  inspectors,  and  eighty-five  teachers 
Seven  hundred  and  fifty-five  scholars  were  from  Halle.  Footsteps,  p.  3,  29. 


AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE.  413 

version  and  piety  of  the  students  :  and  that  theology  must  not  only 
be  an  affair  of  the  head,  but  of  the  heart.*  "  One  drachm  of  living 
faith,"  says  Franke,  "is  more  to  be  valued  than  an  hundred  weight  of 
mere  historical  knowledge ;  and  one  drop  of  true  love,  than  a  whole  seaof 
learning  in  all  mysteries."  He  was  strenuous  against  the  perverted 
study  of  what  does  not  look  toward  the  work  of  real  life.  "  It  is  the 
common  evil,"  he  says,  "  that  we  do  not  learn  what  we  use  in  our 
occupations  every  day  ;  for  it  is  too  small  for  us  ;  and  what  we  have 
learned  at  the  university,  that  we  do  not  know  how  to  use  profitably." 

Both  Spener  and  Franke,  however,  were  careful  to  guard  against 
the  supposition  that  they  were  opposed  to  theological  learning,  "  If 
you  would  become  teachers,"  says  Franke  to  the  students,f  "  it  is  not 
enough  that  you  are  pious ;  you  must  also  possess  thorough  theolog- 
ical learning."  "The  Christian  student,"  remarks  Spener,  "prays  as 
earnestly  for  divine  illumination  as  if  he  had  no  need  of  his  own  in- 
dustry, and  studies  with  as  much  zeal  as  if  he  must  do  every  thing 
by  his  own  unassisted  labor.  For  it  would  be  presumptuousness  and 
tempting  God,  only  to  pray,  and  thus  to  await  the  divine  help  with- 
out any  industry  of  his  own." 

Franke  labored  in  every  way  in  connection  with  his  like-minded 
colleagues,  those  able  teachers  Anton,  Breithaupt,  and  Michaelis,  for 
the  good  of  the  young  theologians.  Lectures  were  read  upon  all 
theological  studies,  and  Franke  read  besides  upon  the  method  of  the- 
ological study.  In  the  "  parenetical  lecture,"  he  shows  what  are  the 
hindrances  of  young  theologians  in  religion,  and  in  seeking  their  object 
in  study  ;  and  how  these  hindrances  are  to  be  overcome. J 

These  lectures  he  continued  weekly  through  many  years,  and  at  an 
hour  when  no  other  lecture  was  read,  lie  began  them  in  1693  ;  and 
the  last  lecture  which  he  delivered,  May  15,  1727,  three  weeks  before 
his  death,  was  parenetical.  In  this  lecture  he  combated,  with  great 
zeal,  the  sins  of  young  theologians  ;  he  advised  them  before  all  things 
to  convert  themselves  before  they  tried  to  convert  others,  to  pray  and 
to  labor.  He  gave  them  rules  for  living  and  studying,  drew  their 
attention  to  all  that  had  been  done  at  Halle  of  late  for  students,  which 
had  not  been  thought  of  at  other  universities,  and  which  had  not  been 
thought  of  at  all  in  earlier  times.  Among  these  things  he  included 
this,  that  the  theological  students  of  Halle  were  spared  the  usual 
scholastical  disputes,  and  applied  themselves  instead  to  the  careful 

*  "Idea,"  95.  The  Bohemian  Brothers  told  Luther  that  "  they  could  not  look  for  good  to  re- 
sult to  those  in  whose  schools  so  much  care  was  expended  on  learning  and  so  little  on  con 
science." 

t  Idea,  37. 

t  For  the  students  he  wrote  his (1  Idea  studios!  theologian,"  "  Timotheus,"  and  other  writings. 


414-  AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE. 

exegesis  of  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  and  that  ttiey  had  opportunity  for 
practical  efforts  in  catechizing  and  other  instruction.  Students  newly 
come  must  report  themselves  to  the  theological  faculty,  who  met 
upon  certain  days  for  that  purpose.*  Each  new  comer  is  to  be  in- 
quired of,  how  he  has  regulated  his  life  and  his  studies.  Once  every 
quarter  of  a  year  all  the  theological  students  are  to  meet  before  the 
faculty,  to  give  an  account  of  their  studies,  and  to  receive  counsel  for 
the  future.  Besides,  they  are  to  be  encouraged  to  visit  single  pro- 
fessors, and  to  consult  with  them  upon  the  state  of  their  souls,  and 
upon  their  studies. 

In  1709,  Franke  delivered  some  parenetical  lectures,f  "  in  which," 
as  their  title  states,  "  the  distinctions  between  the  present  students 
of  theology  there  and  those  who  were  here  in  the  beginning  is  shown." 
Here  he  complains,  that  zeal  for  good  has  much  diminished  with  most 
of  them  ;  describes  the  coarse  kind  of  student-life  which  has  crept 
in ;  J  and  remarks  how  little  the  well-intended  care  of  the  theological 
professors  is  recognized  by  the  students  ;  that  the  latter  rather  com- 
plain about  them,  as  if  they  made  invasions  upon  their  freedom  as 
students ;  and  that  their  good  advice  produces  no  results.  §  "  The 
complaint  is  often  heard,"  he  remarks,  "  of  the  students  of  Halle,  that 
they  are  hypocrites."  "  I  can  not  think  of  this  without  great  sorrow  ; 
and  can  not  enough  wonder  at  it,"  he  says,  "  how  it  should  be  possible 
that,  from  all  our  lectures  and  admonitions,  so  little  effect  should 
have  come." 

A  reaction  was  produced.  In  place  of  the  prevailing  useless  stu- 
dent-life, Franke"  and  his  theological  colleagues,  with  one  blow,  suc- 
ceeded in  introducing  the  still,  pious,  almost  Christ-like  state  of  dis- 
cipline, which  it  would  be  well  worth  while  to  compare  with  the  life 
of  the  Hieronymians.  ||  One  devotional  exercise  after  another  was 
attended.  Pious  emotions  and  incitements  were  encouraged  in  all 
ways.  At  every  opportunity  all  prayed,  preached,  exhorted,  and 
sung,  ^f  It  is  no  wonder  that  a  mode  of  life  diametrically  opposed 
to  this,  a  student-life  of  coarse  immorality,  rooted  deep  in  the  customs 
of  so  many  centuries,  should  make  a  strong  opposition  against  Franke's 
efforts,  so  that  he  only  succeeded  in  attracting  to  himself  youths  of 

*  "  Appendix  to  the  representation,"  p.  198. 

t  Lectiones  par.,  part  4,  p  73,  &c. 

J  ib.  *•  A  Studiosus  Theologiae  must  know  this  rule :  Quod  in  aliis  est  peccatum  veniale,  id 
in  clerico,  and  also,  moreover,  in  studioso  theologies  est  peccatum  mortale.'' 

§  Ib.,  III.  "  Formerly,  the  theologies  studiosi  rather  thought  it  a  benefit,  that  their  studia 
were  directed  by  the  Faculty."  See  also  p.  39. 

»Ullmann's  "  Johann  Wessel,"  p.  23  (1st  ed.) 

"••  Niemeyer's  Principles.  8th  ed.,  3,  348.  Semler's  autobiography  has  much  information  on 
the  same  subject 


AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE.  415 

quiet  and  thoughtful  character.  There  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
enough  pains  taken  to  devise  means  for  winning  others  ;  to  practice  a 
Pauline  accommodation,  such  as  is  of  no  injury  to  truth  or  holiness. 

I  doubt  much  whether  Luther  would  altogether  have  approved  of 
the  ideal  of  the  student-establishment  of  Franke  and  Spener.  How 
violently  did  Luther  inveigh  against  all  manner  of  monkish  restraint! 
"  Pleasure  and  amusement,"*  he  says,  "  are  as  necessary  to  young 
people  as  eating  and  drinking."  How  strongly  does  he  recommend 
"music  and  knightly  games,  fencing  and  wrestling;  of  which  the  first 
dispels  care  of  the  heart  and  melancholy  thoughts,  and  the  others 
bring  the  body  to  its  proper  proportions  and  keep  it  in  health."  There 
is  danger  of  falling  into  drinking,  debauchery,  and  gaming,  "  if 
such  honorable  exercises  and  knightly  games  are  condemned  and 
neglected."! 

Franke's  complaints  of  the  ignorance  of  the  students  at  entrance 
are  worthy  of  attention.  That  he  advises  them  to  take  lessons  in 
writing,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  need  not  surprise  us;J  but  in  regard  to 
spelling  the  case  was  a%  bad.  "I  find,"  he  says,§  "  that  there  are  few 
theological  students  who  can  write  a  German  letter  correctly  spelled. 
They  violate  orthography  almost  in  every  line.  I  even  know  of  many 
examples  where,  after  they  have  entered  upon  the  ministry,  and  have 
had  occasion  to  have  something  printed,  it  has  beea  necessary  to  have 
their  manuscript  first  corrected  almost  in  every  line ;  insomuch  that 
it  has  been  recommended  to  them  to  have  their  work  transcribed  by 
some  one  who  understood  spelling,  in  order  that  it  might  be  read 
without  difficulty.  The  reason  of  this  defect  is  usually  in  the  schools, 
where  only  the  Latin  translation  of  their  exercises  is  corrected,  but 
not  the  German ;  so  that  they  learn  nothing  of  spelling.  They  do 
not  learn  to  distinguish  in  their  spelling  such  as  er  war,  die  Waar,  es 
ist  wahr,  and  the  like,  and  can  not,  so  long  as  they  write  their  Ger- 
man exercises  in  so  superficial  a  manner."|| 

It  may  be  imagined  that,  in  proportion  as  German  was  neglected  at 
the  schools,  Latin  was  more  thoroughly  learned.  But  this  was  not  so. 
"  In  many  cases,"  continues  Franke,  u  when  they  desire  to  write  a  Latin 
letter,  it  appears  that  they  have  not  learned  the  grammar  of  the 
language;  which  occasions  many  faults."  The  same  students,  at 

'See  Part  First,  HI,  177. 

t  The  eating  and  drinking  life  of  dissipated  students,  as  Franke  described  it,  might  well 
destroy  hopes  for  such  men,  even  if  they  should  apply  themselves  to  "  honorable  exercises  and 
knightly  games." 

}  "  It  is  seldom  that  one  writes  a  good  hand  when  he  comes  from  school." 
§  Lect.  paraenet.,  4,  280.   Comp.  "  Appendix  to  the  picture  of  a  theological  student,"  p.  280. 
I"  Appendix  to  the  picture,"  <fcc.,  p.  281.    "There  is  seldom  as  much  as  a  qualemcunque 
eritiam  in  German  orthography  brought  from  the  schools." 


416  AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE. 

entering,  are  not  well  grounded  even  in  Luther's  catechism.  "  At  the 
same  time,"  he  says,  "  it  is  seldom  the  case  that  any  one  brings  with 
him  a  knowledge  of  vulgar  arithmetic,  although  it  is  of  continual  use 
in  common  life."* 

In  another  place,  Franke  saysf  that  the  theological  professors  of 
Halle  "have  found,  with  great  grief,  that  most  of  the  schools  are  so 
ill  taught,  that  from  them  there  come  pupils  of  twenty  years  and  over, 
who  have,  notwithstanding,  to  be  taught  the  very  rudiments  of  Latin, 
not  to  mention  Greek  and  Hebrew,  if  they  are  to  attend  the  lectures 
with  any  profit.  The  universities  also,"  he  goes  on,  "  have  found,  by 
sad  experience,  that  many  unqualified  and  ignorant  persons  enter 
them,  who  are  not  fit  to  be  taught  any  thing."  The  teachers  of  the 
schools  ought  to  perform  their  duties  more  conscientiously. 

While  Franke  tried  all  means  to  enable  those  who  were  backward 
in  their  school  knowledge  to  recover  their  lost  ground,  he  sought,  on 
the  other  hand,  by  every  possible  means,  to  promote  instruction  in  all 
the  school  studies ;  languages,  history,  geometry,  mathematics,  &c.J 
In  the  institutions  founded  by  him,  which  contained  nearly  two  thou- 
sand scholars,  there  were  taught  more  than  one  hundred  students, 
under  the  oversight  and  guidance  of  inspectors.  They  were  especially 
trained  in  catechising.  "  The  whole  of  the  so-called  ordinary  table  of 
the  orphan-house,"  says  Franke,  "  now  including  one  hundred  and 
thirty-four  students,  is  in  fact  a  seminary  of  preceptors  for  the  rest  of 
the  institution. §  From  these  *  some  were  selected  and  placed  in  the 
select  seminary  of  preceptors."  This  latter  seminary  was  commenced 
in  1707.  From  ten  to  twelve  theological  students  were  chosen  for  it, 
well  grounded  in  their  studies,  and  with  an  inclination  and  aptitude 
for  their  business  of  school  teaching.]  They  were  trained  for  the  oc- 
cupation of  teaching  during  two  years,  by  lectures  and  practice. 
They  received  their  board  there,  but  were  required  to  bind  themselves 
to  teach  in  the  P^edagogium,  or  the  orphan -house,  for  three  years, 
after  the  expiration  of  the  two  years.^f 

We  have  seen  that,  in   1695,  Franke  founded  a  poor  school,  to 

*  Ib.  t  Ib.,  275.  t  Ib..  234,  274.  277,  289,  290. 

§The  first  occasion  of  the  foundation  of  this  free  table  and  seminary,  was  a  gift  of  five  hun- 
dred thalers,  which  he  received,  in  1695,  for  poor  students.  "  Footsteps,"  Third  Part.  9. 

I  »  Footsteps,"  Third  Part,  9.    Fifth  Part,  60. 

Uln  1702,  Franke"  founded,  together  with  Anton  and  Breithaupt,  the  Collegium  Orientate 
Theologicum,  in  which,  besides  Hebrew,  Syriac,  were  taught,  Chaldee,  Arabic,  &c.  The 
students  at  this  college  were  of  much  service  to  J.  H.  Michaelis,  by  collating  MSS.  for  his 
edition  of  the  Hebrew  Bible.  If  contained  twelve  students  ;  it  seems  to  have  lasted  until  17?0. 
Johann  Tribbechor,  of  Gotha,  was  its  first  principal ;  the  same  who  was  author  of  that  "  as- 
tonishing hymn,—"  O,  thou  guard  of  Israel."  Michaelis  was  connected  with  him  in  ita 
management.  "  Footsteps,"  Second  Part,  5.  Third  Part,  6. 


AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE.  41 Y 

which  children  of  citizens  came.  In  1697,  he  established  the  Latin 
school  for  boys  of  a  better  order  of  talent.  The  poor  school  received 
the  name  of  the  German  burgher  school,  and  was  divided  into  the 
boys'  and  girls'  school.  At  Franke's  death,  as  above  related,  there 
were  in  the  burgher  school  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  boys  and  girls,  in  the  Latin  school  four  hundred  scholars,  and 
twenty-five  more  in  the  Psedagogium.  The  course  in  the  German 
school  at  first  included  religious  instruction,  reading,  writing,  and 
arithmetic ;  to  which  were  afterward  added,  natural  history,  history, 
geography,  &c.  An  overseer  was  placed  over  all  the  German  schools, 
to  whom  was  also  intrusted  the  preparation  of  proper  teachers  for 
them.  The  girls  were  to  be  especially  instructed  in  woman's  work, 
and  even  the  boys  received  instruction  in  knitting.* 

In  the  Latin  school,  were  taught  (besides  religion,  reading,  writing, 
and  arithmetic,)  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  mathematics,  history,  geogra- 
phy, and  music.  "  Classic  Greek  was  much  neglected  for  the  constant 
reading  of  the  New  Testament."!  The  oldest  accounts  mention 
botany  as  one  of  the  branches  of  instruction  at  this  school.  In  1709, 
Latin  was  taught  in  seven  classes  ;J  and  physics,  painting,  and  anatomy 
were  introduced  among  the  studies.  In  1714,  oratory  and  logic  were 
added  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  French  is  wanting. 

Franke  intended  the  Psedagogium  for  the  instruction  of  the  sons  of 
those  of  the  higher  ranks.  As  we  have  said,  three  young  noblemen 
were  sent  to  him  in  1695  ;  which  was  the  beginning  of  the  institution. 
The  number  of  scholars  grew,  and,  in  1705,  was  70;  who  boarded 
here  and  there  in  citizens'  houses.  In  17 11,  Franke  determined  to 
build  a  large  house  for  it,  which  was  completed  and  occupied  in  1713. 
The  accommodations  for  scholars  and  overseers  in  it  were  convenient 
and  cheerful,  not  dark  and  cloister-like.  Additions  to  this  soon  showed 
that  Franke  was  looking  to  real  instruction ;  there  were  connected 
with  the  Psedagogiurn  a  botanical  garden,  then  a  natural  cabinet,  a 
philosophical  apparatus,  a  chemical  laboratory,  conveniences  for  ana- 
tomical dissections,  also  turning-lathes,  and  machinery  for  glass-cut- 
ting^ 

The  course  of  study  of  the  Psedagogium  was  thus  stated,  in  1706 : 

*  In  1701,  Franke  appointed  for  this  purpose  an  especial  knitting-master.  "Footsteps" 
Part  First,  45. 

t  Niemeyer,  3, 346.  Rector  Mai,  from  Franke's  school,  banished  the  Greek  Classics  from  the 
gymnasium  at  Hersfeld,  and  substituted  the  reading  of  the  New  Testament,  even  to  tLe 
Apocalypse.  (Programme  of  director  Dr.  Miiencher,  1837.) 

t  By  the  subdivision  of  Se cunda,  Tertia,  Quprta,  and  Quinta,  the  whole  number  of  classei/ 
reached  eleven. 

SFrankg's  Institution,  2,  14,  &c.  Further  details  upon  the  Paedagogium  are  given  ia 
Frankg's  book,  "  Complete  order  and  method  of  teaching  for  the  Peedagogium."  1701. 

27 


418  AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANK  fi. 

''  Besides  the  grounds  of  true  Christianity,  they  will  be  instructed  in 
the  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  French  languages,  as  well  as  in  a  good 
German  style,  and  in  writing  a  good  hand ;  also  in  arithmetic,  geogra- 
phy, chronology,  history,  geometry,  astronomy,  music,  botany,  and 
anatomy,  besides  the  chief  principles  of  medicine,  *  *  *  and  more- 
over, in  the  hours  of  diversion,  they  find  opportunity  to  learn  turning, 
glass-grinding,  painting,  writing,  &c.  During  all  recreations,  when 
they  might  be  liable  to  injury,  they  are  under  careful  supervision,  and 
are  not  left  alone  during  the  night "  It  is  stated  as  a  characteristic 
feature  of  the  Psedagogium,  that  in  it  "  the  classes  are  so  arranged  that 
the  scholar  has  a  place  not  only  in  one  class,  but  in  this  or  that  class 
differently,  according  to  his  proficiency  in  different  studies.  For  ex- 
ample, he  may  be  in  the  first  class  in  Latin,  in  another  in  Greek,  and 
in  like  manner  may  have  fellow-students  as  far  forward  as  he  in  every 
study.  First  of  all,  the  scholar  must  be  thorough  in  Latin,  but  in  the 
other  languages  and  studies  he  may  take  up  only  one  after  another, 
in  such  a  way  as  to  learn  one  well  before  he  undertakes  the  next." 

A  special  class,  Selecta,  was  organized  in  the  Psedagogium,  for  pre- 
paration for  the  university.  The  scholars  of  this  class  read  many  of 
the  Latin  authors  cursorily,  disputed,  spoke  frequently,  studied  rhetoric, 
logic,  metaphysics,  a  kind  of  dogmatics,  and  read  part  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments  in  the  original.  The  Greek  classics  were  not  men- 
tioned ;  but  for  them  were  substituted  the  homilies  of  Macarius, 
Nonnus'  paraphrase  of  John,  &c.* 

For  instruction  and  oversight,  so  far  as  number  of  persons  is  con- 
sidered, the  Paedagogium  was  richly  endowed.  At  Franke's  death  if 
contained  eighty-two  scholars,  for  whom  were  employed  one  inspector, 
one  mathematical  teacher,  eighteen  ordinary  teachers,  eight  extraor- 
dinary ones,  and  ten  assistants. 

Only  a  small  number  of  teachers  in  comparison  were  employed  for 
the  great  number  of  scholars  in  Franke's  institution ;  most  of  the 
school  work  being  done  by  a  large  number  of  students,  who  had  re- 
ceived a  preparation  for  this  purpose  in  the  two  seminaries  already 
mentioned.  Franke  proposed  in  this  way  to  select  young  men  of 
character  similar  to  his  own,  and  who  should  be  trained  up  in  the 
methods  used  in  the  orphan-house  school.  Inspectors  watched  care- 
fully that  none  of  them  varied  from  the  established  way.  In  this  man- 
ner it  could  not  fail  to  happen  that,  notwithstanding  the  great  extent 
of  the  institution,  all  the  teachers  in  it  should  teach  in  the  same  spirit, 
and  to  the  same  end.f  But  we  must  not  pass  over  the  dark  side  of 

•  Prudentius'  hymns  were  also  read  ;  and  dialing  was  added  to  the  mathematical  studies. 

t  Franke's  Institutions,  2, 39.    "  Candidates  and  students  were  selected  for  teachers,  to  whom 

Franke  prescribed  a  method  of  instruction  which  they  must  follow  strictly.    Most  of  them 


AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE.  419 

this  plan.  This  unity  of  the  whole  was  liable  easily  to  become  a 
monotony,  the  unity  of  a  machine,  in  which  no  part  makes  or  can 
make  pretensions  to  independence.  The  students  bound  themselves  to 
teach  for  three  years,  and  then  left  the  institution.  In  so  short  a  space 
of  time,  how  could  they  attain  to  independent  knowledge  and  skill 
in  the  pedagogical  art?*  What  earnest  teacher  has  not  found  that 
this  vocation  is  an  art  to  the  acquisition  of  which  time  is  necessary 
that  in  the  first  years  of  his  teaching  much  of  his  labor  was  injurious 
to  himself  and  his  scholars,  and  that  he  only  attained  to  skill  after 
a  long  time  ?  Thus  it  was  with  Franke,  who  had  in  his  institution 
only  a  very  few  masters  of  the  art  of  teaching,  but  a  preponderating 
crowd  of  dependent  beginners,  whose  mistakes  were  only  partly  com- 
pensated by  their  thorough  subordination.! 

Franke"  was  director  of  his  institution;  but  first  named,  in  1716, 
as  sub-director,  Joh.  Daniel  Herrnschmid ;  and,  after  his  death,  in 
1723,  his  own  pious  son-in-law,  Joh.  Anastasius  Freylinghausen.J 
After  the  death  of  Tollner,  in  1718,  who  had  held  the  oversight  of 
both  the  Latin  and  German  schools,  Herrnschmid  took  that  of  the 
Latin  school,  which  was  from  that  time  separate  from  that  of  the 
German  school. 

In  "order  to  comprehend  the  peculiarities  of  Franke's  school,  it  must 
be  remembered  that  it  was  especially  characterized  by  its  prevailing 
Christian  or  perhaps  pietistic  element,  which  appears  in  its  many 
devotional  exercises,  in  the  neglect  of  the  Greek  classics  for  the  New 
Testament,  and  in  the  study  of  Hebrew  for  the  understanding  of  the 
Old  Testament.  It  is  also  a  peculiar  trait  of  the  school,  that  real 
studies  had  a  prominent  place  in  it ;  that  the  scholars  were  allowed 

willingly  followed  his  directions ;  for,  up  to  that  time,  they  had  had  no  method  of  their  own  to 
which  they  had  become  used,  as  is  usually  the  case  with  men  who  have  already  taught  in 
other  schools." 

*Hieronymus  Wolf,  the  learned  Rector  of  the  Augsburg  Gymnasium,  says  :  "  It  was  ex- 
ceedingly desirable  that  such  young  teachers  should  be  employed,  by  what  may  be  called  an 
appropriate  good  fortune,  in  a  school  where,  the  labor  being  endurable  and  the  wages  accord- 
ingly, and  great  enough  to  support  themselves  and  their  families,  they  would  not  be  seeking 
better  situations.  For  a  frequent  change  of  teachers  has  many  disadvantages :  and  it  is  not  possi- 
b.e  for  one  to  teach  faithfully  and  thoroughly,  who  is  on  the  watch  for  every  opportunity  to 
better  his  situation,  and  who  is  seeking  to  serve,  not  the  minds  of  his  scholars,  but  his  own 
ease  and  pleasure."  (Programme  of  the  Augsburg  Gymnasium,  by  Dr.  Mezger,  1834.  p.  11.) 

tThis  is  no  reproach  to  Franke.  One  who  is  endeavoring,  like  him,  to  assist  a  large  num- 
ber of  children,  must  adapt  himself  to  circumstances.  The  monitors  of  Bell  and  Lancaster 
were  certainly  not  as  good  assistants  as  the  students  of  Franke. 

t  Herrnschmid  was  born  in  1675,  at  Bopfingen,  in  Suabia,  and  was  the  author  of  several 
eacred  hymns  ;  among  others,  of  "  Praise  the  Lord,  O  thou  my  soul."  Freylinghausen  was 
born  at  Gandersheim,  in  1670,  and  died  in  1739,  in  his  place  as  director  of  the  Orphan  House. 
He  was  distinguished  for  excellent  sacred  hymns  ;  and  his  volume  of  them  marks  an  epoch 
in  their  history.  Herrnschmid  was  succeeded,  as  inspector  of  the  Latin  school,  by  several 
eminent  men,  as  Johann  Jacob  Rambach,  Sigismund  Jacob  Baumgarten  and  August  Gottlieb 
Spangenberg,  who  was  afterward  Bishop  of  the  United  Brethren 


420  AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE. 

different  places  in  different  classes,  according  to  their  progress  in  dif- 
ferent studies ;  and  lastly,  that  many  of  the  students  also  gave  in- 
struction, and  in  a  prescribed  and  strictly-followed  method. 

After  having  thus  surveyed  the  numerous  pedagogical  labors  of 
Franke, — for  the  university,  for  the  Latin  schools,  burgher  schools,  and 
orphans, — we  will  now  consider  two  departments  of  his  efforts  which 
had  only  an  indirect  influence  upon  pedagogy. 

The  first  is  the  Canstein  Bible  Institution,  which  was  annexed  to 
the  orphan-house. 

Carl  Hildebrand,  Baron  von  Canstein,  born  in  1667*,  was  lord 
marshal,  and  president  of  the  supreme  court  of  judicature,  of  the 
electorate  of  Brandenburgh,  and  the  trusted  friend  of  Spener.  In 
1710,  he  published  a  pamphlet,  with  the  title:  "Humble  proposal 
how  the  word  of  God  may  be  brought  into  the  hands  of  the  poor  for 
a  small  price."  His  plan  was,  "  by  means  of  the  institution,  to  keep 
forms  standing,  and  to  print  one  hundred  thousand  copies  of  the  Bible 
before  the  types  were  worn  out."  He  put  the  sale  into  the  hands  of 
Franke's  orphan-house  ;  and  Prince  Carl  of  Denmark,  brother  of  King 
Frederick  IV,  gave  for  the  purpose  one  thousand  two  hundred  and 
seventy-one  ducats.  The  first  edition  of  the  New  Testament  under 
this  arrangement  appeared  in  the  year  1713.  And,  up  to  1795.  there 
had  been  printed  in  the  institution  one  million  six  hundred  and  fifty- 
nine  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eighty-three  Bibles,  eight  hundred 
and  eighty- three  thousand  eight  hundred  and  ninety  New  Testaments, 
sixteen  thousand  copies  of  the  Psalms,  and  forty-seven  thousand  of 
Sirach.  Luther's  text  was  strictly  adhered  to,  with  only  a  few  changes 
universally  recognized  as  necessary,  and  which  were  made  with  the 
utmost  diffidence  and  care,  for  fear  of  exciting  attention  and  oppo- 
sition. 

A  second  department  of  Franke's  activity  was  missions.  King 
Friedrich  of  Denmark,  under  the  influence  of  his  two  German  court 
chaplains,  Masius  and  Liitkens,  applied  to  Franke  for  this  purpose. 
Bartholomaus  Ziegenbalg,  and  Heiurich  Plutschau,  were  selected  by 
him  as  missionaries,  were  ordained  in  Copenhagen,  and  landed  at 
Tranquebar,  July  9th,  1706. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  this  important  mission  of  the  Lutheran 
church,  which  lasted  more  than  a  century.  With  a  depth  of  love 
that  believed  all,  and  hoped  all,  the  missionaries  from  Halle  labored 
perseveringly  and  faithfully,  when  all  hope  seemed  to  have  departed. 
In  evil  times,  when  pestilence,  famine,  and  war  prevailed,  they  were 
in  many  ways  the  advisers  and  helpers  of  the  natives.  Ziegenbalg,  at 
unbounded  sacrifices,  and  with  vast  zeal,  translated  a  great  part  of  the 


AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE  421 

Bible  and  of  the  small  Lutheran  catechism  into  Tamul,  wrote  hymns 
in  that  language,  and  with  great  industry  composed  two  dictionaries 
and  a  grammar  of  it.  His  worthy  successor,  Benjamin  Schulze,  com- 
pleted his  translation  of  the  Bible.  The  influence  of  the  missionaries 
grew  so  fast  that  it  was  not  confined  to  Tranquebar.  From  the  year 
1728,  they  were  induced  and  aided  to  found  Lutheran  missions  at 
Madras,  Cuddalore,  Calcutta,  Tanjore,  and  elsewhere.* 

Schwarz  distinguished  himself  above  all  the  missionaries.  He  was 
held  in  high  respect  by  those  of  all  sects.  While  the  East  India 
Company,  in  1779,  employed  him  as  an  envoy  to  Seringapatam,  and 
the  English  in  1784,  in  the  negotiation  with  Tippoo  Saib,  he  was  so 
highly  regarded  by  the  Rajah  of  Tanjore,  that  the  latter,  upon  his 
death-bed,  in  1787,  required  him  to  undertake  the  guardianship  of 
his  adopted  son,  then  nine  years  old.  Schwarz  died  in  1798.  In 
1816,  Middleton,  English  bishop  to  Calcutta,  visited  this  son,  then 
King  Sirfogan,  in  Tanjore ;  the  king,  says  the  account,!  "  was  no  be- 
liever in  Christianity,  but  to  the  end  of  his  life  he  wept  tears  of  love 
and  gratitude  for  the  well-remembered  missionary  Schwarz,  whom  he 
was  accustomed  to  call  not  only  a  great  and  good  man,  but  his  father, 
and  the  friend,  protector,  and  king  of  his  youth ;  and  to  whose 
memory  he  had  erected  a  costly  marble  monument,  which  was  made 
in  London,  and  solemnly  set  up  in  the  Christian  church  at  Tanjore." 

The  missionaries  from  Halle  applied  themselves  particularly  to  the 
instruction  of  the  Hindoo  youth,  by  which  means  they  trained  up 
many  Hindoo  catechists,  who  rendered  valuable  assistance  in  convert- 
ing their  countrymen.^ 

This  is  not  the  place  to  give  a  detailed  history  of  the  Halle  mission. 
From  1705  to  his  death,  Frank 6  was  actively  laboring  for  it  in  many 
ways.  Of  these  the  chief  was  the  careful  choice  of  missionaries,  who 
were  selected  from  the  theological  students  of  the  school  at  Halle, 
without  special  preparation  for  the  missionary  service.§  From  17 10, 

*  The  Anglican  church  had  not  hitherto  interfered  with  the  missions;  no  missionaries  had 
received  its  ordination,  or  subscribed  to  the  thirty-nine  articles.  Most  of  the  missionaries, 
from  1731  to  1792,  were  ordained  at  Wernigerode,  by  the  Lutheran  church.  See  Frankg's  In- 
stitutions, pp.  3,  356,  383,  339,  518,  552.  So  far  from  the  Lutheran  missionaries  being  under 
the  government  of  the  Anglican  church,  it  was  especially  remarked,  in  regard  to  the  Lutheran 
missionary,  Diemer,  "that  (in  London, >  his  great  faults  being  well  understood,  he  found  at 
first  no  very  encouraging  reception ;  but  that  he  afterward,  by  his  pretenses,  succeeded  in  en- 
listing many  upon  his  side ;  and,  in  the  hope  of  afterward  deriving  benefit  from  it,  submitted 
to  episcopal  ordination." 

t "  Later  history  of  the  evangelical  missions,"  by  Knapp,  67th  part,  p.  633. 

t  The  number  of  members  upon  the  church  book  at  Tranquebar,  in  the  space  from  1706  to 
1780,  was  16,556.  Franke's  Institutions,  3.  248. 

§  This  has  been  the  rule  down  to  the  latest  times ;  it  has  been  remarked  by  the  late  Knapp, 
of  only  one  missionary,  that  he  had  not  studkd,  but  had  shown  himself  endowed  with  di» 
linguished  talents 


422  AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANK.E. 

he  was  preparing  for  the  publication  of  a  "  History  of  the  evangelical 
missions  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen  in  India;''  he  caused  a 
Tamul  printing  press  to  be  sent  from  Halle  to  Tranquebar ;  large  sums 
were  intrusted  to  him  with  confidence  for  these  missions ;  and  his 
name  was  the  security  of  the  undertakings.  Even  in  his  last  address 
he  showed  how  dear  it  was  to  his  heart. 

We  have  thus  considered  Franke's  direct  efforts,  in  the  most  vari- 
ous directions.  These  labors  however  appear  much  greater  when  we 
examine  their  indirect  results.  How  many  orphan-houses  and  poor- 
schools  may  thank  his  example  for  their  existence ;  how  often  to-day 
is  his  name  mentioned  in  reports  upon  reform  institutions  !  What  an 
impulse  did  the  Halle  mission  give  to  Protestants ;  and  how  dear  to 
their  hearts  and  consciences  did  the  spread  of  Christianity  become  by 
this  means  !  Zinzendorf,  the  founder  of  the  Herrnhuters,  was  a  pupil 
of  Franke's,  and  how  great  are  the  blessings  which  the  Herrnhuters 
have  distributed  among  the  most  outcast  of  the  heathen !  Was  it 
not  the  example  of  Franke  which,  in  172*7,  led  professor  Callenberg, 
of  Halle,  to  found  an  institution  for  the  conversion  of  Jews  and  Mo- 
hammedans ;  and  was  not  this  mission  the  forerunner  of  the  present 
mission  to  the  Jews  ?  Lastly,  was  not  the  Canstein  Bible  Institution, 
which  has  distributed,  at  exceedingly  low  prices,  more  than  two  million 
copies  of  the  Bible,  the  New  Testament,  the  Psalter,  &c.,  the  forerun- 
ner of  all  the  Bible  societies  of  the  present  day  ?  * 

We  have  pursued  Franke's  life  up  to  1694  only ;  although  might 
we  not  say  that  his  life  was  most  properly  characterized  by  his  efforts 
and  institutions ;  that  he  lived  entirely  in  what  he  considered  his 
divinely-given  vocation  ? 

I  shall  here  add  but  little.  In  that  year,  1694,  he  married  a  Miss 
Von  Wurm,  with  whom  he  lived  thirty-three  years,  until  his  death, 
in  happy  marriage.  They  had  three  children.  The  first,  a  son,  died 
early.  The  second  son,  Gotthilf  August,  born  in  1696,  was  Franke's 
successor  in  the  direction  of  the  institutions  ;  the  third  child,  a  daugh- 
ter, married  Freylinghausen  in  1715.  Franke's  domestic  life,  in  the 
small  circle  of  his  family,  was  wholly  characterized  by  his  pious  spirit. 
Up  to  his  sixty-third  year,  he  enjoyed,  on  the  whole,  good  health. 
If  at  any  time  he  found  himself  overworked,  he  relieved  himself  by 
travel.  In  1725,  he  was  attacked  by  a  painful  dysentery,  and  in  Nov., 
1726,  he  was  lamed  in  his  left  h'and  by  an  apoplexy.  He  however 
felt  himself  so  much  stronger  in  March,  1727,  that  he  inserted  his  lec- 

*  I  forbear  here  to  enlarge  npon  the  fact  that  in  Spener  and  Franke's  schools  originated  an 
unchurchlike,  pietist,  and  mystical  separatism,  which  has  in  after  times  become  steadily  mor« 
and  more  influential,  erroneous,  and  misleading. 


AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE.  423 

tares  in  the  catalogue  of  lectures  for  the  summer  season.  But  he 
delivered  only  one,  on  the  15th  of  May,  a  parenetical  one,  which  he 
ended,  evidently  affected,  with  the  words :  "  so  now  go  hence,  and 
may  the  Lord  be  blessed  for  ever  and  eternally." 

On  the  18th  of  May,  he  partook  for  the  last  time  of  the  Lord's 
Supper. 

On  the  24th  of  May,  he  walked  in  the  garden  of  the  orphan-house. 
Here  he  poured  out  his  soul  in  earnest  prayer ;  in  which  he  referred 
to  his  conversion  at  Luneburg.  He  said  :  "  Under  the  open  heaven  I 
have  often  made  a  league  with  thee,  and  said,  if  thou  wilt  be  my  God, 
I  will  be  thy  servant.  Often  have  I  prayed  to  thee,  Lord,  give  me 
children,  make  them  as  the  dew  of  the  morning,  make  their  numbers 
as  the  stars  in  heaven.  Thou  hast  done  it ;  and  hast  by  my  means 
opened  a  spring  of  eternal  life,  and  hast  caused  it  to  flow  so  far  that 
souls  have  drank  of  it  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Let  it  now  flow 
forth  and  forever,  that  the  blessings  may  never  cease,  but  may  live 
on  to  the  end  of  the  world." 

From  that  time  onward,  his  pains  increased  ;  but  he  bore  them  with 
Christian  patience,  supported  by  prayer  and  the  reading  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  He  often  repeated  the  words  of  the  dying  Jacob,  "Lord, 
1  wait  for  thy  salvation." 

On  the  8th  of  June,  he  grew  weaker  and  weaker.  His  pious  wife 
then  asked  him,  "  Is  thy  Saviour  still  near  thee  ?  "  "  There  is  no 
doubt  of  that,"  he  answered.  These  were  his  last  words.  He  now 
fell  into  a  slumber ;  and  sank  away  softly  and  placidly,  among  the 
prayers  and  singing  of  his  family  and  his  friends,  at  three-quarters 
past  ten  in  the  evening.  He  had  reached  the  age  of  64  years  two 
months  and  three  weeks. 

The  whole  city  came  forth  to  see  once  more  the  remains  of  the 
dead ;  and  followed  him  to  his  resting-place,  on  the  17th  of  June. 


424  AUGUSTUS  HERMANN  FRANKE. 


FRANKE'S  ORPHAN  HOUSE  IN  1853 

Let  us  now  bestow  a  short  glance  upon  the  exterior  of  Franke's  Institutions  5 
placing  ourselves,  for  the  purpose,  in  the  so-called  Franke's  Square.  From  this, 
we  first  see  a  large  building,  three  stories  high,  and  with  fifteen  windows  in  front. 
In  the  first  story,  as  we  have  related,  are  the  book  establishment  and  the  apothe- 
cary's shop ;  and,  in  the  second  and  third,  the  rooms  of  the  Latin  High  School, 
(Hauptschule.)  Under  two  eagles,  who  direct  their  flight  toward  the  sun,  is  the 
inscription  which  we  have  already  read :  "  They  who  wait  upon  the  Lord  shall 
renew  their  strength  ;  they  shall  mount  up  with  wings  as  eagles."  On  going  up 
the  outer  steps,  the  eye  falls  upon  two  large  tablets,  upon  one  of  which  is  the  in- 
scription, "Stranger!  what  thou  seest  is  the  result  of  faith  and  love.  Honor 
the  spirit  of  the  founder,  by  believing  and  loving  like  him."  The  inside  of  the 
edifice  presents  a  long  street  with  lofty  houses  each  side.  On  the  right  is  the 
common  dining-room,  and  over  it  the  assembly-room,  which  is  for  school  or  re- 
ligious uses.  Next  this  are  the  officer's  residences,  the  Canstein  Bible  Institu- 
tion, the  library,  (which  has  gradually  increased  by  gifts  and  legacies  to  26,000 
volumes,  and  in  whose  lower  story  is  a  high  school  for  girls,)  the  chief  account- 
ant's office,  the  treasury,  and  the  archives. 

On  the  left  hand  are,  next  to  the  front  building,  the  orphan  institution  for  boys, 
the  rooms  of  the  burgher  and  free  schools,  the  Madchenhaus  for  orphan  girls, 
and  two  girls'  schools.  The  long  building  next,  with  six  entrances,  the  first  of 
which  admits  to  a  real  school,  and  the  others  to  many  lodging-rooms  for  teachers 
and  scholars. 

At  the  end  of  this  interior  street  is  a  side  of  the  edifice  of  the  Royal  Paeda- 
gogium,  to  which,  between  two  courts,  is  adjoined  the  main  building  for  the  pupils 
of  the  institution.  South  of  the  great  inner  street  is  a  second  street,  with  build- 
ings for  the  domestic  departments,  bakery,  store-rooms  for  books  and  bibles,  the 
hospital,  and  the  building  yard.  Beyond  these  are  the  extensive  gardens  and  the 
beautiful  play  grounds  of  the  Orphan  House  and  the  Paedagogium. 

Several  of  these  buildings  have,  since  Franke's  death,  either  been  entirely  re- 
built or  changed  by  important  repairs ;  the  outward  appearance  of  his  institutions 
is,  at  this  day,  however,  but  little  different  from  that  in  his  time. 

The  schools  have  been  much  increased.  Franke  established  the  Paeda- 
gogium,  the  Latin  school,  and  the  German  schools  for  boys  and  girls.  His  suc- 
cessors have  maintained  these,  but,  as  successive  periods  required,  have  added  to 
them  a  real  school,  a  higher  girls'  school,  a  preparatory  school  for  future  teachers, 
and  boys'  and  girls'  schools  for  children  entirely  poor,  quite  separate  from  those 
in  which  a  moderate  rate  is  required. 

The  number  of  scholars  has  increased  remarkably.  In  1698,  it  was  500;  in 
1707,  1100;  in  1714,  1775;  in  1727,  2205;  and  at  about  1750,  2500.  After 
that  time  the  number  began  to  decrease,  so  that  at  the  centennial  foundation  anni- 
versary there  were  only  1418.  During  the  present  century,  confidence  in  the 
schools  revived ;  and  the  attendance  upon  them  has  rapidly  risen  to  so  great  a 
number  as  would  have  been  injurious  to  the  grade  of  the  instruction,  if  care  had 
not  always  been  taken  to  divide  classes  when  too  full.  The  Paedagogium  alone 
has  decreased,  by  reason  of  various  unfavorable  circumstances,  so  that  whereas, 
fifty  years  ago,  there  were  76  pupils  in  it,  there  are  now  but  24.  The  Latin  high 
school  has  475  pupils;  the  real  school  480;  the  girl's  high  school  253;  the 
burgher  school  714;  the  intermediate  girls'  so^ol  406  ;  the  free  school  for  boys 
315  ;  that  for  girls  322  ;  so  that  more  than  3000  scholars  are  now  (1853)  daily 
instructed  in  the  institution. 

The  number  of  orphans,  which  in  1798  was  100,  was,  in  1727,  134;  and  in 
1744,200.  The  great  scarcity  of  the  years  from  1770  to  1773,  inclusive,  ren- 
dered it  necessary  to  decrease  this  number.  In  1786  there  were  80  boys  and  35 
girls;  and  the  number  was  maintained  only  by  great  efforts.  At  present  (1853) 
there  are  114  boys  and  16  girls.  The  whole  number  of  orphans  who  have  been 
brought  up  in  the  institution  is  6757  ;  of  whom  5450  are  boys,  and  1307  girls. 
To  so  many  thousands  has  it  been  a  foster-mother !  See  "August  Hermann 
Franke,  or  the  Power  and  Blessing  of  Prayer  and  Faith."  Breslau. 

A  full  account  of  the  institution  for  orphans  is  given  by  Prof.  Bache,  in  his 
'' Report  on  Education  in  Europe." 


VERBAL  REALISM. 

Translated  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education,  from  the  German  of  Karl  von  Raumer.J 


THUS  we  perceive  that  the  circle  of  studies,  both  at  the  schools  and 
universities  of  that  period  (the  sixteenth  century,  and  thereabouts,) 
was  extremely  limited,  compared  with  that  of  the  present  day.  It 
is  abundantly  evident,  as  I  have  repeatedly  remarked,  that  all  the 
time  and  energy  of  youth  was  devoted  to  the  acquisition  and  the 
practice  of  Latin  eloquence.  A  many-years'  course  in  grammar  was 
submitted  to  for  the  sake  of  correctness  of  speech,  in  logic  for  the 
sake  of  precision  of  thought ;  and  history  was  taught  in  order  to  fur- 
nish the  material  for  the  display  of  rhetoric,  either  in  speaking  or  in 
writing.  Nothing  was  thought  of,  but  disputations,  declamations, 
and  the  acting  of  the  plays  of  Terence.  The  classics  were  read 
merely  for  the  purpose  of  gleaning  from  them  phrases  to  be  used  in 
constructing  Latin  sentences ;  and,  provided  that  an  agreeable  fullness 
and  cadence  was  thereby  secured  to  the  expression,  but  little  heed 
was  given  to  the  contents.  Such  we  find  to  have  been  the  spirit  of 
education  among  the  Protestants,  equally  with  the  Jesuits ;  Trotzen- 
dorf  and  Sturm,  Wurtembergers  and  Saxons,  agreeing  herein  with 
the  Jesuit  general,  Claudius  di  Aquaviva. 

Nevertheless,  in  the  more  liberal-minded  Erasmus,  there  appeared 
indications  of  a  rebellion  against  this  universal  tendency :  with  him 
arose  a  new  type  of  culture,  which  may  be  appropriately  styled 
"verbal  realism."  This  we  will  now  endeavor  to  analyze,  in  order 
in  the  sequel  to  distinguish  it  more  clearly  from  "  real  realism." 

Erasmus  demanded  of  the  grammarian  or  philologist  (and  it  would 
really  appear  self-evident,)  that  he  should  learn  many  things,  without 
which,  he  would  be  in  no  condition  to  understand  the  classics.  For 
instance,  he  insisted  upon  a  knowledge  of  geography,  arithmetic,  and 
natural  science.  He  did  not,  however,  exact  that  perfect  and  full  ac- 
quaintance with  these  topics  possessed  by  the  adept,  but  only  a  gen- 
eral knowledge  of  them  all,  which,  nevertheless,  was  a  great  advance 
on  the  profound  ignorance  which  had  hitherto  been  acquiesced  in. 

As  in  so  many  other  literary  aspirations  and  achievements,  Melanc- 
tbon,  in  this  matter  also,  followed  in  the  wake  of  Erasmus.  We  have 
seen  that,  even  while  at  Tubingen,  he  did  not  rest  contented  with  phi- 
lological pursuits  alone,  but  used  every  endeavor  to  acquire  universal 
425 


426  VERBAL  REALISM. 

knowledge,  turning  his  attention  to  physics,  mathematics,  astronomy, 
history,  and  medicine,  and  all  his  life  he  remained  true  to  this  desire 
for  universal  culture. 

In  what  spirit  he  studied  all  these  sciences,  especially  the  natural, 
he  intimates  in  many  places.  Thus,  in  the  dedication  to  his  physics, 
addressed  to  Meienburg,  the  Mayor  of  Nordhausen,  he  says :  "  Al- 
though the  nature  of  things  can  not  be  absolutely  known,  nor  the 
marvelous  works  of  God  be  traced  to  their  original,  until  in  that 
future  life  we  shall  ourselves  listen  to  the  eternal  counsel  of  the  Fa- 
ther, Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  nevertheless,  even  amid  this  our  present 
darkness,  every  gleam  and  every  hint  of  the  harmony  of  this  fair  crea- 
tion forms  a  step  toward  the  knowledge  of  God  and  toward  virtue, 
whereby  we  ourselves  shall  also  learn  to  love  and  maintain  order  and 
moderation  in  all  our  own  acts.  Since  it  is  evident  that  men  are  en- 
dowed by  their  Creator  with  faculties  fitted  for  the  contemplation  of 
nature,  they  must,  of  necessity,  take  delight  in  investigating  the  ele- 
ments, the  laws,  the  motions,  and  the  qualities  or  forces  of  the  vari- 
ous bodies,  by  which  they  are  surrounded."  "  The  uncertainty  which 
obtains  with  regard  to  so  much  in  nature,"  he  says  elsewhere,  "  should 
not  deter  us  from  our  search,  for  it  is  none  the  less  God's  will  that  we 
trace  out  his  footsteps  in  the  creation."  "Let  us  prepare  ourselves," 
he  continues,  "for  admission  to  that  enduring  and  eternal  Academy, 
where  all  the  imperfections  of  our  philosophy  shall  vanish  in  the  im- 
mediate presence  of  the  Master-Builder,  who  there  shall  Himself  show 
us  his  own  archetype  of  the  world." 

"  Many,"  he  proceeds  to  say,  "  will  smile  at  these  Aristotelian  be- 
ginnings ;  but  they  are  the  rudiments  of  what  is  destined,  one  day,  to 
become  a  perfected  philosophy.  Were  the  powers  of  men  on  a  great- 
er scale  than  we  find  them,  still  their  knowledge  must,  as  now,  pro- 
ceed from  small  beginnings.  In  such  a  plain  and  simple  manner 
might  Adam  once  have  taught  his  son,  Abel,  philosophy  ;  pointing 
him  to  the  heavens,  the  stars,  the  land,  the  water,  teaching  him  of 
the  times  and  seasons,  and,  in  all  his  teachings,  directing  him  up  to 
God  the  Creator.!' 

Further  on  he  admonishes  the  learner,  with  an  intelligent  choice 
to  read  the  best  authors  on  physics,  to  avoid  all  controversy,  and  to 
make  use  of  a  faultless  Latin  style.  "For,"  he  says,  "he  who  takes 
pains  to  weigh  his  words  will  form  a  clear  conception  of  the  objects 
he  is  describing.  Where,  on  the  contrary,  a  person  coins  uncouth 
and  strange  words,  his  ideas  will  be  sure  to  be  crude  and  anomalous ; 
as  in  the  writings  of  Scotus  and  his  fellows,  you  will  not  merely  find 
the  language  corrupt,  but  likewise  that  vague  shadows  of  truth,  or  it 


VERBAL  REALISM.  427 

may  be  dreams,  have  been  summoned  up,  and  new  words  formed  to 
express  them." 

Then  he  relates  how  Paul  Eber,  in  connection  with  himself,  has 
projected  the  text-book  in  question,  upon  the  basis  of  Aristotle.  And 
he  adds  his  caution  against  the  course  of  those  who  deem  it  a  mark 
of  genius  to  make  a  parade  of  high-sounding  sentiments;  for  "the 
right  spirit  in  the  quest  of  truth  consists  in  the  love  of  truth."  Sci- 
ence must  be  applied  to  life.  "  The  church  too  is  benefitted  by  these 
physical  studies;  as,  for  instance,  we  have  often  to  speak  of  the 
harmony  of  the  creation,  so,  likewise,  of  the  derangement  of  this 
harmony,  and  the  evils  which  God  has  visited  upon  man  in  conse- 
quence of  the  fall."  While  preparing  his  psychology,  in  which  he 
treats  of  the  entire  nature  of  man,  he  sought  an  interview  with  the 
Nuremberg  doctors  of  medicine,  and  requested  the  celebrated  Leon- 
ard Fox  to  send  him  communications  upon  anatomy,  temperaments, 
<fec.  His  enthusiasm  for  astronomy,  he  expresses  thus,  in  his  preface 
to  John  Sacrobusto's  book  on  the  sphere.  This  book  he  thinks  pecu- 
liarly adapted  to  schools,  "  because  the  author  understood  how,  from 
the  great  mass  of  astronomical  facts,  to  select  the  simplest  and  most 
essential."  Then  he  praises  the  study  of  astronomy,  and  quotes,  with 
commendation,  Plato's  saying,  "  that  it  was  to  gaze  upon  the  stars  that 
eyes  were  given  to  men.  For  to  look  at  it,  the  eye  itself  would  seem 
to  bear  an  affinity  to  the  stars."  "  And  then  too,  the  perdurable  har- 
mony of  the  starry  heavens  bespeaks  a  God.  Thus,  philosophers,  who 
despised  astronomy,  were  atheists,  denying  our  immortality.  The  in- 
terpretation of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  the  conduct  of  life,  equally 
called  for  a  knowledge  of  astronomy.  What  would  become  of  men, 
had  they  no  chronology  for  the  past,  no  calendar  for  the  present  ? 
Neither  the  church  nor  the  state  could  stand  without  it."  And  further 
on,  he  lauds  the  Germans,  Purbach  and  Regiomontanus,  through 
whose  labors,  astronomy,  after  being  in  disrepute  for  centuries,  had  been 
again  brought  into  honor.  Thus  those  Epicurean  theologians,  who 
scorned  and  rejected,  not  astrology  alone,  but  a  firmly-based  scientific 
astronomy  also,  had  more  need  of  the  physician  than  the  geometer, 
to  be  cured  of  their  madness.  In  the  preface  to  his  edition  of  Ara- 
tus,  addressed  to  Hieronymus  Baumgartner,  he  says,  "  the  knowledge 
of  nature  we  must  learn  from  the  Greeks ;  Aratus  throws  light  upon 
much  in  the  Latin  poets."  And  against  the  enemies  of  mathematics, 
he  bears  the  following  testimony,  in  a  letter  to  Camerarius,  "  I  can 
only  laugh  over  your  anger  that  my  recommendation  of  mathematics 
has  been  condemned.  In  it  I  had  no  other  aim,  than  to  restore  to 
the  schools  the  right  use  of  this  science,  and  to  allure  youth  to  the 


423  VERBAL  REALISM. 

study  of  it.  This  I  have  desired,  and  for  this  will  I  labor,  so  long  as 
any  opportunity  is  left  to  me  to  help  forward  the  cause  of  sound 
learning."  But  how  ill  it  must  have  fared  with  the  mathematics, 
when,  as  we  have  elsewhere  cited,  the  mathematical  professor  at  Wit- 
temberg,  lectured  upon  simple  numbers,  or  the  four  primary  elements 
of  arithmetic ;  this  fact,  of  itself,  forms  a  practical  comment  on  the 
entire  neglect  into  which  arithmetic  had  fallen  in  the  schools. 

But  much  as  Melancthon's  defense  of  astronomy  and  mathematics 
merits  our  approval,  yet  we  must  not  close  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that, 
he,  like  so  many  of  his  contemporaries,  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  su- 
perstitions of  astrology.*  In  support  of  this  belief,  he  cites  the  say- 
ing of  Aristotle,  that  "  the  world  is  under  the  dominion  of  the  heav- 
ens." Neither  the  learned  treatise  of  Picus  di  Mirandola  against  as- 
trology, nor  Luther's  hearty  contempt  for  it,  could  ever  wean  him 
from  this  superstition,  as  is  evinced  by  the  practical  use  he  made  of  it 
throughout  his  life. 

In  common  with  many  eminent  astronomers  of  that  day,  he  ad- 
hered to  the  Ptolemaic  system, and  this,  although  his  friend  and  col- 
league, Erasmus  Reinhold,  was  among  the  first  to  recognize  the  claims 
of  Copernicus.  And  truly,  what  an  entire  change,  both  in  modes  of 
thought  as  well  as  in  text-books,  was  called  for  by  that  great  work  of 
Copernicus,  "On  the  revolutions  of  the  heavenly  bodies;'"  for  it  re- 
quired every  work  on  astronomy  to  be  rewritten,  every  opinion,  and 
every  method  of  instruction,  to  be  reconsidered. 

Allusion  has  already  been  made,  in  another  part  of  this  work  to 
Luther's  earnest  and  lively  recommendation  of  the  study  of  the 
"real"  sciences,  such  as  history,  mathematics,  astronomy,  and  music. 

But,  despite  all  the  expostulations  of  Erasmus,  Melancthon,  and  Lu- 
ther, these  studies,  as  we  have  had  occasion  to  observe,  were  sadly 
neglected,  both  at  schools  and  universities ;  nor  did  they  begin  to  re- 
ceive a  gradually  increasing  attention  until  the  seventeenth  century. 

But  what  are  "  reals,"  and  what  is  "realism?"  These  questions 
are  not  easy  to  answer,  even  after  all  that  we  have  said  in  elucidation 
of  them.  Our  task,  however,  will  be  simplified,  if  we  divest  our- 
selves of  the  views  and  conceptions  obtaining  on  this  subject  at  the 
present  day,  and  confine  our  thoughts  to  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
philologist  of  that  period  aimed,  in  the  study  of  the  classics,  at  a  two- 
fold object.  In  the  first  place,  he  applied  himself  merely  to  the  lan- 

*He  thus  writes  of  his  son-in-law,  Sabinus :— "  Sabinus  is  of  a  head-strong  nature,  and  will 
not  listen  to  advice  ;  this  is  due  to  the  conjunction  of  Mars  and  Saturn,  at  his  nativity,  a  fact 
which  I  ought  to  have  taken  into  account,  when  he  asked  the  hand  of  my  daughter."  And, 
because  the  mathematician,  Hassfurt,  who  cast  his  nativity  when  he  was  a  boy,  had  predicted 
that  peril  would  befall  him  from  the  North  Sea,  and  the  Baltic,  he  declined  invitations 
both  to  Denmark  and  to  England. 


VERBAL  REALISM.  429 

guage  of  ancient  authors,  grammatically,  as  he  considered  its  ety- 
mological and  syntactical  forms;  critically,  as  he  scrutinized  the  accu- 
racy of  the  text;  and  aesthetically,  while  he  weighed  the  expression 
and  the  rhythm  of  the  prose  writer  or  the  meter  of  the  poet.  At  the 
same  time  he  read  both  prose  and  poetry,  with  constant  reference  to 
a  more  and  more  perfect  imitation  of  them,  both  in  speaking  and  in 
writing.  And,  secondly,  he  applied  himself  to  the  contents,  whatever 
they  might  be,  whether  they  related  to  war  or  to  peace,  to  affairs  of 
state,  to  nature,  art,  mythology,  etc.  This  study  of  the  contents  of 
an  author  was  afterward  styled  the  study  of  "  reals,"  to  distinguish  it 
from  that  of  language  alone.  Such  was  that  study  upon  which  Eras- 
mus and  Melancthon  laid  so  much  stress ;  but  it  was  nevertheless  by 
no  means  conducted  independently  of  the  ancients,  being  based  in 
great  part  upon  their  writings,  and  then,  in  turn,  used  as  indispens- 
able aids  in  their  interpretation. 

Let  the  reader  imagine  himself,  on  the  one  hand,  regarding  solely 
the  language  of  the  classics,  and  taking  their  subject  into  account 
only  where  this  is  required  to  throw  light  on  the  words ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  penetrating  to  the  subject-matter  of  an  author,  and  giv- 
ing no  more  attention  to  the  phraseology  than  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  an  understanding  of  that  subject-matter.  In  this  latter  case,  his 
ideal  will  be  to  convert  the  language  into  a  perfectly  transparent  me- 
dium, and  to  read  the  classics  without  embarrassment,  as  though 
Greek  or  Latin  were  his  mother  tongue. 

Reading  the  classics  out  of  pure  regard  for  the  language,  belongs 
chiefly  to  the  professional  philologist.  This  study  of  language,  in  and 
for  itself,  might  be  called  pure  philology,  after  the  analogy  of  the 
pure  mathematics.  These  have  to  do,  for  instance,  with  unknown 
quantities,  with  numbers  in  the  absolute,  with  algebraic  formulae. 
And,  as  the  pure  mathematics  are  applied  to  astronomy,  optics,  acous- 
tics, etc.,  becoming  the  handmaid  to  these  sciences,  so  pure  philology 
ministers  to  the  purposes  of  the  historian,  the  archaeologist,  etc. 

This  contest  between  "  reals  "  and  "  verbals,"  had  presented  itself, 
as  we  have  seen,  to  the  minds,  both  of  Erasmus  and  Melancthon ; 
but  the  terms  "reals"  and  "realism"  were  not,  so  far  as  I  can  learn, 
employed  by  either  of  them.  Nor  is  this  strange,  if  WQ  consider 
that  they  flourished  near  the  period  when  the  term  "  realism,"  intro- 
duced by  the  scholastics,  as  contrasted  with  "  nominalism,"  had  a 
meaning  wholly  unlike  that  of  the  same  term  in  its  present  accepta- 
tion. 

When  this  term  first  began  to  change  its  original  meaning,  we  may 
gather  from  a  treatise  by  the  well-known  philologist,  Taubmann, 


430  VERBAL  REAUSM. 

which  appeared  in  the  year  1614.  In  this  he  says,  "there  is  one 
thing  which  has  often  excited  my  surprise,  and  that  is,  if  any  one 
devotes  unusual  care  to  the  acquisition  of  a  graceful  and  elegant  style, 
young  men,  and  sometimes  even  the  teachers  of  young  men,  will  call 
him,  by  way  of  derision,  philologist,  critic,  and  grammarian,  or,  in  one 
word,  verbalist;  but  to  themselves  they  arrogate  the  new  name  of 
realists,  thereby  intimating  that  their  concern  is  with  things  alone, 
while  those  others,  wholly  absorbed  in  language,  overlook  the  matter 
spoken  of." 

It  will  be  observed  that  realists  are  here  contrasted,  not  with  hu- 
manists, but  with  verbalists.  Verba  valent  sicut  nummi.  Evidently, 
then,  the  realists  to  whom  Taubmann  alludes,  found  their  advantage  in 
fastening  upon  their  opponents  the  epithet  verbalists ;  for  thereby 
they  branded  them  as  dealers  in  words,  who  pursued  the  shadow  and 
lost  the  substance.  In  our  day,  however,  the  tables  are  turned,  since 
the  verbalists  have  assumed  the  new  title  of  humanists,  and,  by  so  do- 
ing, have  given  the  realists,  in  no  vague  manner,  to  understand  that 
they  count  them  for  barbarians,  and,  as  such,  destitute  of  all  enno- 
bling culture. 

"  But,"  my  readers  may  ask,  "  what  is  to  be  understood  by  the  ex- 
pression 'verbal  realism  ?'  Is  it  not  a  contradiction  in  terms?"  Ap- 
parently it  is  ;  yet  we  shall  see,  in  the  sequel,  that  besides  the  general 
distinction  between  "  verbals  "  and  "  reals,"  there  also  subsists  a  two- 
fold division  of  realism  itself;  viz.,  into  verbal  and  real.  Some  in- 
dications of  this  latter  division  we  have  already  met,  in  the  close  of 
our  sketch  of  the  earlier  universities.  Here,  for  instance,  astronomy 
was  taught  without  an  observatory,  anatomy  without  dissections,  bota- 
ny without  herbals,  natural  philosophy  without  experiments,  all  from 
books, — Aristotle,  Pliny,  Aratus,  Galen,  etc., — and  this  knowledge 
was  then  made  use  of  in  turn  for  the  elucidation  of  the  same  books 
from  whence  it  was  drawn.  Such  was  "verbal  realism"  in  those 
times,  and  such  is  it  likewise  in  our  day !  The  meaning  that  we  at- 
tach, on  the  other  hand,  to  the  phrase  "  real  realism,"  will  appear 
more  clearly  in  the  light  of  the  succeeding  chapter  upon  Lord  Bacon. 


THE  REAL  SCHOOLS  OF  GERMANY. 

[Translated  from  the  German  of  Karl  von  Raumer  for  this  Journal.] 


DURING  the  seventeenth  century,  pedagogical  realism  gained  more 
and  more  ground  in  the  schools  of  learning,  as  is  shown  by  the  in- 
troduction of  the  school-books  of  Comenius.  These  were  brought 
into  the  gymnasium  at  Hersfield,  in  1649.  In  the  Dantzic  Gymna- 
sium, according  to  the  plan  of  study  for  1653,  the  Vestibulum  and 
Janua  of  Comenius  were  to  be  read ;  in  those  of  Stargard  and  Nu- 
remberg, the  Orbis  Pictus. 

In  the  use  of  these  books,  however,  the  thing  sought  for  appears 
to  have  been  a  copia  vocabulorum,  with  especial  regard  to  the  speak- 
ing of  Latin.  The  pictures  were  used  rather  as  a  mnemonic  help  for 
fixing  the  words  in  the  memory,  than  according  to  the  idea  of  Co- 
menius, as  means  of  becoming  acquainted  with  the  things  themselves. 

The  things,  however,  imperceptibly  asserted  their  proper  place. 
Feuerlein  remarks,  that  complaint  had  been  made  of  the  want  of  a 
good  vocabulary  or  nomenclator ; ,  and  about  the  Orbis  Sensualium 
of  Comenius,  which  up  to  that  time  had  been  almost  the  only  work 
of  the  kind.  This  contained  the  Latin  of  tailors,  weavers,  shoemak- 
ers, cooks,  and  butlers,  unlatin  phrases  and  barbarisms ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  lacked  the  most  necessary  words,  particles,  &c*  The 
Libellus  memorial**  of  Cellarius  was  introduced  in  the  place  of  the 
Orbis  Pictus,  to  remedy  this  defect.  But  this  school-book,  which  was 
of  printed  matter  only,  gave  no  better  satisfaction ;  men  had  become 
used  to  the  pictures  of  Comenius,  and  to  his  world  of  real  things. 
Thus,  Feuerlein  says  :  "  men  might  set  about  some  wood-cuts  or  cop- 
per-plates, in  which  the  several  things  which  youth  were  learning 
might  at  least  be  placed  in  effigie  before  their  eyes,  and  under  each, 
what  they  are,  or  for  what  they  are  used,  might  be  written  ;  of  which 
they  might  memorize  the  Latin  names,  and  thus  might  fix  words  in 
their  memories  in  relation  to  which  they  did  not  know  what  the  thing 
is,  or  what  the  word  means.  *  *  *  Besides,  it  would  not  be  a 

*  Feuerlein  relates  that  when  a  scholar  asked  Conrector  Manner.  "  Master,  what  is  the 
Latin  for  Kugel-Hopflein  ? "  (a  sort  of  cake.)  he  answered,  "  You  fool,  do  you  suppose  that 
Cicero  ever  ate  a  Kugel-Hopflein  7  "  That  is,  where  is  the  use  of  learning  Latin  wordi 
which  do  not  appear  in  the  classics  1 


432  THE  REAL  SCHOOLS  OF  GERMANY. 

bad  plan,"  he  continues,  "  to  take  some  of  the  boys,  from  time  to 
time,  upon  walks  into  the  fields  and  gardens,  to  forges,  saw  mills,  pa- 
per mills,  &c.,  or  to  workshops  of  all  kinds ;  to  show  them  the  tools, 
and  tell  them  what  are  their  names,  and  what  is  done  with  them ; 
and  then  to  ask  them  what  are  the  Latin  names  of  this  or  that,  which 
they  see  in  substantia  before  their  eyes ;  or  to  tell  them  to  them. 
This  would  not  only  impress  the  words  much  better  upon  their  memo- 
ries, while  they  would  not  otherwise  learn  them  without  vexation, 
since  they  do  not  understand  them  in  German,  or  know  what  the  thing 
is ;  but  also  this  knowledge  would  serve  a  good  turn  in  every-day  life ; 
in  which  the  educated  man  often  appears  so  ignorant  and  ill-informed 
upon  subjects  which  are  always  coming  up  in  ordinary  conversation." 

Something  of  life  was  beginning  to  make  itself  felt  all  through  the 
schools. 

Although  the  Orbis  Pictus  was  disused  in  the  Nuremberg  Gym- 
nasium, the  Vestibulum  of  Comenius  was  yet  retained  there  in  the  two 
lowest  classes.  In  the  same  direction  was  tending  most  of  the  realist 
instruction"  in  mathematics,  which  is  called,  in  the  plan  of  study  given 
by  Feuerlein,  mathesis  juvenilis,  and  which  passed  through  five  classes. 

Sturm's  class-book,*  which  was  used  for  this  purpose,  is  largely  fur- 
nished with  copper-plates,  and  includes  general  mathematics,  practi- 
cal arithmetic,  theoretical  and  practical  geometry,  (field  surveying, 
measuring  altitudes,  and  stereometry,)  optics,  military  and  civil  archi- 
tecture, cosmography,  chronology,  dialing,  mechanics,  and,  last  of  all, 
chiromancy!  The  elements  of  these  studies  are  contained  upon 
seventy-nine  folio  pages.  Feu*  •  .ein  praises  highly  Sturm's  mathe- 
matical method  ;  one  would  think  one  was  listening  to  a  scholar  of 
Pestalozzi.  "  In  it,"  he  says,  "  there  is  no  learning  by  rote  of  the 
one-times-one,  as  is  customary  in  the  German  schools,  without  under- 
standing it ;  but  they  learn  themselves  to  make  it,  and  to  fix  their 
understanding  on  it  with  reason  and  good  apprehension  of  it.  Here 
is  learned  the  &OT-I,  the  basis  of  the  rules,  why  they  do  so  and  so; 
in  the  German  schools  only  the  on  is  taught ;  how  to  proceed,  with- 
out knowing  the  basis  of  the  proceedings,  the  why.  In  the  latter 
case  the  work  would  seem  to  be  almost  entirely  one  of  memory, 
rather  than  of  reason."  He  then  goes  on  to  praise  it, — and  this  is 
what  we  have  special  regard  to ;  that  the  boys  "  learn  so  skillfully  to 
use  the  compasses,  the  square,  the  measuring-rod,  &c.,  and  that,  after 
a  few  exercises,  they  learn,  quickly  and  neatly,  to  estimate  by  the  eye 
alone,  the  size  of  a  table,  a  window,  a  room,  a  house,  &c." 

*  The  title  is :  "  Johannis   Christophori  Sturmii  mathesis  compendiaria  sive  tyrocinia 
jotJiematica."    I  have  before  me  the  sixth  edition  in  folio,  Coburg,  1714  ;  edited  by  Sturm'i 
nhard  Christoph  Sturm. 


THE  REAL  SCHOOLS  OF  GERMANY.  433 

According  to  Sturm's  preface  to  his  book,  it  was  introduced  into 
various  German  gymnasiums. 

Pastor  Semler,  of  Halle,  went  still  one  step  further.*  In  1739, 
he  published  an  account  called  "Upon  the  Mathematical,  Mechanical, 
and  Agricultural  Real  School  in  the  city  of  Halle,  approved  and  re- 
opened by  the  royal  Prussian  government  of  the  Duchy  of  Magde- 
burg, and  the  Berlin  royal  society  of  sciences."! 

So  far  as  I  know,  this  is  the  first  time  that  the  name  and  the  idea 
of  the  real  school  appear.  Besides  religious  instruction,  according  to 
Semler,  youth  are  to  be  instructed  in  knowledge  which  is  useful  and 
entirely  indispensable  in  every-day  life;  and,  in  particular,  all  visible 
things  are  to  be  shown  to  them,  whether  in  nature  or  by  means  of  all 
manner  of  pictures.  "A  description  of  Rome  in  a  book,"  he  says, 
"  gives  the  faintest  notion  of  the  city ;  a  more  lively  one  is  given  by 
an  oral  description,  from  one  who  has  lived  long  in  Rome ;  the  live- 
liness of  this  impression  is  increased  by  copper-plates,  paintings,  or 
models  ;  but  to  see  the  city  with  one's  own  eyes  gives  a  most  perfect 
knowledge.  His  rule  has  been,  for  forty  years,  Non  scholce  sed  vitce 
discendum.  In  real  life  is  needed  a  knowledge  of  weight,  size,  of 
the  use  of  circles  and  lines,  of  the  almanac,  astronomy,  and  geogra- 
phy. There  is  also  needed :  '.'  Knowledge  of  some  physical  things, 
such  as  metals,  minerals,  common  stones,  and  precious  stones,  woods, 
colors,  drawings,  farming,  gardening,  book-keeping,  something  of 
anatomy  and  regimen,  the  most  necessary  parts  of  police  regulations, 
the  history  of  the  country,  from  the  Halle  Chronicle  and  other  au- 
thors ;  the  map  of  all  Germany,  and  those  of  the  Duchy  of  Mag- 
deburg, and  of  the  cities  and  towns  lying  about  Halle,  which  will 
be  the  subject  of  conversation  very  often  in  daily  life ;  for  this  sort  of 
knowledge  is  much  more  important  than  to  know  in  what  part  of  the 
world  are  Dublin,  Astrakhan,  and  Adrianople." 

We  have  here  not  only  an  enumeration  of  most  of  the  real  sub- 
jects which  were  afterward  taught  in  the  real  schools,  but  also  the 
fundamental  principle  appears  here  which  was  the  leading  one  of 
Rousseau  and  Pestalozzi ;  that,  first  of  all,  that  must  be  learned 
which  is  required  by  the  immediate  present,  by  daily  life. 

Among  the  professors  at  Halle,  Semler  mentions  Chr.  Thomasius, 
Cellarius,  Hofmann  the  physician,  and  the  philosopher  Wolf,  as  those 
who  approved  his  principles.  In  1706,  he  presented  his  school  pro- 

*  Christoph  Semler,  a  Lutheran  preacher,  was  born  in  Halle,  in  1669  ;  read  lectures  there ; 
in  1697  became  a  magistrate,  in  1699  inspector  of  the  poor  schools;  was  principal  deacon  of 
the  church  of  St.  Uirich,  and  member  of  the  Berlin  Academy  of  Sciences.  He  died  in  1740 
.fb'cher  says,  "  He  was  a  man  of  great  science  in  mechanics  and  mathematics." 

t  This  appeared  in  the  "Halle.  Advertiser,"  from  which  it  was  taken  for  the  "Ada  ffistorica 
Ecclesiastical  (1740,  Vol.  XIX..  u.  198.) 


434  THE  REAL  SCHOOLS  OF  GERMANY. 

posals  to  the  government  of  Magdeburg,  which  entered  into  them 
with  approval.  The  Berlin  society  of  sciences,  being  applied  to  by 
that  government  upon  the  subject,  answered  on  the  15th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1706  ;  that  provided  schools  were  established  for  the  training  up 
of  state  and  church  officers,  it  would  be  well  for  such  boys  as  now 
attend  only  the  German  schools,  "  to  be  instructed  in  an  actual  me- 
chanical school,  so  that  their  understandings  and  senses  might  be 
more  developed  ;  and  especially  that  they  might  become  acquainted 
with  common  materials  and  subjects,  their  value  and  price,  with  the 
common  proportions  of  circles,  lines,  angles,  and  weight,  as  well  as 
with  different  sizes  and  their  measurement,  with  weighing,  and  upon 
opportunity  with  the  simple  microscope,  for  the  better  understanding 
of  the  constituents  of  bodies ;  and  with  the  use  of  other  useful  in- 
struments, together  with  tools  and  levers ;  to  the  end  that  this  knowl- 
edge might  serve  them  for  improved  understanding  and  practices, 
and  to  the  invention  of  new  and  useful  modes  of  using  them.  Thus 
it  can  be  seen  that  there  would  be  attained  by  such  scholars,  good 
proportions  in  their  work,  a  steady  hand,  and  the  like  advantages, 
such  as  are  derived  from  a  more  intelligent  use  of  the  outward  senses, 
which  are  the  foundation  of  all  the  skill  which  nature  can  ofier  and 
practice  can  perfect." 

Semler,  now  assisted  by  the  city,  caused  twelve  poor  boys  to  be  in- 
structed in  his  house,  by  a  "  literary  man,  well  experienced  in  mathe- 
matics, mechanics,  and  agriculture;"  but  his  plan  lasted  only  for  a 
year  and  a  half.  In  this  course  of  instruction,  "sixty-three  single 
objects  were  displayed  before  their  eyes,"  chiefly  by  models.*  In 
1738,  these  ocular  demonstrations  were  resumed.  These  were  placed 
before  the  scholars,  says  Semler,  "  to  see,  not  exotic  things  and  ob- 
jects of  curiosity,  but  only  things  daily  necessary,  and  such  as  pos- 
sess the  most  immediate  utility  in  every  day  life.  By  this  method, 
the  schools,  which  have  been  verbal  schools  hitherto,  will  become 
real  schools,  since  information  will  be  given  in  them  no  more  by 
means  purely  abstract,  universal,  and  intellectual.  The  elementary 
information  of  little  children  should  be  given  to  them  without  books, 
from  things  themselves."  Books  should  merely  serve  for  repetition, 
and  the  ideas  of  things  are  to  be  adjoined  to  words.  The  schools, 
hitherto  rooms  of  martyrdom,  will,  by  the  introduction  of  realities 
into  them,  become  real  pleasure  rooms.  Semler  was  seventy  years 
old  when  he  wrote  these  words.  It  would  be  an  error  to  consider 
him,  from  what  has  above  been  said,  an  entirely  earthly-minded  ma- 

*  Sometimes  by  very  strange  ones.    Thus  there  was  a  machine  "  which  demonstrated  the 
true  reason  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  tide." 


THE  REAL  SCHOOLS  OF  GERMANY.  435 

terialist  realist,  as  so  many  of  his  successors  were.  He  did  not  desire 
to  remain  permanently  in  the  realm  of  the  material,  but,  as  he  says, 
"  to  ascend  from  the  creature  to  the  Creator ; "  and  he  prays  for  the 
gift  of  enlightened  eyes,  which  may  penetrate  within  the  penetralia 
of  the  creature.  In  conclusion,  the  pious  old  man,  with  the  Psalm- 
ist, praises  the  works  of  God.  "  Blessed  is  he,"  he  says,  "  who  knows 
them  holily  ;  and  twice  blessed,  he  who  holily  takes  pleasure  in  them, 
and  thanks  him  for  them,  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart."* 

It  has  been  remarked  that  in  Francke's  school  there  were  various 
real  studies,  as  botany,  turning,  and  the  like.  Should  not  Semler, 
brought  into  such  close  communion  with  Francke,  as  teacher  in  the 
University  of  Halle,  and  as  preacher  and  instructor  of  the  German 
schools,  have  had  an  influence  upon  the  improvements  in  teaching  in 
the  Paedagogium  and  Orphan-house  by  his  pedagogical  realism  ?  It 
is  worthy  of  remark,  that  from  Francke's  school  came  Johann  Julius 
Hecker,  who,  in  1747,  established  the  first  important  real  school  in 
Berlin ;  as  did  his  successor  in  the  same  school,  Johann  Elias  Silbers- 
chlag. 

In  treating  of  the  stronger  and  stronger  growth  of  realism,  a  dis- 
tinction of  it  must  be  made,  into  two  kinds.  On  the  one  hand,  real 
studios,  before  entirely  suppressed  by  the  study  of  language,  began 
to  be  more  correctly  estimated,  and  attempts  were  made  to  introduce 
them  into  the  learned  schools.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  the  convic- 
tion grew,  that  in  these  schools  the  instruction  was  proper  for  such 
boys  as  were  intended  for  the  learned  professions,  and  only  for  such, 
and  that  all  other  scholars  were  obliged  to  learn,  and  that  in  a  super- 
ficial manner,  things  which  could  be  of  no  use  to  them  in  after  life. 
It  was  clear  that,  for  scholars  not  intending  a  life  of  study,  real  knowl- 
edge was  far  more  valuable  than  a  mere  purposeless  beginning  with 
Latin.  The  answer  of  the  Berlin  academy  in  the  matter  of  Semler 
shows  as  much.  Rector  Gesner,  of  Rotenburg,  in  1720,  wrote  to  the 
same  effect :  "  The  one  class,  who  will  not  study,  but  will  become 
tradesmen,  merchants,  or  soldiers,  must  be  instructed  in  writing,  arith- 
metic, writing  letters,  geography,  description  of  the  world,  and  his- 
tory. The  other  class  may  be  trained  for  studying."  Schottgen, 
rector  in  Dresden,  wrote,  in  1742,  a  "Humble  proposal  for  the  special 
class  in  public  city  schools"  In  these  schools,  he  says,  every  one  is 
arranged  with  a  view  to  the  learning  of  Latin,  and  children,  "  who 
are  to  remain  without  Latin,"  are  entirely  forgotten.  They  are  forced 
to  learn  Donatus  and  the  grammar,  which  are  useless  for  them ;  and 

*  I  have,  up  to  this  time,  been  unable  to  learn  further  particulars  about  Semler.  Schulz, 
("Rhenish  Gazette,"  March  and  April,  1842,  o.  159,)  speaks  cursorily  of  •«  Semler's  sad  expe- 
riences at  Halle." 


436  THE  REAL  SCHOOLS  OF  GERMANY 

they  do  not  study  what  would  be  useful  to  mechanics,  artists,  or  mer- 
chants. Of  what  use  will  it  be  to  such,  to  have  learned  anthrax,  colax, 
<fec.  ?  State  and  country  need,  not  only  people  who  know  Latin,  but 
others  also.  For  these  reasons  he  advises  to  organize  a  special  class 
for  such.  "  My  proposal,"  he  says,  with  resignation,  "  is  already  re- 
jected before  it  has  been  brought  to  light.  But,  if  what  there  is  in  it 
is  not  yet  ripe,  we  will  wait  until  the  time  comes  for  it." 

Rector  Henzky  of  Prenzlau,  already  mentioned,  wrote,  in  1751,  a 
treatise  "That  real  schools  can  and  must  become  common  ;"  and  the 
learned  and  cautious  Joh.  Matthias  Gesner  expressed  himself  thus : 
"  It  is  a  common  fault  of  most  of  our  schools,  that  in  them  provision 
is  made  only  for  such  as  intend  to  become  what  are  called  learned 
men  by  profession ;  and  thus  a  complete  acquaintance  with  Latin  is 
required  of  all  young  people,  without  any  distinction.  On  the  con- 
trary, those  things  are  for  the  most  part  neglected,  which  would  be 
indispensable,  or  at  least  useful,  in  common  civil  life,  in  the  arts  and 
professions,  at  court  and  in  war.  *  *  *  A  well-organized  gym- 
nasium should,  on  the  contrary,  be  so  arranged  that  youth,  of  every 
extraction,  age,  character,  and  distinction,  may  find  their  account  there, 
and  be  taught  in  them  for  the  common  good.  Youth  may  be,  with 
reference  to  their  future  life,  divided  into  three  classes.  1.  Those  who 
are  to  learn  trades,  arts,  or  to  be  merchants ;  2.  Those  who  are  to  seek 
their  fortune  at  court  or  in  war ;  and,  3.  Those  who  are  to  remain  stu- 
dents, and  to  go  to  the  university."* 

Thus  many  wise  men  demanded  that  regard  should  be  had,  not 
only  exclusively  and  uniformly  to  the  education  of  students,  but  also 
to  that  of  children  who  were  "  to  remain  without  Latin."  But  the 
question  how  to  bring  this  to  pass,  was  a  difficult  one  to  answer. 

According  to  Gesner's  view,  each  gymnasium  must  solve  the  prob- 
lem of  educating  all  these  entirely  different  classes  of  children.  But 
it  is  evident  how  difficult  of  solution  it  must  have  been ;  and  how 
great  was  the  danger,  that  the  endeavor  to  comply  with  the  most  vari- 
ous requirements,  would  result  in  satisfying  none  of  them,  and  be- 
coming quite  characterless. 

But  why  such  mixed  schools  ?  asked  others.  Would  it  not  be 
better  to  erect  separate  institutions,  perhaps  not  for  every  pursuit  not 
literary,  but  for  them  all  together  ?  These  questions  may  have  be- 
come more  important,  as  the  confusion  in  the  gymnasium  from  their 
attempt  to  attain  different  ends  increased,  and  the  conviction  grew, 

*  J.  M.  Gesner,  Minor  German  Works,  p.  355.  As  these  appeared  in  1756,  Gesnir'f 
'•'•Thoughts  on  the  Organization  of  a  Gymnasium,"  from  which  the  extract  in  the  text  is 
taken,  must  have  been  written  before  that  time.  His  plan  of  a  gymnasium  includes  those 
:hree  classes,  for  the  accommodation  of  pupils. 


THE  REAL  SCHOOLS  OF  GERMANY.  437 

that  each  school  should  have  but  one  principle,  one  aim,  one  char- 
acter. 

The  history  of  the  Berlin  real  school  is  very  instructive  in  this  con- 
nection, as  furnishing  a  series  of  attempts  to  unite  and  bring  into  har- 
mony with  each  other,  humanist  and  real  studies ;  the  instruction 
of  those  who  were  and  were  not  to  become  men  of  learning. 

I  have  named  Julius  Hecker  as  the  founder  of  this  school.*  He 
was  appointed  preacher  at  the  Church  of  the  Trinity,  in  Berlin,  in 
1739,  and  at  the  same  time  became  instructor  of  the  German  schools 
belonging  to  the  parish.  He  considered  institutions  of  instruction 
the  seed-beds  of  the  state,  from  which  the  young,  like  trees  from  a 
nursery,  could  be  transplanted  into  their  proper  places.  He  there- 
fore wished  for  schools  which  should  prepare  for  learned  studies ;  and 
others  which  should  train  for  the  position  of  citizens,  artisans,  sol- 
diers, and  land -owners  ;  and  others  for  farmers  and  day-laborers.  In 
accordance  with  this  view,  he  organized  the  real  school,  which  he  es- 
tablished in  1747.  It  consisted  of  three  schools,  partly  subordinated 
and  in  part  co-ordinate;  of  the  German  school,  the  Latin  school,  and 
the  real  school  proper.  Scholars  from  the  Latin  and  German  schools 
might  receive  instruction  in  the  real  school  also.  In  the  latter  were 
taught  arithmetic,  geometry,  mechanics,  architecture,  drawing,  and 
the  knowledge  of  nature.  A  knowledge  of  the  human  body  was  espe- 
cially taught,  then  plants  and  minerals,  and  instruction  was  given  in 
the  cultivation  of  mulberry  trees  and  silk- worms,  and  the  scholars 
were  taught  by  being  taken  to  workshops.  Among  the  classes  were 
a  manufacturing  class,  an  architectural  class,  an  agricultural  class,  a 
book-keeping  class,  and  a  mining  class.f 

The  organization  of  the  Latin  school  presents  nothing  particular. 
The  pupils  were  taught  weekly,  Latin  twelve  hours,  French  and  other 
languages  five  hours ;  and  the  boys  received  besides  various  kinds  of 
real  instruction,  and  were  overwhelmed  with  lessons.  Except  from 
twelve  to  one,  instruction  was  given  from  seven  in  the  morning  to 
seven  at  night. 

In  1753,  J.  F.  Halm  became  teacher  of  the  real  school;  who 
taught  by  means  of  intuition,  after  Semler's  manner.  For  this  pur- 
pose a  large  collection  of  real  objects  was  used,  among  which  were 
models  of  buildings,  ships,  chests,  plows,  churns,  columns  of  the  differ- 
ent orders,  pictorial  representations  of  an  entire  Roman  triumphal 
procession,  collections  of  merchandise,  a  miniature  shop,  a  pharma- 

*  The  information  here  following  is  mostly  from  Principal  Schulz's  "History  of  t he  Real 
School  in  Berlin."  See  Diestervveg's  "Rheinische  Blatter,"  Vols.  XXV.  and  XXVI.,  1842. 

t  In  1748,  a  boarding-house  was  attached  to  the  school,  in  which  the  first  boarder  was  Fried 
lich  Nicolai. 


438  THE  REAL  SCHOOLS  OF  GERMANY. 

cological  collection,  specimens  of  leather,  &c.,  <fec.  There  was  also  a 
botanical  garden  adapted  to  the  real  school,  and  a  plantation  of  mul- 
berries. 

Hecker  and  Halm  laid  their  pedagogical  views  before  the  public. 
The  former,  among  other  works,  wrote,  in  1749,  one  entitled  "A  sin- 
cere proposal  how  the  Latin  tongue  may  be  maintained  in  worth  and 
honor"*  He  says,  "  it  is  in  vain  that  we  strive  to  keep  the  Latin  upon 
its  ancient  throne ;  juridical  and  medicinal  examinations  and  exam- 
inations of  candidates  show  into  what  a  low  estate  it  has  fallen." 
His  advice  is,  to  pursue  real  studies  until  the  eleventh  or  twelfth  year, 
and  then  to  begin  Latin. 

Halm  wrote,  '•'"How  to  collect  in  real  schools  what  is  necessary  and 
useful  of  languages,  arts,  and  sciences,  1753."  He  advised  to  give 
children  not  only  oral  descriptions,  but  also  to  show  them  things 
themselves,  either  in  their  natural  form  or  in  models  and  pictures. 
From  his  treatise  will  appear  the  connection  between  the  specimens 
of  leather  above  mentioned,  and  the  class  in  manufacturing.  "  In 
the  class  in  manufactures,"  he  says,  "  they  began  at  Christmas  with 
the  art  of  working  in  leather.  To  pursue  this  study  in  a  manner  to 
make  it  useful  and  practical  in  future  life,  a  collection  of  all  kinds  of 
leather  is  necessary.  There  might  be  shown  to  youth  for  instruction, 
more  than  ninety  kinds  of  leather,  each  piece  perhaps  as  large  as  an 
octavo  page.  Among  these  might  be  all  kinds  of  sole-leather,  calves' 
leather,  and  that  of  cows,  horses,  and  sheep ;  similar  pieces  of  goat- 
skin, deerskin,  doeskin,  buckskin,  Cordovan,  Morocco,  Russia,  and 
other  kinds." 

Julius  Hecker  died  in  1768;  and  Halm  had  left  the  school  in 
1759. 

From  the  foregoing  it  seems  clear,  that  there  had  not  been  enough 
difference,  in  the  real  schools,  between  the  studies  of  those  who  were 
to  be  students  and  of  those  who  were  not ;  between  literary  studies 
and  real  studies.  This  occasioned  the  unheard  of  number  of  eleven 
hours  of  study  daily ;  which  was  made  necessary  by  the  crowd  of  ob- 
jects of  instruction.  It  however  also  appears,  from  the  same,  that 
Hecker  not  only  was  true  to  his  "chief  principle,  non  scholce  sed  vitas, 
discendum,  but  that  he  pushed  it  from  a  misunderstanding,  even  to 
caricatures. 

The  school  should  prepare  well  for  life,  but  should  not  anticipate 
it ;  it  should  not  undertake  to  teach  what  life  only  teaches  or  can 
teach.  Halm's  words,  above  quoted,  "At  Christmas  we  began  with 
Jie  art  of  working  in  leather,"  must  appear  silly  to  every  intelligent 

*  Ancient  and  Modern  Schools,  collected  hv  Biedermann,  17£S,  Part  VI. 


THE  REAL  SCHOOLS  OF  GERMANY.  439 

man.  Is  this  the  meaning  of  the  wise  maxim,  non  scholce  sed 
vitce  discendum  ?  Had  the  real  idea  of  life  become  wholly  lost  in 
that  hard  and  dead  period  ? 

After  the  death  of  Hecker,  Job  an  n  Elias  Silberschlag,  known  as  a 
mathematician  and  naturalist,  became  director  of  the  institution.* 
He  seems  to  have  in  view  a  more  popular  distinction  of  the  three  in- 
stitutions here  united  under  the  common  name  of  "  real  school."  He 
gave  to  the  three  the  names  of  Psedagogium,  art  school,  and  Ger- 
man or  artisans'  school. 

The  German  school  was  the  elementary  school  for  all,  but  had  also 
an  especial  class  in  trades.  In  the  art  school,  the  students  laid  the 
foundation  of  a  knowledge  of  mathematics,  Latin,  and  French,  al- 
though this  school  was  particularly  intended  for  workmen,  farmers, 
and  others  not  proposing  -to  study.  The  teachers  of  mathematics  in 
this  school  gave  as  rules,  "Axioms  and  theorems  which  did  not  require 
theoretical  acuteness  ; "  these  being  needed  in  the  Psedagogium.  In 
this  there  were  two  theoretical-mathematical  classes ;  in  the  lower  of 
which  arithmetic  was  taught,  in  the  other  algebra.  The  other  studies 
of  the  Psedagogium  were  the  usual  ones  of  the  higher  gymnasium 
class.  Silberschlag  leaving  in  1784,  Andreas  Jacob  Hecker  succeeded 
him  in  his  office.  An  education  for  special  pursuits  was  more  and 
more  aimed  at  in  the  artisans'  school ;  there  were  given  in  it  special 
lectures  to  future  miners  and  smelters,  and  particularly  for  those  pre- 
paring to  become  practical  geometers,  artillerists,  foresters,  farmers, 
merchants,  &c.  Some  hours  weekly  were  even  devoted  to  instruction 
in  German  ;  "  in  order  to  make  those,  who  shall  wish  in  future  to  en- 
gage as  secretaries  to  high  boards  of  authorities  in  the  country,  bet- 
ter acquainted  with  the  course  of  business."  Thus  the  real  school 
of  arts  was  a  gathering  of  the  most  dissimilar  schools  for  special  pur- 
suits. "  The  idea  rises  of  necessity,"  says  the  historian  of  the  school, 
"  that  where  the  endeavor  is  to  reach  every  one,  but  little  will  be 
actually  attained.  And  this  was  the  fact  with  our  real  school." 

During  the  same  time,  the  Psedagogium,  under  Hecker,  acquired 
more  the  peculiar  character  of  a  literary  school.  In  1797,  on  the  oc- 
casion of  its  fiftieth  anniversary  festival,  it  took  the  name  of  the  Fried- 
rich  Wilhelm's  Gymnasium;"  and,  in  the  year  1811,  it  was  finally 
separated  from  the  real  school,  in  respect  to  its  teachers  and  its  lec- 
tures.f  Long  and  hard  experience  had  at  last  brought  the  convic- 
tion that  the  previous  close  connection  of  the  two  institutions  was  a 
mesalliance,  by  which  both  lost  their  independence  of  character. 

*  It  Is  characteristic  of  the  man,  that  he  was  at  the  same  time  a  consistorial  counselor  and 
high  c0inselor  of  public  buildings. 

t  That  is,  from  the  real  school  in  its  more  proper  sense ;  the  school  of  arts  of  Silbers- 
•hlae. 


440  THE  REAL  SCHOOLS  OF  GERMANY. 

The  purposes  of  the  two  institutions  being  so  different,  it  was  nec- 
essary that  the  teaching  in  real  studies  in  the  gymnasium  must  be 
entirely  distinct  from  that  in  the  real  schools ;  and  the  instruction 
in  language  in  the  real  school  from  that  in  the  gymnasium.  There 
must  be  a  distinction  in  selection,  method,  and  design. 

One  observation  suggests  itself  here.  Gymnasiums  are,  as  to  their 
instruction,  really  and  clearly  distinct  universities,  in  this;  that  they 
look  only  to  the  general  education,  as  the  foundation  for  instruc- 
tion in  all  vocations,  while  the  universities  are  characterized  by  study 
in  the  faculties,  and  thus  prepare  for  the  entrance  into  real  life.  It 
was  with  justice  that  great  displeasure  was  manifested,  when,  at  the 
end  of  the  last  century,  a  master  required  that  future  jurists,  in  the 
gymnasium,  should  study,  instead  of  Tacitus  and  Virgil,  the  institu- 
tions of  Heineccius.  The  gymnasium  knows  no  professional  studies, 
and  should  know  of  none  ;  lest  it  should  forcibly  communicate,  to  im- 
mature boys,  a  professional  education  without  any  real  basis. 

Does  this  same  distinction  apply  to  real  schools  ?  was  it  not  the 
greatest  of  mistakes,  that  in  the  Berlin  school  direct  instruction  was 
given  for  miners,  farmers,  &c.,  &c.  ? 

Such  a  purpose  was  that  of  the  excellent  Spilleke,  who  assumed 
the  direction  of  the  real  school  in  1820.*  His  opinion  was,  that  this 
school  should,  in  its  higher  classes,  "  give  or  at  least  introduce  to  such 
an  education  as,  without  pretending  to  thorough  classic  studies,  should 
prepare  for  the  higher  relations  of  society ;  but  a  more  special  pre- 
paration, such  as  was  aimed  at  in  earlier  times  in  this  part  of  the 
school,  is  not  proper." 

If  we  understand  Spilleke  here,  he  suggests  new  questions.  If  the 
real  schools  must  correspond  with  the  gymnasiums,  how  must  those 
real  studies  be  organized  which  correspond  with  the  universities ;  in 
which  the  real  scholars  intend  to  finish  their  studies  ? 

Are  our  polytechnic  schools  and  higher  industrial  schools  true 
"  real "  universities  ?  Do  they,  by  virtue  of  the  great  variety  of  their 
studies  in  arts  and  trades,  become  divided  into  parts  which  corres- 
pond to  the  faculties  of  the  universities  ?  Or  are  such  "real"  uni- 
versities not  practicable,  and  must  there  be  a  special  school  for  each 
trade,  because  most  occupations  have  some  peculiar  elements  in  their 
life  ?  The  miner  must  ultimately  be  trained  in  the  mine,  the  sailor 
on  the  sea,  the  farmer  in  the  country;  but  all  three  can  receive  their 
general  preparatory  training  in  the  same  real  school.  And  indeed, 

•  A.  J.  Hecker  died  in  1819,  and  was  followed  by  Bernardi,  who  died  the  next  year.  After 
him  came  Spilleke,  who  was  succeeded,  after  his  death,  in  1841,  by  F.  Ranke,  distinguished 
both  as  an  educator  and  a  man  of  learning. 


THE  REAL  SCHOOLS  OF  GERMANY.  441 

if  students  of  many  arts  and  trades  should  enjoy  primary  instruction, 
whether  carried  more  or  less  far,  should  not  this  be  followed  by  a 
purely  practical  study  and  drill  in  the  pursuit,  under  the  guidance  of 
skillful  masters ;  and  should  not  their  more  complete  artistic  or  sci- 
entific training  come  after  these  years  of  apprenticeship  ? 

But  I  must  not  too  far  transgress  my  limits  as  a  historian.  When 
rector  Schottgen,  in  1742,  published  his  "Modest  proposal"  for  making 
suitable  provision  for  the  instruction  of  children  who  are  not  to  study 
Latin,  he  hopelessly  added,  as  we  have  seen,  "  My  proposal  is  already 
rejected,  before  it  has  been  brought  into  the  light."  But  encouraging 
himself,  he  went  on  :  "  But  yet,  if  what  is  proposed  therein  is  not  yet 
ripe,  we  will  wait  until  its  time  shall  come." 

The  old  rector  prophesied  rightly.  One  century  after  he  wrote, 
there  were,  in  the  Prussian  states  alone,  forty-two  real  institutions,  to 
one  hundred  and  twenty-six  gymnasiums. 

[To  enable  our  readers,  who  may  not  have  access  to  Bache's  "Edu- 
cation in  Europe,"  or  to  Barnard's  "National  Education  in  Europe," 
we  transfer  from  the  latter  the  following  account  of  a  Real  School, 
and  Art  Institute  of  our  day,  in  Prussia,  compared  with  a  Gymnasium 
of  the  highest  grade. — ED.] 

FREDERICK    WILLIAM    GYMNASIUM    OF    BERLIN. 

This  institution  dates  from  1797,  and  was  at  first  an  appendage  to  the  "  real 
school"  of  Mr.  Hecker.  It  is  now  a  royal  institution,  and  is  independent  of  the 
real  school,  except  so  far  that  it  has  the  same  director,  and  that  the  preparatory 
classes  are  in  the  real  school,  in  which,  or  in  other  equivalent  schools,  the  pupils 
are  taught  until  ten  years  of  age.  The  qualifications  for  admission  are  those  con- 
tained in  the  general  account  of  the  gymnasia.  This  gymnasium  had,  in  1837, 
four  hundred  and  thirty-seven  pupils,  divided  into  six  classes,  and  instructed  by 
fourteen  teachers  and  six  assistants.  The  second  and  third  classes  are  subdivided 
into  two  parts,  called  upper  and  lower,  pursuing  different  courses,  and  both  divi- 
sions of  the  third  class  are  again  subdivided  into  two  others,  for  the  convenience 
of  instruction.  The  course  in  each  class  occupies  a  year,  except  in  the  first,  which 
is  of  two  years.  Pupils  who  enter  in  the  lowest  class,  and  go  regularly  through 
the  studies,  will  thus  remain  nine  years  in  the  gymnasium.  The  numbers  of  the 
several  classes  in  1837  were,  in  the  first,  fifty-four;  in  the  upper  second,  thirty- 
two  ;  lower  second,  forty-seven ;  upper  third  division,  first,  or  A,  thirty-six  5 
second  division,  or  B,  thirty-six  5  lower  third,  division  first,  or  A,  thirty-eight ; 
division  second,  or  B,  thirty-two ;  fourth  class,  fifty-five  ;  fifth,  fifty-seven ;  and 
sixth,  fifty.  Each. division  averages,  therefore,  nearly  forty-four  pupils,  who  are 
at  one  time  under  the  charge  of  one  teacher.  One  hundred  and  eight  were 
admitted  during  the  year,  and  the  same  number  left  the  gymnasium ;  of  these, 
twenty-one  received  the  certificate  of  maturity  to  pass  to  the  university,  viz.,  ten 
who  intend  to  study  law,  three  medicine,  five  theology,  one  theology  and  philo- 
logy, one  philosophy,  and  one  political  economy,  finance,  &c.,  (cameralistic.)  Of 
these  all  but  five  were  two  years  in  the  first  class ;  out  of  this  number  two  were 
two  years  and  a  half  in  the  first  class,  and  three  more  had  been  in  the  gymnasium 
less  than  two  years,  having  entered  it  in  the  first  class.  The  average  age  at  leav- 
ing the  gymnasium  was  nearly  nineteen  years,  and  the  greatest  and  least,  respec- 
tively, twenty-two  and  between  sixteen  and  seventeen  years.  It  appears,  thus, 
that  on  the  average,  the  pupils  actually  enter  at  ten,  and  remain  nine  years,  as 
required  by  rule. 

The  subjects  of  instruction  are  Latin,  Greek,  German,  French,  religious  instruc- 


442  FREDERICK  WILLIAM  GYMNASIUM  OF  BERLIN. 

tion,  mathematics,  (including  arithmetic,  algebra,  and  geometry,)  natural  philoso- 
phy and  natural  history,  history,  geography,  writing,  drawing,  vocal  music,  and 
Hebrew  for  theologians. 

The  numbers  attached  to  the  names  of  the  different  classes,  in  the  following 
programme,  show  the  number  of  hours  of  study  per  week  in  the  regular  branches 
in  which  the  division  of  classes  takes  place.  In  like  manner,  the  numbers  attached 
to  the  several  subjects  of  study  show  how  many  hours  are  occupied  per  week  in 
each  of  the  subjects  by  the  several  classes. 

SIXTH   CLASS,  THIRTY   HOURS. 

Latin.  Inflections  of  nouns,  &c.  Comparisons.  Conjugation  of  the  indicative  moods  of 
regular  and  of  some  irregular  verbs.  Translation  from  Blume's  elementary  book.  Exercises 
from  Bluing^a,  Extemporalia.  Ten  hours. 

Gerr/m»;'/lEtymology  and  syntax.  Exercises  in  writing  upon  subjects  previously  narrated. 
Exercises  in  orthograptiy,  reading,  and  declaiming.  Four-  hours. 

French.  Etymology,  to  include  the  auxiliary  verbs,  in  Herrmann's  grammar.  Oral  and 
written  exercises.  Reading  and  translation.  Exercises  on  the  rules  from  the  grammar. 
Three  hours. 

Religion.  Bible  history  of  the  Old  Testament.  Committing  to  memory  selected  verses. 
Two  hours. 

Geography.  Delineation  of  the  outlines  of  Europe,  Africa,  Asia,  and  America,  from  deter- 
minate points  given.  Divisions  of  the  countries,  with  their  principal  cities,  rivers,  and  moun- 
tains. Two  hours. 

Arithmetic.  The  four  ground  rules,  with  denominate  whole  numbers.  Their  applications. 
Four  hours. 

Writing.  Elements  of  round  and  running  hand.  Dictation.  Writing  from  copy  slips. 
Three  hours. 

Drawing.    Exercises  in  drawing  lines.    Two  hours. 

FIFTH    CLASS,    TWENTY-NINE    HOURS. 

Latin.  Etymology.  Use  of  the  prepositions.  The  accusative  before  an  infinitive,  prac- 
ticed orally  and  in  writing,  and  extempore,  and  in  exercises.  Translation  from  Blume's 
reader.  Ten  hours. 

German.    Parsing,  reading,  and  declamation.    Exercises  on  narrations.    Four  hours. 

French.  Etymology,  by  oral  and  written  exercises.  Easier  stories  from  Herrmann's 
reader.  Three  hours. 

Religion.  Explanation  of  the  gospels,  according  to  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke.  Commit- 
ting to  memory  the  principal  facts.  Two  hours. 

Geography.  Review  01  the  last  year's  course.  Rivers  and  mountains  of  Europe,  and 
ehief  towns,  in  connection.  Two  hours. 

Arithmetic.    Review  of  the  preceding     Fractions     Four  hours. 

Writing.    Running  hand  from  copy  slips.    Two  hours. 

Drawing.    Drawing  front  bodies,  terminated  by  planes  and  straight  lines.    Two  hours. 

FOURTH    CLASS,    TWENTY-EIGHT    HOURS. 

Latin.  Review  of  etymology.  The  principal  rules  enforced  by  oral  and  written  exercises 
and  extemporalia  Translation  from  Jacob's  reader  and  Corn.  Nepos.  Ten  hours. 

German.  Compositions  on  subjects  previously  read.  Declamation.  Reading  from  Ka- 
lisch's  reader.  Parsing.  Three  hours. 

French.  Review  of  etymology.  Irregular  verbs.  Reciprocal  verbs.  Anecdotes  and  nar- 
rations from  Herrmann's  grammar,  and  committing  the  principal  to  memory.  Two  hours. 

Religion.  Gospel,  according  to  St.  Matthew,  explained.  Verses  and  psalms  committed  to 
memory.  Two  hours. 

Geography.  Political  geography  of  Germany,  and  of  the  rest  of  Europe.  Review  of  the 
geography  of  the  other  parts  of  the  world.  Three  hours. 

Arithmetic.  Review  of  fractions.  Simple  and  compound  proportion.  Partnership. 
Simple  interest.  Three  hours. 

Geometry.    Knowledge  of  forms,  treated  inductively.    One  hour. 


Writing.    Running  hand,  from  copy  slips.    Two  hours. 
Drawing,    From  bodies  bounded  by  curved  lines.    Tw 


Two  hours. 

LOWER   THIRD   CLASS,   THIRTY   HOURS. 

Latin.  Syntax.  Rules  of  cases  from  Zumpt.  Exercises  and  extemporalia.  Inflections 
formerly  learned  reviewed.  Cornelius  Nepos  Eight  hours. 

Greek.  Etymology,  from  Buttmann's  grammar  to  regular  verbs,  included.  Translation 
from  Greek  into  German  from  Jacob's,  from  German  into  Greek  from  Hess's  exercises. 
Six  hours. 

German.    Compositions  in  narration  and  description.     Declamation.    Two  hours. 

French.  Repetition  of  inflections,  and  exercises  by  extemporalia  and  in  writing.  Trans- 
lation of  the  fables  from  Herrmann's  reading  book,  2d  course.  Two  hours 

Religion.    Morals,  and  Christian  faith.    Two  hours. 

Geography.    Physical  geography     Europe  and  the  other  parts  of  the  world.    Two  hours 

History.    General  view  of  ancient  and  modern  history.     Two  hours. 

Mathematics.  Legendre's  geometry,  book  1.  Decimals.  Algebra.  Square  and  cube  root 
Four  hours. 

Drawing.    Introduction  to  landscape  drawing.    Two  hours. 

UPPER   THIRD   CLASS,    THIRTY    HOURS. 

Latin.  Division  I.  Syntax,  from  Zumpt.  Review  of  the  preceding  course.  Oral  exer 
cises  in  construction  of  sentences.  Written  exercises  and  extemporalia.  Caesar  Bell.  Gall 


FREDERICK  WILLIAM  GYMNASIUM  OF  BERLIN. 


443 


oooks  1.3,  and  7,  in  part.  Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  extracts  from  books  7  and  8.  Prosody, 
rules  from  Zumpt.  Ten  hours. 

Greek.  Division  1.  Etymology,  from  Buttmann's  grammar.  Oral  and  written  exercises 
and  extemporalia.  Jacob's  reader.  Six  hours. 

German.  Examination  of  exercises  on  historical  subjects.  Poetical  selections  for  decla- 
mation. Two  hours. 

/VencA.    Exercises  in  translation.    Written  exercises.    Extemporalia.    Two  hours. 

Religion.  Principal  passages  from  the  gospels  gone  over.  General  view  oi  the  Old  Testa- 
ment writings  Two  hours. 

History  and  Geography.  Roman  history,  from  the  Punic  Wars  to  the  destruction  of  the 
western  empire.  History  of  the  middle  ages,  three  hours.  Review  of  the  five  general  divis- 
ions of  the  world,  one  hour.  Four  hours. 

Mathematics.  Geometry.  Legendre,  books  1  and  2,  and  part  ol  3.  Algebra,  with  exer- 
cises from  Meyer  Hirsch.  Four  hours. 

LOWER   SECOND   CLASS,   THIRTY-ONE   HOURS. 

Latin.  Extracts  from  Livy  and  Ca?sar  de  Bell.  Civ.  Review  of  Bell.  Gall.,  books  2  and 
3.  Syntax.  Exercises  and  extemporalia.  Committing  to  memory  exercises  from  Livy  and 
CaBsa'r.  Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  books  11  to  14.  Eight  hours. 

Greek.  Homer's  Odys.,  11, 12, 13,  and  14.  Exercises  on  the  dialects.  Xenophon's  Anab. 
I.  ±  and  part  of  3.  Excerpts  from  the  grammar  reviewed.  Exercises  and  extemporalia. 
Syntax.  Six  hours. 

Hebrew.  Grammar,  ending  with  irregular  verbs.  Easier  parts  of  historical  books  of 
Scnpture  translated.  Vocabulary  learned  by  rote.  Exercises  on  regular  and  irregular  verbs 
out  oi  the  recitation  room.  Two  hours. 

German.    Correction  of  written  exercises  and  essays.    Exercises  on  delivery.    Two  hours. 

French.    Voltaire's  Charles  XII.     Exercises  and  extemporalia.    Two  hours. 

Religion  Explanation  of  the  princ.pal  parts  of  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  with  historical 
sketches,  and  a  view  of  the  life  of  early  Christian  communities.  Two  hours. 

History.  Roman  history,  from  the  Punic  Wars.  History  of  the  middle  ages  concluded. 
General  view  of  history.  Three  hours. 

Mathematics.  Geometry  to  proportions  and  simple  figures.  Elements  of  algebra.  Loga- 
rithms. Four  hours. 

Natural  History.    Mineralogy.    Botany,  especially  of  native  plants.    Two  hours. 

UPPKR   SECOND   CLASS,   THIRTY-TWO   HOURS. 

Latin.  Cicero's  Orations,  pro.  Rose.  Amer.,  de  Amic.,  de  Senectute.  Livy,  books  22  to 
25,  inclusive.  Virgil's  ^Jneid,  books  1  and  2.  Some  eclogues  and  excerpts  from  Georgics. 
Exercises  and  extemporalia.  Nine  hours. 

Greek.  Homer's  Iliad,  books  4  to  11,  inclusive.  Arrian  Alex,  expedition,  books  1  and  2. 
Buttmann's  grammar,  with  exercises  and  extemporalia.  Six  hours. 

Hebrew.  Books  of  Judges  and  of  Ruth,  with  exercises  of  syntax.  Easy  exercises,  and 
committing  vocabulary  to  memory  out  of  the  class-room.  Two  hours. 

German.    Essays.    Delivery.    Two  hours. 

French.  Excerpts  from  Herrmann  and  Briichner's  manual  of  the  more  recent  French 
literature.  Two  hours. 

Religion.    Christian  faith  and  morals.    Two  hours. 

History.    Review  of  ancient  history  and  geography,  using  the  Latin  language.    Three  hours. 

Mathematics.  Arithmetical  geometry  and  plaue  trigonometry.  A  Igebraic  exercises.  Poly- 
gons. Stereometry.  Simple  and  quadratic  equations.  Four  hours. 

Physics.    General  physics.    Electricity  and  magnetism.    Two  hours. 

FIRST   CLASS,   THIRTY-ONE   HOURS. 

Latin.  Horace's  Odes,  books  3  and  4.  Cicero  against  Verres.  Tacitus.  Annals,  books  11 
and  12,  and  extracts  from  3  to  6.  Cicero,  Tusc.  quest.  Extempore  translations  from  Ger- 
man into  Latin.  Exercises.  Declamation.  Eight  hours. 

Greek.  Homer's  Iliad,  book  16,  Odyssey,  books  9  to  16,  inclusive.  Hippias  Major,  Char- 
mides,  and  Gorsias  of  Plato,  (excerpts.)  Sophocles'  Edip.  tyr.  and  Antigone.  Grammatical 
exercises.  Buttmann's  grammar.  Six  hours. 

Hebrew.  Second  book  of  Kings.  Genesis.  Psalms,  61  to  100.  Grammatical  criticisms 
jf  historical  excerpts,  or  of  psalms,  as  an  exercise  at  home.  Two  hours. 

German.  Criticism  of  compositions.  General  grammar,  and  history  of  the  German  gram- 
mar and  literature.  One  hour. 

French.    Selections  from  Scribe  and  Delavigne.    Exercises  and  extemporalia.    Two  hours. 

Religion.    History  of  the  Christian  church,  to  the  times  of  Gregory  VII.    Two  hours. 

History.    Modern  history,  and  review.    Three  hours. 

Mathematics.  Plane  trigonometry  and  application  of  algebra  to  geometry.  Algebra. 
Mensuration  and  conic  sections.  Binomial  theorem.  Exponential  and  trigon.  functions. 
Four  hours. 

Physics.    Physical  geography.    Mechanics.    Two  hours 

Philosophy.    Propaedeutics.    Logic.    One  hour. 

There  are  five  classes  for  vocal  music,  the  fifth  receiving  two  hours  of  instruction  in  musi- 
cal notation  and  singing  by  ear.  The  fourth,  time  and  cliffs,  &c.  Exercises  in  the  natural 
scale,  and  harmony  Songs  and  chorals  with  one  part.  The  third,  two  hours,  formation  of 
the  scale  of  sharps,  running  the  gamut  with  difficult  intervals,  combined  with  the  practical 
exercises  of  the  last  class.  The  second,  two  hours,  repetition  of  tones ;  sharps,  and  flats. 
Formation  of  the  scale  of  flats.  Exercises  of  songs  and  chorals,  in  two  parts.  The  first  class 
is  an  application  of  what  has  been  learned,  as  well  as  a  continuation  of  the  science  and  art, 
and  all  the  pupils  do  not,  of  course,  take  part  in  this  stage  of  the  instruction.  The  course  is 
of  four  hours  per  week,  two  for  soprano  and  alto,  one  for  tenor  and  bass,  and  one  for  the 
union  of  the  four  parts.  The  proficiency  is  indicated  by  the  fact,  that  the  pupils  perform 
very  creditably  such  compositions  as  Haydn's  "  Creation  "  and  Handel's  "  Messiah." 


444  ROYA.L  REAL  SCHOOL  OF  BERLIN. 

The  Frederick  William  Gymnasium  is  regarded  by  Dr.  Bache,  as  a 
fair  specimen  of  this  class  of  schools  in  Prussia  ;  in  the  organization  and 
instruction  of  which  a  good  degree  of  liberty  is  tolerated  by  the  govern- 
ment, to  enable  them  the  better  to  meet  the  peculiar  circumstances  of 
each  province,  and  the  peculiar  views  of  each  director. 

The  Royal  Real  School,  and  City  Trade  School  of  Berlin,  furnish  a 
course  of  instruction  of  the  same  general  value  for  mental  discipline,  but 
better  calculated  for  that  class  of  pupils  who  are  destined  in  life,  not  for 
what  are  designated  as  the  learned  profession,  but  for  tradesmen  and  me- 
chanics. There  is  less  of  verbal  knowledge  but  more  of  mathematics 
and  their  application  to  the  arts ;  and  the  whole  is  so  arranged  as  to  fa- 
cilitate the  acquisition  of  those  mental  habits  which  are  favorable  to 
the  highest  practical  success. 

ROYAL  REAL  SCHOOL  OF  BERLIN. 

The  Royal  Real  School  of  Berlin  was  founded  as  early  as  1747,  by  Counsellor 
Hecker.  At  the  period  in  which  this  school  was  founded,  Latin  and  Greek  were 
the  exclusive  objects  of  study  in  the  learned  schools,  and  the  avowed  purpose  of 
this  establishment  was  that  "  not  mere  words  should  be  taught  to  the  pupils,  but 
realities,  explanations  being  made  to  them  from  nature,  from  models  and  plans, 
and  of  subjects  calculated  to  be  useful  in  after-life."  Hence  the  school  was  called 
a  u  real  school,"  and  preserves  this  name,  indicative  of  the  great  educational 
reform  which  it  was  intended  to  promote,  and  the  success  of  which  has  been, 
though  slow,  most  ceilain. 

The  successor  of  Hecker,  in  1769,  divided  this  flourishing  school  into  three  de- 
partments, the  pedagogium,  or  learned  school,  the  school  of  arts,  and  the  German 
school :  the  whole  establishment  still  retaining  the  title  of  real  school.  The  first 
named  department  was  subsequently  separated  from  the  others,  constituting  the 
Frederick  William  gymnasium ;  the  school  of  arts,  and  the  German,  or  elemen- 
tary school,  remain  combined  under  the  title  of  the  royal  real  school.  The  same 
director,  however,  still  presides  over  the  gymnasium  and  the  real  school. 

The  question  has  been  much  agitated,  whether  the  modern  languages  should  be 
considered  in  these  schools  as  the  substitutes  for  the  ancient  in  intellectual  educa- 
tion, or  whether  mathematics  and  its  kindred  branches  should  be  regarded  in  this 
light.  Whether  the  original  principle  of  the  "  realities"  on  which  the  schools 
were  founded,  was  to  be  adhered  to,  or  the  still  older  of  verbal  knowledge,  only 
with  a  change  of  languages,  to  be  substituted  for  it.  In  this  school  the  languages 
will  be  found  at  present  to  occupy  a  large  share  of  attention,  while  in  the  similar 
institution,  a  description  of  which  follows  this,  the  sciences  have  the  pre- 
ponderance. 

In  the  royal  real  school  the  branches  of  instruction  are — religion,  Latin,  French, 
English,  German,  physics,  natural  history,  chemistry,  history,  geography,  draw- 
ing, writing,  and  vocal  music.  The  Latin  is  retained  as  practically  useful  in  some 
branches  of  trade,  as  in  pharmacy,  as  aiding  in  the  nomenclature  of  natural  his- 
tory, and  as  preventing  a  separation  in  the  classes  of  this  school  and  that  of  the 
gymnasium,  which  would  debar  the  pupils  from  passing  from  the  former  tc  the 
latter  in  the  upper  classes.  It  must  be  admitted  that,  for  all  purposes  but  the  last, 
it  occupies  an  unnecessary  degree  of  attention,  especially  in  the  middle  classes. 

The  following  table  shows  the  distribution  of  time  among  the  courses.  There 
are  seven  classes  in  numerical  order,  but  ten,  in  fact,  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth 
being  divided  into  two  ;  the  lower  fourth  is  again,  on  account  of  its  numbers,  sub- 
divided into  two  parallel  sections.  Of  these,  the  seventh,  sixth,  and  fifth  are  ele- 
mentary classes,  the  pupils  entering  the  seventh  at  between  five  and  seven  years  of 
age.  In  the  annexed  table  the  number  of  hours  of  recitation  per  week  of  each 
class  in  the  several  subjects  is  stated,  and  the  vertical  column  separating  the  ele- 
mentary classes  from  the  others,  contains  the  sum  of  the  hours  devoted  to  each 
branch  in  the  higher  classes,  excluding  the  lower  section  of  the  fourth  class, 
which  has  not  a  distinct  course  from  that  of  the  other  division. 


ROYAL  REAL  SCHOOL  OF  BERLIN. 


445 


TABLE  SHOWING  THE  NUMBER  OF  HOURS  OF  RECITATION    PER  WEEK,  OF  EACH  CLASS, 
IN  THE  SUBJECTS  TAUGHT  IN  THE  ROYAL  REAL  SCHOOL  OF  BERLIN. 


SUBJECTS  OF  STUDY. 

o 

1 

Second  Class. 

Third  Class,  A.  | 

Third  Class,  B. 

Fourth  Class,  A.  | 

Fourth  Class,  B.  I.  ) 
Fourth  Class,  B.  II.  J 

Sum  of  the  hours  in  the 
seven  upper  classes. 

Fifth  Class,  A. 

Fifth  Class,  B. 

5 
•| 

Seventh  Class. 

Proportion  of  other 
studies  to  German 
in  the 

1 
1 

1 

First  six  classes  of  the 
Fred'k  Wm.  Gymn. 

IS 

0  >• 

ll 

6 

fi£ 

Latin             

4 
4 

2 
3 

2 
6 
3 
2 
2 

3 

2 
2 

4 

4 
2 
3 

2 
6 

2 
2 
2 

3 
2 
4 

4 
4 
2 
3 

2 
5 
2 
2 
2 

3 
2 
3 

5 
3 

4 

2 
6 
2 
2 
2 
3 
2 

2 
2 

6 

3 
3 

2 

7 

3 
2 

2 
2 
2 

5 

4 

4 

2 

6 

3 

2 

2 
2 

2 

6 

4 

4 

2 
4 

3 

2 

2 
2 
2 

28 
22 
6 
20 

12 
35 
9 
8 
8 
9 
15 

12 
4 
15 

4 
8 

2 
4 

2 
2 

4 

5 

8 

3 
3 

2 

2 

4 

10 

2 

0 

2 

2 

6 

10 

.) 
6 

8 

1.4 
1.1 
0.3 
1.0 

0.6 
1.7 
0.4 
0.4 
0.4 
0.4 
0.7 

0.6 
0.2 

0.7 

2.9 
0.7 

0.8 

0.6 
1.1 
O.lt 
0.2f 

0.5 
0.3 

0.4 
0.3 
0.6 

3 

0.9 

1.0 

0.8 
1.6 
0.1  • 
0.2 

0.5 
0.7 

0.4 
0.3 
0.6 

French,  

English,  

German      

Religion          .... 

Mathematics,*  .... 
Natural  History,  .  . 
Physics   

Chemistry 

Geojjraphv 

History,  

Drawing,  

Writing:,  .  . 

Sinfifinsr 

Total,  

36 

36 

35 

35 

32 

32 

32 

26 

26 

26 

26 

Pupils  who  enter  this  school  between  five  and  seven  years  of  age,  and  go  regu- 
larly through  the  elementary  classes,  are  prepared  at  ten  to  pass  to  its  higher 
classes,  or  to  enter  the  lowest  of  the  gymnasium.  It  is  thus  after  the  fifth  class 
that  a  comparison  of  the  two  institutions  must  begin.  The  studies  of  the  real 
school  proper,  and  of  the  gymnasium,  have  exactly  the  same  elementary  basis, 
and  they  remain  so  far  parallel  to  each  other  that  a  pupil,  by  taking  extra  instruc- 
tion in  Greek,  may  pass  from  the  lower  third  class  of  the  former  to  the  lower  third 
of  the  latter.  This  fact  alone  is  sufficient  'to  show  that  the  real  schools  must  be 
institutions  for  secondary  instruction,  since  the  pupils  have  yet  three  classes  to  pass 
through  after  reaching  the  point  just  referred  to.  It  serves  also  to  separate  the 
real  schools  from  the  higher  burgher  schools,  since  the  extreme  limit  of  the 
courses  of  the  latter,  with  the  same  assistance  in  regard  to  Greek,  only  enables 
the  pupil  to  reach  the  lower  third  class  of  the  gymnasium.  In  general,  a  pupil 
would  terminate  his  studies  in  the  real  school  at  between  sixteen  and  eighteen 
years  of  age.  The  difference  between  the  subjects  of  instruction  in  the  real 
school  and  the  Frederick  William  gymnasium,  consists  in  the  omission  in  the 
former  of  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  philosophy,  and  the  introduction  of  English  and 
chemistry.  The  relative  proportions  of  time  occupied  in  the  same  subjects  in  the 
two  schools,  will  be  seen  by  comparing  the  two  columns  next  on  the  right  of  the 
numbers  for  the  seventh  class,  in  the  table  just  given.  The  first  of  these  columns 
contains  the  proportion  of  the  number  of  hours  per  week  devoted  to  the  different 
subjects  in  the  six  classes  of  the  real  school  above  the  elementary,  the  number  of 
hours  devoted  to  the  German  being  taken  as  unity ;  and  the  second,  the  same 
proportion  for  six  classes  of  the  gymnasium,  beginning  with  the  lowest,  the  same 
number  of  hours  being  taken  as  the  unit,  as  in  the  preceding  column.  To  bring 
the  natural  history  and  physics  into  comparison,  I  have  taken  the  numbers  for  the 


*  Including  arithmetic,  geometry,  algrbra,  and  trigonometry, 
t  These  numbers  include  the  entire  course. 


446  ROYAL  REAL  SCHOOL  OF  BERLIN. 

upper  classes  of  the  gymnasium  in  which  these  branches  are  taught.  Of  the 
courses  common  to  the  two  schools,  those  to  which  nearly  equal  attention  is  paid 
in  both  institutions,  are — the  religious  instruction,  the  German,  geography  and 
history,  writing,  and  vocal  music.  The  French,  mathematics,  physics,  and  nat- 
ural history,  predominate  in  the  real  school,  the  Latin  in  the  gymnasium.  The 
effect  of  reckoning  the  first,  second,  and  upper  third  classes  of  the  gymnasium, 
does  not  materially  change  the  proportionate  numbers  of  the  courses  which  are 
common  to  the  two  schools,  except  as  to  Latin  and  mathematics.  To  show  this, 
the  column  on  the  extreme  right  of  the  table  is  introduced,  containing  the  pro  - 
portions  ior  all  the  nine  classes  of  the  Frederick  William  gymnasium. 

There  were,  in  1838,  five  hundred  and  ten  pupils  in  this  real  school,  under  the 
charge  of  fourteen  regular  or  class  masters,  teaching  several  subjects  hi  the  lower 
classes,  and  of  six  other  teachers.  Each  of  the  eleven  class  divisions  thus  aver- 
ages about  forty -six,  who  are  under  the  charge  of  one  teacher  at  a  time. 

The  elementary  course  in  the  real  school  is  similar  to  that  described  jn  the 
burgher  schools,  beginning  with  the  phonic  method  of  reading,  the  explanations 
of  all  the  words  and  sentences  being  required  at  the  same  time  that  the  mechani- 
cal part  of  reading  is  learned.  Written  and  mental  arithmetic  are  taught  together 
in  the  lowest  class.  The  religious  instruction  consists  of  Bible  stories  adapted  to 
their  age :  and  verses  are  committed  to  improve  the  memory  of  words.  The  ex- 
ercises of  induction  are  practiced,  but  in  a  way  not  equal  to  that  with  objects, 
introduced  by  Dr.  Mayo  in  England.  Some  of  the  pupils  are  able  to  enter  the 
gymnasium  after  going  through  the  two  lowest  classes. 

In  regard  to  the  real  classes  proper,  as  I  propose  to  enter  into  the  particulars  of 
the  course  of  study  of  the  trade  school,  I  shall  here  merely  make  a  few  remarks 
upon  two  of  the  branches  studied  in  them,  namely,  French  and  drawing.  The 
remarks  in  regard  to  the  French  will  serve  to  show  how  great  a  latitude 
a  teacher  is  allowed  in  the  arrangement  of  his  methods,  the  result  of  whicn 
is,  that  those  who  have  talent  are  interested  in  improving  their  art  by  observation 
and  experiment.  The  French  teacher  to  whom  I  allude  had  been  able  to  secure 
the  speaking,  as  well  as  the  reading,  of  French  from  his  pupils.  From  the  very 
beginning  of  the  course  this  had  been  a  point  attended  to,  and  translation  from 
French  into  German  had  been  accompanied  by  that  from  German  into  French : 
the  conversation  on  the  business  of  the  class-room  was  in  French.  The  pupils 
were  exercised  especially  in  the  idioms  of  the  language  in  short  extempore  sen- 
tences, and  the  differences  of  structure  of  the  French  and  their  own  language 
were  often  brought  before  them,  and  the  difficulties  resulting  from  them  antici- 
pated. Difficult  words  and  sentences  were  noted  by  the  pupils.  Declamation 
was  practiced  to  encourage  a  habit  of  distinct  and  deliberate  speaking,  and  to 
secure  a  correct  pronunciation.  The  -chief  burthen  of  the  instruction  was  oral. 
Without  the  stimulus  of  change  of  places,  the  classes  under  this  gentleman's  in- 
struction were  entirely  alive  to  the  instruction,  and  apparently  earnestly  engaged 
in  the  performance  of  a  duty  which  interested  them.  If  such  methods  should 
fail  in  communicating  a  greater  amount  of  knowledge  than  less  lively  ones,  which 
I  belive  can  not  be  the  case,  they  will  serve,  at  least,  to  break  down  habits  of  in- 
tellectual sloth  to  promote  mental  activity,  the  great  aim  of  intellectual  education. 


SPECIAL  INSTRUCTION  IN  BAVARIA.  44* 


SYSTEM  AND  INSTITUTIONS  OF  SPECIAL  INSTRUCTION. 

Bavaria  was  one  of  the  first  states  in  Germany  to  found  a  school 
of  art,  in  its  highest  sense,  and  one  of  the  earliest  to  apply  instruc- 
tion in  science  to  the  development  of  mechanical  industry,  and  to 
bring  its  young  artisans  and  workmen  of  every  kind  into  systematic 
courses  of  technical  instruction.* 

The  Academy  of  Art  in  Nuremberg  was  founded  by  Sandrart  in 
1662,  and  after  being  long  conducted  by  him,  gained  new  distinction 
under  Preissler,  and  no  school  of  art  out  of  Munich  has  done  so 
much  in  our  day  to  develop  taste  and  skill  in  artisans  and  artists  as 
the  Royal  School  of  Art,  and  several  private  schools  of  drawing  now 
in  successful  operation  in  that  quaint  old  town. 

The  first  Technical  School,  so  called,  in  Germany,  was  opened  in 
Nuremberg  in  1823,  under  the  lead  of  Scharrer,  afterwards  mayor 
of  the  city,  who  gave  the  impulse,  by  providing  instruction  one 
hour  on  Sunday,  and  two  evenings  in  the  week,  in  drawing  (free- 
hand and  architectural)  and  mathematics.  He  was  assisted  by  Hei- 
deloff,  architect,  and  Hermann,  afterwards  professor  in  the  Poly- 
technic and  counselor  of  state.  The  school  was  adopted  by  the 
municipal  authorities,  and  as  the  instruction  was  of  the  best  kind, 
it  was  completely  successful,  and  by  the  expansion  of  its  studies  and 
length  of  term,  grew  into  a  Trade  School,  under  the  law  of  1834, 
till  1836,  when  it  had  7  teachers,  with  490  pupils  (one-fourth  of 
them  journeymen)  in  11  divisions,  receiving  instruction  in  mathe- 
matics, drawing,  modeling,  molding  and  casting  metals,  wood-carv- 
ing, <fec.  The  pupils  of  this  school,  (called,  in  1836,  Mechanic 
School,)  .created  a  new  trade  for  this  district  of  Bavaria ;  and  the 
example  of  special  schools  on  Sunday,  evenings,  and  holidays,  was 
followed  by  other  cities,  until  in  several  of  them  the  mechanic 
schools  grew  into  polytechnic  schools — Munich  in  1827,  Nuremberg 
in  1829,  and  Augsburg  in  1833,  none  of  which,  however,  attained 
to  the*  highest  scientific  development — the  pupils  not  being  required 
to  go  through  a  thorough  course  of  theoretical  study,  as  in  some 
other  institutions  of  this  class.  In  all,  the  plan  of  instruction  was 
pretty  much  the  same,  but  gradually  Munich  turned  its  force 
towards  construction  and  engineering;  Augsburg  and  Nuremberg 
to  mechanical  handicrafts.  In  1862  the  school  at  Munich  was  di- 
vided into  two  parts,  the  polytechnic  proper,  and  the  school  for  con- 
struction and  engineering. 

*For  the  details  of  this  system,  see  National  Education,  Part  I,  GERMAN  STATES,  Bavaria. 


448  SPECIAL  INSTRUCTION  IN  BAVARIA. 

In  1864  the  whole  system  of  real-schools,  trade-schools,  and  poly- 
technic schools,  which  had  grown  up  since  1808,  was  reorganized. 
After  the  law  of  1808,  real-schools  and  real-institutes  were  set  up 
in  the  large  centres  of  population  parallel  with  the  progymnasiums 
and  gymnasiums.  The  real-schools  added  to  the  elementary  course 
the  study  of  French,  drawing,  the  elements  of  natural  history,  and 
algebra.  The  real-institute  added  to  the  real-school  course,  which 
usually  terminated  at  the  fourteenth  year,  the  natural  sciences,  more 
of  mathematics,  history,  general  philosophical  studies,  as  well  as  the 
literature  of  modern  languages.  This  course,  if  carried  out,  occu- 
pied four  years,  and  was  intended  to  prepare  for  higher  academical 
studies  and  for  special  careers,  such  as  financiers,  merchants,  &c. 
The  system  did  not  work  well,  and  was  modified  in  1816 — the  real- 
institutes  being  discontinued,  and  the  real-schools  converted  into 
higher  burgher-schools — which  were  only  the  higher  classes  of  an 
elementary  school.  The  deficiency  of  State  realistic  seminaries  was 
partially  supplied  by  the  municipal  authorities,  associations  and  in- 
individuals,  in  artisan  schools,  further-improvement  or  Sunday- 
schools,  mechanic  schools,  and  polytechnic  institutes,  in  which  the 
arts  of  design  and  drawing  received  particular  attention.  To  give 
this  new  instruction,  which  the  necessities  of  society  had  created, 
thorough  organization  and  symmetry,  the  government,  in  1829  and 
in  1833,  decreed  the  establishment  of  technical  schools  in  all  the 
large  cities  of  the  kingdom.  The  law  of  1833  discontinued  the 
higher  burgher-schools  and  laid  down  the  outline  of  a  course  of  in- 
struction for  the  technical  schools,  which  was  perfected  by  the 
law  of  1836.  The  object  of  the  technical  schools,  in  the  language 
of  the  law,  is  "  to  carry  the  sciences  into  industry,  and  to  put  indus- 
trial pursuits  themselves  upon  a  footing  corresponding  to  the  prog- 
ress of  technical  art  and  the  competition  of  foreign  industry."  With 
this  aim  the  technical  schools  had  their  central  point  in  the  exact 
sciences,  and  were  preparatory  for,  1,  the  artist's  vocation  proper; 
2,  the  technical  branches  of  the  public  service,  especially  architec- 
ture, mining,  salt  works,  and  forests  ;  3,  for  technical  departments 
of  civil  life  ;  4,  for  strictly  civic  vocations,  particularly  for  carrying 
on  improvements  in  manufacturing,  agricultural,  and  mechanical 
industries. 

In  the  development  of  this  system  there  sprung  up,  and  existed 
in  1863,  the  following  institutions: 

1.  Schools  of  arts  and  trades,  or  technical  gymnasiums,  with  an 
agricultural,  commercial,  and  mechanic  arts  division.  Of  these 
there  were  twenty-nine,  in  as  many  centres  of  population  and  in- 


SPECIAL   INSTRUCTION   IN  BAVARIA.  449 

clustiy.  They  received  pupils  at  twelve  years  of  age,  and  dismissed 
them  at  the  end  of  three  years.  With  several  were  connected  pre- 
paratory schools,  and  with  all,  a  Sunday  and  holiday  or  feast-day 
school  for  apprentices  and  journeymen. 

2.  Polytechnic  schools  or  technical  lyceums.     Of  these  there  were 
three,  located  at  Munich,  Nuremberg,  and  Augsburg.    They  received 
their  pupils  at  the  completion  of  their  fifteenth  year,  and  with  a 
preparation  equal  to  the  attainments  of  the  graduates  of  the  tech- 
nical gymnasium. 

3.  Special  courses,  or  schools  for  the  completion  of  technical  in- 
struction :    (1,)  engineering  in  the  polytechnic  school  at  Munich; 
(2,)  mining,  foundries,  and  salt  works  in  the  department  of  public 
economy  in  the  University  of  Munich  ;  (3,)  higher  forestry  service 
in  the  Royal  Forestry  School  at  Aschaffenburg,  and  one  year  in  the 
University ;  (4,)  higher  agricultural  training,  in  the  Central  School 
of  Agriculture  at  Weihenstephan,  near  Freising ;  (5,)  for  the  fine 
arts,  including  architecture  and  ornamentation  of  an  artistic  character, 
the  Royal  Academy  of  Arts  in  Munich,  and  (6,)  for  higher  chemical 
analysis,  the  laboratories  of  the  Academy  of  Science,  the  Conserva- 
torium,  and  the  University. 

This  system,  although  it  developed  a  prodigious  amount  of  scien- 
tific and  artistic  talent,  and  in  several  directions,  of  improved  indus- 
trial fabrics,  did  not  satisfy  all  the  wants  of  different  classes  and 
different  industries.  In  consequence  of  "  urgent  pressure  from  the 
Department  of  Commerce  and  Public  Instruction,"  the  king  promul- 
gated in  1 864  a  new  law  respecting  technical  institutions,  according 
to  which  they  are  now  classified  and  administered. 


EXISTING  ORGANIZATION  OF  TECHNICAL  INSTRUCTION. 

The  system  of  technical  instruction,  as  organized  under  the  law 
of  1864,  and  in  force  after  1868,  when  the  classes  under  the  former 
system  will  have  completed  their  curriculum,  and  the  new  classes 
will  be  in  full  operation,  consists  of — 

I.  The  trade-school,  (gewerbxchulen — twenty-nine  in  all,  located 
in  the  principal  centres  of  population  and  industries,)  designed  to 
impart  a  fitting  general  education,  and  the  theoretical  knowledge 
preparatory  to  different  occupations,  and  the  professions  in  which 
science  forms  the  basis  of  the  highest  success.  The  instruction  be- 
gins where  the  common  school  leaves  off,  and  while  it  is  passably 
complete  in  itself,  it  is  the  systematic  preparation  for  a  more  ex- 
tended course  in  commercial  and  agricultural  studies  which  can  be 

29 


450  SPECIAL  INSTRUCTION   IN  BAVARIA. 

organized  in  the  institution  with  the  sanction  of  the  highest  author 
ities,  or  pursued  in  the  special  institutions  of  a  higher  grade. 

Eight  of  these  institutions,  one  in  the  chief  town  of  each  of  the 
eight  districts  or  circles  into  which  the  kingdom  for  administrative 
purposes  is  divided,  are  designated  in  the  law  as  district  or  higher 
trade-schools. 

II.  The  real-gymnasium — this  class  of  schools,  of  which  there  are 
six,  one  in  the  chief  town  of  each  of  the  six  provinces,  is  of  a  higher 
grade  than  the  trade-school,  and  includes,  in  a  four  years'  course, 
the  study  of  Latin  and  one  or  more  modern  foreign  languages.     It 
presupposes  the  attainments  of  the  primary-school  and  of  the  first 
year  of  the   classical  gymnasium,  with  which  its  first  year  is  par- 
allel.    The  final  examination  and  certificate   entitles  to  admission 
into  the  polytechnic  school  at  Munich,  and  into  the  university,  for 
participation  in  such  studies  as  do  not  fall  within  the  special  limit; 
of  the  three  faculties  of  theology,  jurisprudence,  and  medicine,  am 
if  found  qualified  after  special  examination,  into  the  higher  special 
schools   of    forestry,    agriculture,    veterinary    science,    or   separate 
branches  of  the  public  service. 

III.  The  polytechnic  school  at  Munich,  in  which  the  different 
professional  studies   of  engineering,  architecture,    technical   chem- 
istry, trade  and  commerce,  are  treated  independently  of  each  other., 
in  courses  of  two  years  each,  on  the  basis  of  a  common  scientific 
instruction  in  mathematics  and  the  natural  sciences,  and  the  art  of 
drawing,  pursued  to   the  extent  deemed  necessary  for  each  profes- 
sional course. 

The  Royal  School  of  Machinery  at  Augsburg,  and  the  Royal 
School  of  Art  at  Nuremberg,  both  of  which  were  polytechnic 
schools  up  to  1865,  are  not  yet  permanently  organized  as  part  of 
the  system.  Their  present  course  of  instruction  exceeds  the  course 
of  the  district  trade-schools,  and  falls  short  of  the  Central  Poly- 
technic School. 

With  each  of  these  institutions  or  their  teachers  are  associated, 
more  or  less  directly,  supplementary  schools  and  classes,  designed 
to  impart  instruction  in  subjects  of  immediate  utility  to  apprentices 
and  workmen  in  various  crafts  and  occupations ;  and  above  them 
all  in  the  lectures,  collections,  libraries  and  laboratories  of  the  uni- 
versities, and  in  the  higher  special  schools  of  agriculture,  fores' ry, 
and  art,  the  student  can  carry  his  artistic,  artisan,  or  purely  scien- 
tific studies  to  the  highest  point. 

We  append  the  substance  of  the  regulations  recently  issued  for 
the  government  of  these  schools : 


SPECIAL  INSTRUCTION  IX  PRUSSIA.  451 

SYSTEM  AND  INSTITUTIONS  OF  SPECIAL  INSTRUCTION. 

SUNDAY    SCHOOLS. 

Sunday  schools,  for  instructing  the  young  people  of  a  parish  in 
the  catechism,  and  biblical  and  church  history,  existed  in  Prussia  and 
throughout  Germany,  certainly  as  early  as  the  sixteenth  century,  but 
their  recognition  as  part  of  the  public  school  system  dates  from  1763, 
when  Frederick  II,  in  his  General  Regulations  of  Schools  (section  6), 
ordains  that  "  on  Sundays,  besides  the  lesson  of  the  catechism  or  repe- 
tition school  given  by  the  minister  in  the  church,  the  school-master 
shall  give  in  the  school  recapitulary  lessons  to  the  unmarried  people 
of  the  township.  They  shall  there  practice  reading  and  writing.'* 
In  the  General  regulations  for  the  Catholic  schools  in  Silesia,  opened 
in  1765,  "the  older  children  are  required  to  attend  the  Sunday  in- 
struction in  Christianity  every  Sunday  afternoon,  and  after  that  to 
participate  for  two  hours  in  the  lessons  in  reading  and  writing  given 
in  the  school,  which  lessons  the  teachers  shall  give  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  pastor,  that  they  may  become  useful  to  the  young.  Those 
also  who  have  left  school,  and  are  not  yet  twenty  years  of  age, 
must  attend  these  lessons,  and  their  employers  are  bound  to  send 
them  to  school  at  such  time,  that  they  may  review  what  they  learned 
before,  and  acquire  necessary  knowledge."  On  this  basis  of  law  and 
habit,  by  degrees  the  instruction  of  the  Sunday  school  was  extended 
and  systematized,  and  became  an  important  portion  of  the  elementary 
education  of  the  people.  In  the  large  villages  and  cities,  drawing, 
and  the  first  principles  of  natural  history  and  mechanics,  composition 
in  the  form  of  business  correspondence,  and  other  branches  bearing 
on  the  occupations  of  the  pupils,  were  gradual  y  introduced  into  this 
cla-s  of  schools,  which  were  also  held  on  Monday  mornings,  in  the 
evening  of  other  days,  as  well  as  on  the  half-ho  idays  of  Wednesday 
and  Saturday,  and  on  holidays.  They  were  al>o  connected  with  the 
real  schools  and  trade  institutes,  and  got  the  name  of  Further  Im- 
provement Schools.  In  Prussia  in  1 854,  there  were  220  such  schools, 
with  18,000  pupils;  and  in  Berlin,  the  trade  improvement  schoo's  are 
taught  on  Sunday  by  the  teachers  of  the  higher  schools,  and  consti- 
tute an  important  agency  in  the  technical  instruction  of  apprentices 
and  workingmen. 

REAL  SCHOOLS  AND  BURGHER  SCHOOLS. 

The  real  school,  which  in  Prussia  now  occupies  a  well-defined  place 
in  the  system  of  general  education,  had  originally  a  direct  technical 

aim,  in  the   plan  of  Francke  in  1698,  and   of  Semler  in   1706   and 
31 


452  SPECIAL  INSTRUCTION  IN  PRUSSIA. 

1738,  and  of  Hecker  in  1747.*  Francke  projected  a  special  pedago- 
gium  for  children,  who  wished  to  become  "  secretaries,  clerks,  mer- 
chants, administrators  of  estates,  or  learn  useful  arts."  Srmler  call>  his 
school  "  a  mathematical  trades  school,"  and  in  the  mathematical,  me- 
chanical, and  economical  real  school,"  opened  by  him  in  B«  i  lin  in 
1738,  the  instruction  given  was  "in  connection  with  models  and  real 
objects," — things,  as  he  designates  them. 

Rev.  J.  J.  Hecker,  in  the  programme  of  his  "  Economical  Mathe- 
matical School,"  opened  in  the  schools  of  Trinity  church  in  1747,  lie 
pledges  to  all  his  pupils  "a  preparation  to  facilitate  their  entry  into 
any  trade  they  may  choose."  Among  his  classes  was  one  of  "archi- 
tecture and  building,"  another  of  "  manufacture,  commerce  and  trade," 
and  another  of  "  agriculture ; "  moreover,  '•  drawing  shall  be  prac- 
ticed." The  views  of  Hecker  were  encouraged  by  Frederick  II,  who 
named  his  institution  the  "  Royal  Real  School."  This  school  became 
the  normal  school  for  teachers  of  schools  on  the  crown  domains  ;  and 
to  it,  Felbinger  sent  a  number  of  pupil-teachers,  who  became  the  or- 
ganizers of  improved  schools  in  Austria,  in  which  realistic  studies  and 
methods  were  prominent. 

In  connection  with  the  real  school  should  be  mentioned  the  Higher 
Burgher  School — the  high  school  of  the  primary  system  in  all  large 
towns,  and  which  received  its  earliest  and  highest  deve'opment  in 
Leipsic,  but  which  in  Kcenigsberg,  Dantzig,  and  other  large  provincial 
centres,  aimed  to  fit  their  pupils  for  practical  careers.  Both  the  real 
school  and  the  higher  burgher  schools,  although  they  no  longer  aim 
to  bo  technical  or  professional  schools,  even  for  a  commercial  career, 
do  give  a  scientific  preparation  for  such  higher  vocations  of  the 
State  as  do  not  requ're  an  academic  career,  and  they  also  prepare 
students  for  the  special  and  purely  technical  scliools.  Wi;hout  them, 
the  subordinate  departments  of  the  public  service  would  not  be  so 
well  filled,  and  the  special  schools  of  tiade,  commerce,  agriculture, 
and  forestry  could  not  attain  their  present  high  development. 

SPECIAL    TECHNICAL    SCHOOLS. 

The  immense  strides  made  in  mechanical,  manufacturing,  and  com- 
mercial industry,  and  the  gigantic  works  in  engineering  and  construc- 
tion which  the  public  service  in  peace  and  in  war  have  required  in 
the  last  half  century,  have  made  necessary  the  establishment  of  spe- 
cial schools,  in  which  architects,  builders,  machinists,  engineers,  artil- 
lerists, and  technical  chemists  could  be  taught  and  trained.  Hence 

*  For  an  account  of  the  educational  labors  and  views  of  Francke  and  Hecker,  see  Barnard's 

Educational  Reformers  of  Germany. 


SPECIAL  INSTRUCTION  IN  PRUSSIA.  453 

in  every  State  we  find  government  schools  for  these  purposes,  and  in 
all  the  great  centres  of  population  and  special  industries,  these  insti- 
tutions are  as  varied  in  their  independent  organization  'or  associated 
classes,  as.  are  the  industries  and  wants  to  be  supplied.  Prussia  has 
felt  deeply  these  necessities,  and  side  by  side  with  the  thorough  re- 
organization and  extension  of  her  general  system  of  education — the 
multiplication  and  improvement  of  primary,  secondary,  and  superior 
schools — has  grown  up  a  system  of  special  instruction — schools  of  ag- 
riculture, forestry,  commerce,  navigation,  architecture,  engineering, 
construction  in  wood  and  metal,  and  trades  of  all  sorts,  which  will 
compare  favorably  with  the  best  in  other  countries  of  Europe.  Al- 
though not  as  early  in  the  field  as  some  of  the  smaller  States,  and 
not  acting  with  such  entire  disregard  of  the  general  system  as  some 
others,  in  which  the  manufacturing  and  mechanical  establishments  are 
relatively  more  numerous  and  important,  this  class  of  institutions  in 
Prussia  are  worthy  of  particular  study  on  account  of  the  superior 
system  of  general  education  on  which  they  all  rest. 

TRADE    SCHOOLS. 

The  earliest  Trade  Schools,  (  Gewerbe  Schulen,  as  they  are  called, 
the  word  gewerbe  being  used  in  its  restricted  meaning,  equivalent  to 
the  improvement  of  material  for  the  purposes  of  gain,)  in  Prussia, 
were  organized  by  Beuth  in  1817-18,  at  Berlin  and  at  Aix  la  Cha- 
pelle,  to  meet  a  want  of  government  for  better  workmen  in  building 
operations.  The  school  at  the  latter  place  was  expressly  founded  to 
improve  the  general  and  special  education  of  carpenters,  mill-wrights, 
masons,  stone-cutters,  cabinet-makers,  locksmiths,  house-painters,  bra- 
ziers, pewterers,  and  other  handicrafts.  They  were  first  connected 
with  the  Sunday  schools. 

Those  established  at  that  time  were  called  Handwerker  fortbildun  / 
schnlen,  and  belonged  to  the  class  of  "  improvement  schools,"  being- 
planned  to  add  to  the  knowledge  of  the  local  handicraftsmen  and 
their  apprentices.  Schools  for  special  trades  or  industries  did  not 
rise  until  a  few  years  later.  The  whole  system  underwent  a  reorgan- 
ization in  18")0,  when  all  the  establishments  of  this  character  were 
assigned  to  the  Department  of  the  Minister  of  Commerce. 

There  are  now  not  far  from  500  giving  instruction  in  almost  all 
branches  of  industrial  activity,  and  all  being  exclusively  devoted  to 
technological  studies.  The  real  and  burgher  schools,  (of  which  there 
were  in  1868,  over  190,)  through  which  those  pupils  who  are  intend- 
ing to  enter  the  higher  technical  institutions  generally  pass,  and 


454  SPECIAL  INSTRUCTION  IN  PRUSSIA. 

which,  moreover,  give  some  instruction  in  commerce,  are  not  included 
in  this  list. 

The  technical  schools  may  be  divided  into  those  imparting  general 
industrial  instruction,  and  those  devoted  to  special  branches. 

i. — The  class  giving  general  instruction  embraces  the  following : 

(1.)  Establishments  corresponding  to  Improvement  Schools. — There 
are  a  number  of  varieties  of  these :  the  evening,  Sunday,  and  finish- 
ing schools ;  societies  for  apprentices  to  which  improvement  schools 
are  added  ;  journeymen's  schools,  and  workmen's  societies,  which  also 
make  provision  for  technical  instruction. 

This  class  does  not  carry  technical  studies  very  far,  except  in  draw- 
ing, the  general  aim  being  to  extend  the  knowledge  gained  in  the  ele- 
mentary schools,  and  nothing  more  than  this  is  required  at  admission. 

(2.)  Foremen's  Schools. — These  aim  to  train  foremen  for  various 
mechanical  occupations.  The  institution  at  Kcenigsberg  has  7  teach- 
ers and  69  scholars,  (1867)  ;  the  fees  are  about  six  thalers  per  half 
year.  The  requirements  for  admission  are  the  studies  of  the  primary 
schools. 

(3.)  The  Provincial  and  Municipal  Trade  Schools. — These  two 
classes  of  establishments  form  the  next  grade  in  technical  instruction, 
and  prepare  pupils  to  enter  the  central  academy  at  Berlin.  They  re- 
ceive those  who  have  had  a  partial  course  in  the  gymnasiums,  real 
schools,  or  burgher  schools.  There  are  in  Prussia  about  30  of  these, 
averaging  four  or  five  teachers,  with  2,600  scholars  in  all.  The  fees 
vary  exceedingly.  There  is  a  journeyman's  improvement  school  con- 
nected with  each. 

(4.)  Central  Trade  Academies. — The  highest  grade  of  education 
for  mechanicians,  chemists,  and  ship-builders  is  obtained  at  these  estab- 
lishments, which  approaches  the  character  of  a  polytechnic  univer- 
sity. There  are  now  two — the  Academy,  (  Gewerbe  Academic,  form- 
erly called  Gewerbe  Institut,}  is  at  Berlin;  another,  recently  organ- 
ized (1867),  at  Aix  la  Chapelle.  The  Berlin  Academy  receives 
scholars  who  have  completed  the  course  at  the  provincial  trade 
schools,  real  schools,  or  the  gymnasiums.  Of  this  institution,  J. 
Scott  Russell,  in  his  elaborate  treatise  on  systematic  technical  educa- 
tion for  the  English  people,  thus  speaks : 

Here  in  Berlin*  I  found  a  large  and  handsome  building,  close  by  the  king's 
palace,  in  one  of  the  best  parts  of  the  town,  and  this  was  called,  at  that  time,  a 
'  Gewerbe  Schule"  or  royal  school  for  trade  teaching  This  very  humble  desig- 
nation did  not  lead  me  to  expect  the  high  scientific  education  and  training  which 
was  there  provided  for  the  young  professional  men  of  Berlin.  The  truth  is,  that 
in  Berlin,  everything  but  the  three  learned  professions,  law,  medicine,  and  theol- 
ogy, were  still  called  trades,  and  not  yet  admitted  to  the  rank  of  professions,  just 
as,  in  our  country,  the  time  was  when  Brindley,  the  canal  engineer,  was  still 


SPECIAL  INSTRUCTION  IN  PRUSSIA.  455 

reckoned  a  sort  of  superior  ditch-digger,  and  George  Stephenson  a  sort  of  superior 
engine-driver.  The  tradition  had  still  enough  influence  in  Berlin  to  call  a  tech- 
nical university  for  the  modern  professions  a  "  trade  school." 

Since  that  time,  the  dignity  of  the  "  Geiverbe  Schule "  has  been  recognized. 
Its  buildings,  its  endowments,  the  rank  and  salaries  of  its  professors,  the  number 
and  preliminary  qualifications  of  its  pupils,  have  all  been  raised.  It  has  now 
the  recognized  rank  of  a  technical  university,  with  professors  of  equal  dignity, 
and  degrees  of  equal  weight. 

Berlin  being  the  first  technical  university  with  Avhich  I  became  acquainted,  and 
also  one  of  the  earliest,  I  should  naturally  quote,  as  an  example  of  a  "  technical 
university  abroad,"  this  Gewerbe  Institut,  or  Gewerbe  Academie,  of  Berlin.  I 
recommend  those  of  my  countrymen  who  care  for  such  things,  to  visit  that  insti- 
tution, which  is  admirably  conducted,  systematically  organized,  and  a  great  boon 
to  the  professional  men  of  Prussia.  They  will  find  that  it  in  every  way  lends 
itself,  by  means  of  evening  as  well  as  morning  lectures,  by  trade  associations  con- 
nected with  it,  by  free  libraries  and  museums,  to  the  education  not  merely  of  the 
higher  professional  men,  but  also  of  the  working  men  who  have  leisure  and  dis- 
position to  desire  high  trade  knowledge. 

In  very  many  respects,  therefore,  I  consider  Berlin  a  model  technical  university. 
I  do  not  quote  it,  however,  as  my  type  of  what  such  a  university  might  be,  be- 
cause it  labors  under  some  traditional  and  local  disadvantages,  which  somewhat 
narrow  its  sphere,  derange  its  symmetry,  and  cramp  its  development.  It  is  not 
symmetrical  in  the  highest  degree,  because  in  Berlin  there  had  already  existed, 
before  it  attained  its  present  growth,  surrounding  institutions,  which  had  monop- 
olized a  portion  of  its  ground. 

Kindred  academies,  institutions,  or  universities,  had  already  provided  educa- 
tion and  training  for  some  of  the  arts  and  professions  which  a  more  isolated  uni- 
versity would  have  systematically  included  in  its  curriculum;  and  which  it  was, 
therefore,  unwise,  unnecessary,  or  inconvenient  to  include  in  the  new  organization. 
Precisely,  therefore,  because  the  Berlin  Gewerbe  Academie  fits  its  place,  and  an- 
swers its  special  purpose,  it  is  less  fitted  to  serve  as  a  type  of  a  symmetrical  insti- 
tution than  some  others  of  more  recent  growth,  more  remote  from  the  overshad- 
owing influence  of  rival  and  more  ancient  institutions. 

II. — Institutions  giving  instruction  in  special  professions,  include : 

1.  BUILDING  PROFESSIONS:    (1.)  Building  Schools. — There  are 
many  of  these  open  to  all  building  artisans  who  have  received  an 
elementary  education,  and  imparting  theoretical  and  practical  instruc- 
ts >n  in  their  special  departments.     They  rank  with  "improvement 
schools."     The  fees  are  about  six  thalers  per  half-year. 

(2.)  Building  Academy. — This  academy  at  Berlin  educates  archi- 
tects and  engineers  of  the  highest  grade. 

2.  MINING  PURSUITS  :     (1)  Mining  Schools. — These  correspond 
in  grade  to  the  provincial  industrial  schools,  and  educate  foremen  and 
master  workmen  in  the  mines. 

(2.)  Mining  Academy  at  Berlin,  which  gives  the  highest  education 
in  mining  and  in  metal  working,  and  prepares  mining  t  ng'neers. 

3.  W HAVING  AND  DYKING  :     (1  )    Weaver's  Schools. — The  weav- 
ing schools  belong  to  the  grade  of  improvement  schools.     There  are 
3  of  them  in  Prussia,  with  12   teachers  and  96  pupils  in  all.     The 
fees  are  20  thalers  per  half-year. 

(2.)  Superior  Weaving  Schools. — There  are  5  superior  weaving 
schools,  with  12  teachers.  They  require  the  same  qualifications  as 


456  SPECIAL  INSTRUCTION  IN   PRUSSIA. 

the  provincial  industrial  schools.     The  fees  are  about  20  thalers  per 
half-year. 

(3.)  Industrial  Drawing  School. — The  industrial  drawing  school 
at  Berlin  gives  aesthetic  and  practical  instruction  to  designers  for  va- 
rious tissues  and  to  weavers.  It  is  a  distinct  institution. 

4.  COMMERCE.— Commercial  instruction  is  given  to  some   extent 
in  schools  of  a  general  literary  aim.     Of  the  special  institutions  of 
this  class,  the  school  of  commerce  for  young  women,  at  Berlin,  de- 
serves attention. 

5.  NAVIGATION. — There  are  six  schools  intended  to   train  young 
men   to  be   pilots  and   captains  of  merchant  vessels.     These  are  at 
Memel,  Dantzig,  Pillau,  Grabow,  Stettin,  and  Stralsund. 

6.  AGRICULTURE. — There  are    thirty-two  institutions,  in  which 
both  the  theory  and  practice  of  agriculture,  and  kindred  occupations, 
are  taught,  and  several  of  them,  in  the  range  and  thoroughness  of  in- 
struction, are  not  surpassed  in  any  country  of  the  world.     The  work 
of  the  school  is  carried  home  to  neighborhoods  by  itinerant  teachers 
paid  by  the  government,  who  go  from  village  to  village,  and  the  re- 
sults of  improved  methods  are  seen  and  disseminated  by  the  action 
of  upwards  of  five  hundred  agricultural  associations,  which  by  con- 
ferences, exhibitions,  and  prizes,  keep  up  a  lively  interest  in  agricul- 
tural improvement. 

7.  The  new  laboratories,  as  well  for  original  research  a?  for  higher 
inst  uction,  may  be  regarded  not  only  as  "  arsenals  "  of  science,  but 
as  mighty  engines  of  industrial  development. 

The  teachers  of  the  lower  and  middle  grades  of  technical  schools 
become  prepared  by  giving  instruction  in  a  gymnasium  or  real  school, 
and  afterwards  studying  in  the  Berlin  trade  academy  for  three  years. 
Teachers  from  other  schools  are  also  employed,  and,  in  the  lowest 
grades  of  technical  schools,  instruction  is  often  given  gratis  by  private 
manufacturers. 

To  all  of  these  institutions  are  attached  libraries,  and  to  many  be- 
long collections  of  models,  and  other  aids  of  instruction ;  especially 
full  is  the  collections  of  the  central  academy  at  Berlin. 

The  result  of  the  system  has  been  to  convert  workmen  into  refined 
and  thinking  men,  and  to  develop  rapidly  the  industrial  resources 
of  the  country,  as  was  shown  in  the  late  international  exhibition  at 
Paris. 


JOHANN  BEENHAKD  BASEDOW  AND  THE  PHILANTHROPINUM. 

•"Translated  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education,  from  the  German  of  Karl  von  Raumer.] 


THE  Philanthropinum,  founded  at  Dessau,  in  1784,  by  Basedow,  in 
which  the  views  of  Rousseau  were  strictly  followed,  and  where  those 
views  were  by  every  means  sought  to  be  introduced  into  actual  life, 
gained  a  great  reputation  in  Germany  and  Switzerland.* 

JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW  was  born  in  Hamburg,  in  1*723; 
and  was  the  son  of  a  watchmaker.  His  mother  was  melancholy 
even  to  hypochondria.  His  father  kept  him  so  strictly  that  he  ran 
away  and  became  a  servant  with  a  country  physician,  m  Holstein. 
After  a  year  he  returned,  upon  the  urgent  entreaty  of  his  father,  and 
went  to  school,  at  the  Johanneum,  where  he  made  himself  notorious 
for  useless  tricks.  In  1741,  he  went  to  the  gynasium,  where,  among 
others,  the  well-known  Reimarus  (the  author  of  the  "Wolfenbuttle 
Fragments")  was  his  teacher.  While  there  he  composed  many  poems ; 
e.  g.,  one  of  one  hundred  stanzas  upon  history.  He  earned  money 
by  occasional  poems  and  teaching,  and  spent  it  in  debauchery.  His 
studies  were  without  rule  or  perseverance.  In  1744,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-one  years,  he  went  to  the  university  of  Leipzig,  with  the  in- 
tention of  studying  theology.  There  he  studied,  as  he  tells  us,  almost 
altogether  in  his  own  room,  but  attended  the  lectures  of  Crusius. 
The  Wolfian  philosophy  brought  him  "into  a  state  half  way  between 
Christianity  and  naturalism;"  and  he  acquired,  as  he  says,  "ignorant 
opinions  about  philosophy."  In  1746,  he  went  to  Hamburg  as  a 
theological  candidate.  In  1749,  at  the  age  of  twenty-six,  he  took 
employment  as  private  tutor  with  a  Herr  von  Quaalen,  in  Holstein. 
For  his  pupil,  seven  years  old,  he  worked  out  a  new  method  of 
teaching  language,  by  which  he  himself  learned  to  speak  and  write 
Latin. J  He  learned  French  from  the  governess  of  the  family,  whom 
he  married.  In  1753  he  became  professor  of  ethics  and  belles  lettres 
at  the  Knights  Academy,  at  Soroe.  A  treatise  published  by  him, 

*  See  Schwarz's  "Theory  of  Education,1'  1,  p.  460;  and  "Quarterly  Report  on  Basedow'a 
Elementary  Book,  1771,"  p.  4  to  31 ;  where  Basedow  gives  a  biographical  account  of  him- 
self.  Also,  "Contributions  to  the  history  of  the  life  of  Johannes  Bernhard  Basedow;  Mag- 
deburg. 1791." 

+  He  gave  an  account  of  this  method  in  a  Latin  dissertation,  entitled,  "De  inusitata  et  op- 
tima honestioris  juventutis  erudiendat  methndo;"  Kiel,  1752. 


458  JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW. 

'"On  practical  philosophy  for  all  ranks,"  brought  upon  him,  by  its 
heterodoxy,  the  ill  will  of  the  patron  of  the  academy,  Count  Danes- 
kiold;f  and  for  this  reason  he  removed,  in  1761,  to  Altona,  as  pro- 
fessor in  the  gymnasium.  Here  he  published  two  other  heterodox 
books ;  " Philalethie"  and  " Methodical  instruction,  both  in  natural 
and  in  biblical  religion."  Several  theologians,  and  among  them 
Senior  Gotze,  of  Hamburg,  wrote  against  these  works  ;  the  Hamburg  . 
magistrates  issued  a  warning  against  them ;  and  those  of  Lubeck  pro- 
hibited them  under  a  penalty  of  50  thalers.  Basedow  and  his  family 
were  not  allowed  the  communion  in  Altona  and  the  neighborhood. 

From  1763  to  1768,  he  wrote  a  multitude  of  theological  contro- 
versial works.  In  the  latter  year  he  published  the  "Representation 
to  the  benevolent  and  the  rich,  upon  schools,  studies,  and  their  in- 
fluence upon  the  public  well-being,"  with  a  plan  of  an  elementary 
book  of  human  knowledge.  At  the  same  time  he  wrote  to  the  em- 
peror, kings,  universities,  freemasons'  lodges,  learned  men,  <fec.,  to  in- 
terest them  in  the  elementary  work  which  he  proposed  to  publish ; 
the  most  of  whom  answered  him  favorably.* 

The  Danish  minister,  Bernstorff,  in  order  to  give  him  time  for  his 
pedagogical  labors,  relieved  him  from  the  duties  of  his  place,  securing 
him  a  salary  of  eight  hundred  thalers. 

His  first  work  for  schools,  which  was  destined  to  become  prominent, 
was,  as  Basedow  himself  says,  his  "Book  of  methods  for  fathers  and 
mothers  of  families  and  nations"  This  book  was  intended  for 
adults;  and  the  " Elementary  Book  with  plates?  published  at  the 
same  time,  for  children. 

The  object  of  the  "Elementary  Book"  is,  with  the  help  of  the  cuts,  as 
Basedow  remarks,  1.  Elementary  instruction  in  the  knowledge  of 
words  and  things  ;  2.  An  incomparable  method,  founded  upon  expe- 
rience, of  teaching  children  to  read  without  weariness  or  loss  of  time  ( 
3.  Natural  knowledge ;  4.  Knowledge  of  morals,  the  mind  and  rea- 
soning; 5.  A  method,  thorough  and  impressive  upon  the  heart,  of  in- 
structing in  natural  religion,  and  for  a  description  of  beliefs  so  im- 
partial, that  it  shall  not  at  all  appear  of,  what  belief  is  the  writer  him- 
self; 6.  A  knowledge  of  social  duties,  of  commerce,  &c.  It  will  be 
seen  that  this  is  an  encyclopedia  of  every  thing  worth  knowing  by 

*  In  1771,  before  the  first  edition  was  completed,  Basedow  had  already  received  7000  reich- 
tthaler  of  contributions. — ("  Quarterly  Account,"  p.  30.)  King  Christian  VII,  of  Denmark,  gave 
900  thalers,  the  Empress  Catharine  1000,  grand-duke  Paul  500,  the  hereditary  prince  of 
Brunswick  200,  "  the  wealthy  class  in  Basle  "  150,  the  royal  government  of  Osnabruch  50, 
prince  Czartoryski  50,  Nicolans  von  der  Fliie,  Abbot  of  Mary-Einsiedel,  42,  &c.  I  *.ite  these 
instances  from  Basedow's  list  of  the  contributors  to  the  "Elementary  Book,"  to  show  how  the 
most,  different  persons,  in  the  most  distant  countries,  took  great  interest  in  the  undertaking, 
and  conceived  great  hopes  from  it 


JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW.  459 

children,  as  comprehensive  as  was  the  "Orbis  Pictus"  of  Comenius  ;  the 
work,  with  its  characteristic  plates,  may  be  called  the  Orbis  Pictus  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  It  appeared  in  1774,  in  four  volumes,  and 
with  one  hundred  plates,  mostly  engraved  by  Chodowiecki.  It  was 
translated  into  Latin  by  Mangelsdorf,  under  the  supervision  of  the 
well  known  counselor,  Klotz,  into  French  by  Huber,  and  afterward 
into  Russian.  A  little  before,  in  1774,  had  appeared  Basedow's 
"Agathokrator"  upon  the  education  of  future  rulers.  "  In  this,"  he 
says,  "  I  have  described  the  education  of  a  truly  well-trained  prince ; 
the  necessary  preparations  for  it ;  and  its  operation  after  he  has  be- 
come king.  I  hope  that  this  will  be  one  of  the  most  useful  of  all 
my  writings,  and  a  great  blessing  to  posterity."  An  age  has  passed 
since  the  appearance  of  the  book,  and  where  are  the  traces  of  its  in- 
fluences ?  how  many  even  know  that  such  a  book  existed  ?* 

Basedow's  repeated  appeals  for  activity  in  the  cause  of  education 
produced  effects  other  than  the  spread  of  his  writings.  An  excellent 
young  prince,  Leopold  Friedrich  Franz,  Prince  of  Anhalt-Dessau,  be- 
came interested  in  Basedow,  by  means  of  Behrisch,  (known  for  his 
life  of  Gothe,)  who  was  tutor  to  the  hereditary  Prince  of  Dessau. 
The  prince,  from  the  purest  benevolence,  and  from  the  wish  to  further 
a  holy  enterprise,  resolved,  in  1771,  to  invite  Basedow  to  Dessau,  with 
a  salary  of  eleven  hundred  thalers;  and  in  I774,f  to  give  to  the 
Philanthropinum,  buildings,  a  garden,  and  twelve  thousand  thalers. 

In  the  last  year,  1774,  but  before  the  erection  of  the  Philanthro- 
pinum, occurred  Basedow's  acquaintance  with  Gothe,  whom  he  visited 
in  Frankfort.  Here  Basedow,  on  his  birth-day,  (llth  Sept.,)  took  a 
firm  resolution  to  establish  an  educational  institution,  and  to  name  it 
PHILANTHROPINUM. 

From  Frankfort  he  traveled,  with  Lavater  and  Gothe,  to  Ems  and 
the  Rhine.  Gothe,  in  his  life,  has  described  Basedow  in  the  most 
masterly  manner,  in  part  in  the  strongest  contrast  to  Lavater. 

Basedow  arrived,  came  in  contact  with  me,  and  laid  hold  of  me  on  the  other  side. 
No  stronger  contrast  could  be  imagined  than  that  between  Lavater  and  Basedow. 
Their  very  looks  indicated  their  opposition  to  each  other.  While  Lavater's  fea- 
tures were  open  to  the  observer,  Basedow's  were  contracted  closely  together,  and, 
as  it  were,  drawn  inward.  Lavater's  eyes  were  clear  and  calm,  and  under  very 
broad  lids ;  Basedow's  were  deep  in  his  head,  small,  black,  keen,  and  looked  out 
from  under  coarse  eyebrows;  while  Lavater's  temples  were  hung  with  the  softest 
brown  hair.  Basedow's  heavy,  rough  voice,  his  quick  and  sharp  expressions,  his 
somewhat  sneering  laugh,  his  sudden  changes  of  the  conversation,  and  his  other 
peculiarities,  were  the  opposite  of  the  qualities  and  the  conduct  by  which  Lavater 
had  become  pleasing  to  us.  Basedow  was  much  sought  after  in  Frankfort,  and 

*  Prince  Albert,  of  Dessau,  sent.  Basedow,  in  return  for  a  copy  of  the  "Agathokrator"  100 
thalers ;  and  Joseph  II  a  medal  with  his  portrait. 

t  December  27th,  1774,  the  day  of  the  birth  of  the  hereditary  prince  of  Dessau,  then  five 
years  old.  was  considered  as  the  birth-day  of  the  Philanthropinum.  See  Wolke,  description 
of  the  plates  to  the  ^Elementary  Book,'"  p.  8 ;  and  "  The  Fttilanthrooinum ,"  part  first,  p.  101. 


460  JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW. 

his  great  intellectual  gifts  were  admired ;  but  he  was  not  a  man  either  to  stin-n- 
late  others  or  to  guide  them.  The  only  work  for  him  was  to  improve  the  Held 
which  he  had  marked  out  for  himself;  so  that  future  generations  should  find  their 
labors  in  it  more  easy  and  natural ;  and  toward  this  purpose  he  hastened  with 
even  too  much  zeal.  I  could  not  interest  myself  in  his  plans,  nor  even  make  his 
views  clear  to  myself.  That  he  should  require  all  instruction  to  be  given  in  a  liv- 
ing and  natural  way  pleased  me,  of  course ;  that  the  ancient  tongues  should  be 
practiced  now  seemed  to  me  desirable ;  and  I  willingly  recognize  whatever  in  his 
plans  tended  to  a  promotion  of  activity  and  of  a  newer  view  of  the  world ;  but  I 
apprehended  that  the  illustrations  in  his  "Elementary  Book"  would  confuse  still 
more  than  objects  themselves;  because,  in  the  natural  world,  only  things  possible 
exist  together,  and  therefore  they  have,  notwithstanding  all  their  multitude  and 
apparent  confusion,  always  something  regular  in  all  their  parts.  But  this  "Ele- 
mentary Book"  utterly  disarranged  them,  because  it  placed  together,  for  the  sake 
of  a  relation  of  ideas,  things  which  never  go  together  in  the  real  world ;  so  that 
it  was  destitute  of  that  natural  method  which  must  be  recognized  in  the  corres- 
ponding work  of  Amos  Comenius.  Much  stranger  yet  and  harder  to  understand 
than  Basedow's  theories,  were  his  manners.  His  purpose  in  his  present  journey 
was  to  interest  the  public  in  his  philanthropic  undertaking,  by  his  personal  in- 
fluence; and  thus  to  secure  for  himself  access,  not  ouly  to  their  good  will,  but  to 
their  purses.  He  had  the  power  of  speaking  in  a  lofty  and  convincing  way  of 
his  plans;  and  all  men  readily  assented  to  whatever  he  argued.  But  he  wounded, 
in  the  most  incomprehensible  manner,  the  fetlings  of  the  men  from  whom  he  was 
asking  a  contribution,  and  offended  them  with  no  reason,  by  not  being  silent  upon 
his  opinions  and  vagaries  in  regard  to  religious  subjects.  In  this  respect,  also, 
Basedow  was  the  precise  opposite  of  Lavater.  "While  the  latter  held  the  whole 
Bible,  letter  for  letter,  and  with  its  whole  contents,  as  true  and  applicable  even  to 
the  present  day,  the  former  felt  a  most  restless  itching  for  remodeling  every 
thing,  and  changing  not  only  religious  beliefs,  but  even  the  outer  forms  of  church 
observances,  according  to  his  own  whims.  He  would  dispute  in  the  most  merci- 
less and  extraordinary  manner  against  all  views  not  founded  immediately  upon 
the  Bible,  but  upon  the  interpretation  of  it ;  against  those  expressions,  philosophi- 
cal technics,  and  material  similitudes,  with  which  the  fathers  of  the  church,  and 
councils,  have  sought  either  to  explain  the  inexpressible,  or  to  convince  heretics. 
He  declared  himself  before  every  body,  in  the  harshest  and  most  indefensible 
manner,  the  bitterest  enemy  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  ;  and  could  not  be 
satisfied  with  arguing  against  this  universally  received  mystery.  I  myself  suf- 
fered much  in  private  conversation  from  this  subject;  and  had  forever  to  let  my- 
self be  plagued  with  Hypostasis,  and  Ousia,  and  Prosopon.  In  opposition  to  these 
attacks,  I  betook  myself  to  the  weapons  of  paradox,  surpassed  his  own  opinions, 
and  ventured  to  combat  his  daring  notions  with  others  still  more  daring.  This 
gave  my  mind  a  new  direction  ;  and,  as  Basedow  was  much  better  read  than  I, 
and  readier  at  the  tricks  of  disputation  than  a  natural  philosopher  like  myself 
could  be,  I  was  obliged  to  exert  myself  more  and  more,  as  the  points  discussed 
between  us  became  more  important.  So  excellent  an  opportunity,  if  not  to  in 
struct  myself,  at  least  to  exercise  myself,  I  could  not  quickly  resign  ;  I  prevailed 
upon  my  father  and  friends  to  give  up  the  most  important  business,  and  I  left 
Frankfort  again,  with  Basedow.  What  a  difference  was  there  between  his  in- 
fluence and  presence,  and  that  of  Lavater !  Pure  himself,  the  latter  sought  to 
surround  himself  with  purity.  By  his  side  one  became  maidenly,  for  fear  of  an- 
noying him  with  any  thing  unpleasant.  Basedow,  on  the  other  hand,  far  too 
much  absorbed  in  himself,  could  not  attend  to  any  thing  external.  One  of  his 
hab  ts,  that  of  smoking  coarse,  bad  tobacco,  was  exceedingly  disagreeable,  and 
was  much  the  more  so  because,  whenever  he  had  smoked  out  one  pipe,  he  at 
once  struck  fire  again  with  some  dirtily  prepared  German  tinder,  which  caught 
quickly,  but  smelled  hatefully,  and  with  his  very  first  wh  ft' defiled  the  atmosphere 
intolerably.  I  named  this  preparation  the  "Basedow  Stink-tinder,"  and  proposed 
to  introduce  it  under  this  name  into  natural  history ;  at  which  he  made  much 
sport,  and  explained  to  me  circumstantially,  and  even  to  nauseation,  the  abominable 
stuff,  and  with  great  delight  applied  himself  to  my  aversion.  For  it  was  one  of  the 
strongest  peculiarities  of  this  gifted  man,  that  he  loved  too  much  to  tease,  and 
maliciously  to  vex,  the  most  unprejudiced  people.  He  could  not  bear  to  see  any 
*»*  at  rest ;  he  would  attack  him  with  grinning  and  jeers,  with  his  hoarse  voice, 


JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW.  461 

put  them  into  a  dilemma  with  some  unexpected  question,  and  laugh  bitterly  if  he 
accomplished  his  purpose ;  but  he  would  be  well  pleased  if  any  one  answered  him 
promptly.  I  always  spent  part  of  the  night  with  Basedow.  He  never  laid  down 
on  the  bed,  but  dictated  incessantly.  Sometimes  he  threw  himself  down  on  a 
couch  and  slept,  while  his  secretary,  pen  in  hand,  sat  quietly,  all  ready  to  write, 
when  his  half-awake  master  should  again  give  free  course  to  his  thoughts.  And 
all  this  was  done  in  a  room  closely  shut,  and  full  of  the  smoke  of  tobacco  and 
tinder.  Whenever  I  left  off  dancing  I  ran  straight  to  Basedow,  who  was  always 
ready  to  talk  or  discuss  upon  his  problem ;  and  when,  after  a  little  while,  I  went 
out  to  dance  again,  he  took  up  the  thread  of  his  treatise,  even  before  I  had  shut 
the  door,  dictating  as  quietly  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  Basedow  was  pursu- 
ing an  object  of  primary  importance,  the  better  education  of  youth  ;  and  for  this 
purpose  he  was  seeking  large  contributions  from  the  noble  and  the  rich.  But 
scarcely  had  he,  by  his  reasoning  or  the  force  of  his  powerful  eloquence,  brought 
them,  if  not  to  the  point  where  he  wished,  at  least  into  the  state  of  mind  favora- 
ble to  himself,  when  his  vile  anti-trinitarian  notions  would  catch  hold  of  him,  and, 
without  the  least  regard  for  the  place  where  he  might  be,  he  would  break  out  into 
the  strangest  speeches,  exceeding  religious  in  their  intention,  but,  according  to  the 
beliefs  of  society,  exceedingly  abominable.  We  tried  to  find  means  of  preventing 
the  mischief — Lavater  by  mild  earnestness,  I  by  evasive  sport,  the  ladies  by  divert- 
ing walks;  but  the  trouble  could  not  be  removed.  Christian  conversation,  such 
as  was  expected  from  Lavater,  pedagogical,  such  as  was  looked  for  from  Basedow, 
sentimental,  such  as  I  should  have  been  ready  for,  all  were  alike  broken  up  or 
changed.* 


Basedow  had  at  first,  at  Dessau,  only  three  assistants,  Wolke,  Si- 
mon, and  Schweighauser.  The  first  of  these  was  the  most  efficient 
in  the  work  of  teaching.f  He  was  born  in  1742,  at  Jever,  and  died 
at  a  great  age,  known  especially  for  his  remarkable  labors  for  German 
orthography.  He  first  began  to  study  in  his  twentieth  year,  but  had 
before  learned,  without  a  teacher,  drawing  and  etching.  In  five  half- 
years  he  finished  the  necessary  studies  in  Latin,  Greek,  and  French, 
entered  the  University  of  Gottingen  in  1763,  (where  he  studied  chiefly 
mathematics,  natural  sciences,  and  French,)  and  in  1766  went  to  Leip- 
zig, where  he  taught  Latin  and  mathematics.  Through  Biisch  he 
came  to  Basedow,  at  Altona,  in  1770,  to  assist  him  in  working  upon 
his  "Elementary  Book." 

Here  Wolke  made  his  first  experiment  of  a  new  method  of  in- 
struction, upon  Basedow's  daughter,  Emilie,  who  seems  to  have  been 
named  after  Rousseau's  "Emile"  This  experiment  stands  in  such  close 
connection  with  the  Philanthropinum,  and  is  so  characteristic,  that  I 
shall  give  Wolke's  own  account  of  it.  He  says : — 

When  I  came  to  Herr  Professor  Basedow,  at  Altona,  at  new  year's  of  1770,  to 
take  part  in  the  labor  upon  his  "Elementary  Book,"  in  the  departments  of  natural 
history  and  mathematics,  his  little  daughter,  Emilie,  was  three-quarters  of  a  year 
old.  My  inclination  to  be  employing  myself  about  children  led  me  to  help  her 
mother,  who  was  instructing  her  carefully,  about  an  hour  a  day,  in  little  exercises, 
which,  if  made  as  complete  as  possible,  are  much  more  important  than  would  be 
supposed.  I  taught  her,  for  example,  after  a  certain  order  and  selection,  about 
things  of  all  kinds  and  their  qualities,  by  showing  them  to  her,  and  by  clear  and 
accurate  descriptions  of  them ;  how  to  stand  up,  how  to  fall  down  judiciously, 

*  Gothe's  Works ;  22,  273-8,  279,  80,  91.    Edition  of  1840. 

t  See  WSlke's  autobiography,  in  Basedow's  work,  "The  Philanthropinum,  established  in 
Dessau,  1774." 


462  JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW. 

how  to  save  a  fall  by  catching  hold  of  something  and  by  other  means.  Both  in 
sport  and  in  earnest,  we  were  very  careful  to  avoid  that  confusion  of  ideas  which 
is  usual  in  such  teaching.  For  example,  she  saw  in  a  looking-glass  not  herself, 
but  her  image;  in  pictures,  not  men,  trees,  beasts,  but  only  their  representations : 
she  was  not  permitted  to  call  the  cooked  meat  and  bones  of  a  hen,  a  hen,  nor  a 
doll  a  baby,  a  penny  a  ducat,  &c.  By  such  care,  which  I  earnestly  recommend 
to  all  in  charge  of  children,  and  such  a  method  as  is  now  taught  in  the  ''Element- 
ary Book,"  Emilie  had  in  her  third  half-year  learned  to  form  opinions  with  a  cor- 
rectness which  was  the  admiration  of  all  who  saw  her.  When  she  was  a  year 
and  a  half  old,  she  could  not  only  speak  much  more  clearly  and  correctly  than  is 
usual  at  her  age,  but,  by  means  of  our  peculiar  method  of  teaching  spelling  before 
the  knowledge  of  the  letters,  to  understand  sentences  if  we  only  said  over  the 
letters  of  them  to  her.  If,  for  example,  any  one  said  to  her  the  letters  you 
shall  have  a  cake,  she  would  say  "  you  shall  have  a  cake."  The  success 
of  this  practice,  the  facility  of  which  had  been  foreseen  by  Herr  Professor  Base- 
dow,  pleased  him  exceedingly,  when  Emilie,  without  further  trouble  or  the  weari- 
some spelling  in  a  book,  learned  to  read  in  a  month,  to  her  own  pleasure  and  to 
mine.  This  was  at  the  end  of  her  third  year.  Three  months  after  this,  Herr 
Professor  Basedow  left  home  for  ten  weeks.  To  give  him  a  pleasure  at  his  re- 
turn— for  he  had  but  little  during  his  labors  upon  the  "Elementary  Book  " — I  exer- 
cised Emilie  in  that  time  in  French,  of  which  she  had  not  before  heard  a  word. 
In  a  month  and  a  half,  she  could  speak  of  her  wants  and  of  things  about  her,  in 
French,  so  well  that  the  mixing  of  German  words  in  the  instruction  was  no  longer 
necessary.  Since  the  Feast  of  St.  John  of  the  present  year,  I  have  done  some- 
thing similar  in  Latin,  with  a  boy  of  five  years  old ;  of  which  I  shall  speak  fur- 
ther. Emilie  learned  French  as  quickly  as  she  did  German.  In  this  language  I 
used  a  book  called  "Joujou  de  nouvelle  jfa$on ;"  for  the  elementary  "Manuel  &  ed- 
ucation "  was  not  yet  published.  About  a  month  and  a  half  after  the  beginning 
of  this  learning  to  read,  Emilie  was  with  us  for  a  few  days  with  his  very  worthy 
grace,  the  Herr  Canon  von  Rochow,  where  she  excited  the  wonder  of  various 
gentlemen,  masters,  and  officers  from  Brandenburg  and  Potsdam,  by  her  facility 
in  reading  German  and  French.  At  this  time  she  read,  in  writing  and  printing, 
German  and  Latin  ;  knew  a  large  number  of  natural  objects  and  tools,  with  their 
origin  and  use ;  distinguished,  with  reference  to  the  particular  case,  mathematical 
lines,  surfaces,  and  bodies;  counted  forward  or  added  to  100;  backward  or  sub- 
tracted, by  ones  and  by  twos,  from  20  or  21  to  0  or  1 ;  practiced  drawing  or 
writing  by  copying  the  copies  in  pencil  which  were  set  before  her;  sometimes 
dictated  a  letter  to  her  father,  &c.  With  all  this  knowledge,  which  Emilie  ac- 
quired in  play — that  is  without  exertion  or  harmful  sitting  still — we  avoided  the 
fault,  so  common  in  such  circumstances,  of  making  her  what  is  called  a  learned 
lady,  who  is  lifted  by  her  knowledge  above  her  sex,  and  neglects  her  feminine 
employments.  She  was,  on  the  contrary,  in  every  way  imbued  with  a  love  for 
feminine  labors,  and  instructed  in  them.  She  was  often,  and  with  much  pleasure, 
employed  in  preparing  food  in  the  kitchen,  setting  the  table  for  the  children,  put- 
ting the  table-furniture,  &c.,  which  they  left  in  disorder,  in  its  proper  place,  and 
had  made  a  good  beginning  in  learning  to  sew  and  to  knit.  I  have  taken  every 
opportunity  of  drawing  Emilie's  attention  to  the  goodness  and  wisdom  of  God,  in 
her  studies  of  nature.  She  often  rejoices  in  God,  as  in  a  wise,  powerful,  and 
good  father  of  herself  and  of  all  men.  She  takes  pleasure  in  the  lightning  and 
thunder,  recognizing  them  and  the  rain  which  follows  them  as  indispensibly  di- 
vine benefits,  by  means  of  which  vegetation,  for  the  nourishment  of  men  and 
beasts,  is  supported,  and  the  beautiful  flowers  are  made  to  grow.  She  rejoices  in 
the  convenience  and  human  form  of  her  body,  in  the  reasoning  faculties  of  her 
soul ;  in  rain,  wind,  snow,  and  darkness,  even  when  she  suffers  inconvenience 
from  them,  and  at  times  when  others  complain  of  them.  The  sight  of  caterpillers, 
spiders,  mice,  snakes,  and  lizards,  is  neither  disgusting  nor  frightful  to  her.  She 
has  never  had  any  trouble  about  witches,  ghosts,  or  the  devil,  since  they  have 
never  been  named  to  her  as  things  which  do  any  injury  to  man.  The  silly  rep- 
resentations of  the  devil  are  only  ridiculous  to  her ;  not  frightful.  Of  the  Christ- 
ian religion  she  knows  many  portions,  but  only  such  as  will  be  useful  at  her  age ; 
preparatives  to  virtue,  to  trust  in  God,  and  to  peace.  Although  she  speaks  and 
judges  upon  many  subjects,  yet  she  has  never  made  any  misuse  of  what  has  been 
told  her  of  the  origin  of  the  human  race.  Up  to  Michaelmas  1773,  when  she 


JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW.  453 

was  four  and  one-half  years  old,  she  heard  not  a  word  of  Latin.  Her  father 
having  at  that  time  to  go  to  Berlin  on  business  connected  with  the  "Elementary 
Book,"  I  was  desirous  of  preparing  for  him  at  his  return  such  a  pleasure  in  his 
daughter's  knowledge  of  Latin  as  I  had  the  year  before  in  that  of  French.  I 
had,  however,  so  many  employments,  that  I  could  talk  with  Emilie  only  two  hours 
a  day.  My  instruction  was  still  more  interrupted  by  my  absence  at  Berlin  dur- 
ing November.  Yet,  Emilie  now  speaks  Latin  with  a  facility  and  correctness 
which  is  admired  by  many.  For  the  sake  of  any  who  may  doubt  the  truth  of  this 
account,  and  who  may  be  willing  to  believe  it,  if  they  or  any  one  whom  they  can. 
trust  will  visit  us,  to  hear  for  themselves,  I  will  have  an  examination,  (which 
otherwise  I  am  very  willing  to  avoid,)  in  which  they  may  hear  that  Emilie  (who 
has  never  learned  one  word  by  rote,  after  the  school  fashion,)  knows  at  least  fifty 
words  of  any  two  leaves  taken  at  random  from  Cellar i us'  Dictionary,  (because  most 
people  take  the  number  of  words  known  for  a  measure ;)  and  that  from  the  same 
book,  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  leaves,  she  knows  at  least  three  thousand  words, 
and  that,  not  after  the  fashion  of  a  school-boy,  but  like  the  words  of  her  own 
mother-tongue.  And  of  these  fifty  words,  I  can  vary  each,  by  declensions  and 
conjugation,  so  that  no  less  than  five  hundred  different  questions  can  be  made 
from  them,  which  Emilie  shall  answer.  Thus  no  one  can  doubt  that,  with  all 
these  words  from  Cellarius'  dictionary,  (besides  which  she  knows  many  others,) 
more  than  thirty  thousand  questions  can  be  asked,  all  differing  from  each  other, 
which  she  can  understand,  and  can  either  translate  correctly  into  German,  or 
answer  them  in  Latin,  whichever  is  preferred.* 

Basedow  himself  published  an  account  of  his  daughter,f  from 
which  it  appears  clearly  how  far  his  instruction  followed  Rousseau's 
plans.  He  says  that,  when  she  was  scarcely  three  and  one-half  years 
old,  she  began  to  observe  "  errors  in  correct  reading,  both  in  French 
and  German."  And  in  anticipation  he  says  that,  "before  the  end  of 
her  ninth  year,  she  will  fluently  read  in  German  out  of  Latin  writers.'* 
If  the  question  is  asked,  what  is  the  purpose  of  all  this  ?  Basedow 
answers,  "  I  intend  Emilie,  God  permitting,  for  the  teacher  of  othei 
girls." 

This  remarkable  child  was  repeatedly  cited  by  her  father  and  by 
Wolke,  both  in  writing  and  speaking,  as  a  standard  by  which  it  might 
be  judged  what  was  to  be  expected  from  the  Philanthropinum. 
These  expectations  were  especially  excited  by  the  periodical  which 
Basedow  published,  under  the  title  "Philanthropic  Archives ;  ad- 
dressed by  the  fraternity  of  friends  of  youth  to  the  guardians  of  hu- 
manity, and  to  fathers  and  mothers,  who  may  send  children  to  the 
Dessau  Philanthropinum.  Dessau,  1776."  The  preface,  Feb.  1st, 
1776,  is  addressed  "To  guardians,  intercessors,  benefactors  of  hu- 
manity, intelligent  cosmopolites." 

This  singular  address  is  surpassed  in  the  second  part  of  the  "Ar- 
chives" which  is  dedicated,  in  the  name  of  the  Philanthropinum,  to  four 
kings.  First,  to  Joseph  the  Second,  the  "Father  of  Germany.'*  "I 
honor  you,"  it  says,  "as  the  most  eminent  of  all  the  inhabitants  of 
the  world,  and  as  one  of  the  best ;  as  my  own  indirect  supreme  lord 
and  protector ;  as  the  foundation  of  my  hopes  for  better  times  in 

*  Ib.,  p.  44-52.        t  Quarterly  Account,  sixth  part,  1773. 


464  -  JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW. 

Germany,"  <fec.  In  the  dedication  to  the  king  of  Denmark,  Base- 
dow  calls  himself  a  Cimbrian ;  and,  to  the  Empress  Catharine,  he 
promises  to  establish  a  Catharineum,  for  women  from  all  the  world. 
( Weltburgerinnen.) 

The  Philanthropinum  had  been  in  existence  seventeen  months, 
when  the  first  part  of  the  "Archives  "  appeared.  Basedow  gave  an  in- 

r  *  r  o 

vitation  to  the  great  examination,  on  the  13th,  14th,  and  15th  of 
May,  1776. 

"  Send  children,"  he  says,  "  to  a  happy,  youthful  life  of  studies  cer- 
tainly successful.  This  affair  is  not  Catholic,  Lutheran,  or  Reformed, 
but  Christian.  We  are  the  philanthropists ;  cosmopolitans.  The  free- 
dom of  Switzerland,  here,  is  not  placed  below  the  sovereignty  of  Rus- 
sia or  Denmark,  in  our  teaching  or  our  opinions."  He  adds  repeated 
appeals  for  contributions.* 

Furtherf  he  says,  "•  The  aim  of  education  must  be,  to  train  a  Euro- 
peanj  whose  life  shall  be  as  harmless,  as  useful,  and  as  peaceful,  as  it 
can  be  made  by  education.  Care  must  also  be  taken,  1.  That  he 
may  endure  little  trouble,  grief,  or  sickness ;  and,  2.  That  he  may  learn 
to  take  real  pleasure  in  what  is  good." 

"  The  wisdom  of  all  wisdoms  is  virtue  and  peace.  Few  exercises 
in  virtue,  as  it  should  be  taught,  in  our  education,  are  found.  Here, 
ye  wise  men,  ye  philanthropic  writers,  a  plan  for  an  orderly  ar- 
rangement of  exercises  in  virtue,  for  parents  and  schools,  is  one  of  the 
most  important  works  for  the  good  of  all  humanity.  Were  we  rich, 
we  would  offer  ten  thousand  thalers  for  the  best  book  of  this  kind 
which  should  appear  within  two  years."§  "  For  the  paternal  religion 
of  each  pupil,"  Basedow  remarks,  "  the  ministry  of  this  place  will 
care.  Natural  religion,  however,  and  ethics,  are  the  chief  part  of 
philosophy,  of  which  we. have  charge.  In  the  Philanthropinum  the 
first  beginning  of  instruction  is,  to  hit ve  faith  in  God  as  the  creator, 
upholder,  and  Lord  of  the  world.  As  we  have  a  universal,  Christian, 
Philanthropinist  liturgy,  approved  by  persons  of  reputation  in  all  the 
churches,  we  promise  to  give  a  general  Christian  instruction,  which, 
by  means  of  its  omission  of  all  points  of  distinction,  shall  offend  neither 
Catholics,  Protestants,  nor  Greeks ;  but  which  shall  necessarily  please 
all  Christians,  even  if  they  are  as  different  as  Zinzendorf  and  Foster."|| 

In  this  universal,  private  instruction  in  religion,  he  says  further,^]" 
"Neither  word  nor  deed  will  be  introduced,  which  will  not  be  approved 

*  Boarders  paid  two  hundred  and  fifty  thalers.     "Archives,"  p.  38.       t  Archives,  p.  16. 
I  By  a  European,  "we  understand  a  man  of  a  civilized  nation,  who  has  such  manners  and 
dispositions  as  are  almost  universal  in  Europe." 

§  Ib.,  p.  20,  21.        I  Ib. ,  p.  39.        IT  Ib.,  p.  63. 


JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW.  455 

of  by  every  one  who  fears  God,  by  the  Christian,  Jew,  Mohammedan, 
or  Deist.  And  just  as  satisfactory  shall  we  be  to  the  friends  of  all 
systems  of  Christianity,  from  Zinzendorf  to  Foster."  Afterward, 
clergymen  of  the  different  professions  may  *4  instruct,  drill,  and  con- 
vince the  children  in  their  paternal  religions."* 

All  the  Philanthropiuist  manuals  are  to  be  free  from  "theologizing 
distinctions  in  favor  of  Christianity  as  opposed  to  the  Jews,  Moham- 
medans, Deists,  or  the  so-called  Dissidents,  who  are  in  some  places 
called  heretics." 

"  In  the  temple  of  the  Universal  Father,  the  Dissident  brethren  ap- 
pear like  brethren  with  the  rest.  And  until  that  time  let  us  come 
like  brethren,  one  (as  long  as  the  difference  shall  last,)  to  the  holy 
mass ;  another  to  pray  with  his  fellows,  after  one  form ;  and  a  third 
to  pray  with  his  fellows,  after  another."  * 

So  much  may  suffice  to  describe  Basedow's  religious  tendency;  his 
proceeding  from  the  broadest  deism  is  the  most  general  idea,  (leaving 
out  the  poor  heathen,  after  Rousseau's  example,)  to  the  narrow  idea 
of  Christianity,  the  still  narrower  ideas — illiberal  ones  as  Basedow 
thinks  them — of  the  Christian  professions,  he  leaves  to  be  taught  to 
the  children  by  the  clergy.  The  positive  ideas  which  he  lays  down 
I  shall  consider  hereafter. 

From  what  Basedow  says  in  his  invitation  of  the  moral  and  relig- 
ious tendency  of  the  Philanthropinum,  I  proceed  to  what  he  prom- 
ises, and  claims  to  have  accomplished,  in  intellectual  education,  in 
Latin,  German,  French,  knowledge  of  nature  and  of  art,  and  mathe- 
matics. 

Of  memorizing,  he  says,  there  will  be  but  little  with  us.  The  students 
will  not  be  forced  to  learn  even  by  advice.  Yet  we  promise,  by  the  excellence  of 
our  method,  and  by  means  of  the  agreement  of  it  with  the  whole  of  the  Philan- 
thropist education  and  method  of  living,  at  least  twice  as  much  progress  in  study 

*  "  He  who  believes  in  one  Go<1,  and  in  the  eternal  existence  of  virtue,  will  not  be  a  here- 
tic in  the  institution.  Public  religious  exercises  will  be,  as  heretofore,  merely  the  worship- 
ing of  God,  or  Christian  Ynerely  in  general.  The  former,  the  chief  Rabbi,  or  the  Mufti,  if 
they  understood  them,  could  not  disapprove  of;  and  by  the  latter,  the  Catholic,  the  Greek, 
the  Protestant,  the  Bohemian  brother,  and  the  Socinian,  would  be  edified.  Any  thing  more 
is  the  province  of  the  ministry." 

t  The  interest  taken  by  the  Jews  and  Freemasons  in  the  Philanthropinum  is  remarkable. 
Thus,  four  Hamburg  lodges  sent  five  hundred  thalers,  one  at  Leipzig  one  hundred,  one  at 
Gottingen  twenty-five  One  Meyer  translated  an  '•'•Explanation  of  Freemasonry"  from  the 
English,  and  recommended  the  Philanthropinum  to  the  support  of  the  masons.  "  Basedow's 
Philanthropinum,''  he  says,  "that  quite  masonic  design  for  making  poor  humanity  more  fit 
for  the  purpose  of  its  being,  by  a  reasonable  instruction  of  youth,  for  spreading  virtue,  re- 
ligion, and  knowledge,  and  removing  prejudices."  &c  — (''Pedagogical  Conversations  of  Base- 
dow," part  first,  p  104.)  Had  Basedow.  without  being  a  freemason,  made  application  to  this 
"honorable  fraternity  of  architects  of  the  council-house  of  universal  citizenship,  pupils  of 
Solomon  and  Socrates,"  as  he  calls  them? — (^PhUanthropinum,"  p  8.)  From  the  Jews, 
especially  from  those  of  Berlin,  he  received  at  one  time  five  hundred  and  eighteen  thalers, 
&c.  Among  others,  Mendelssohn  interested  himself  for  him. 

30 


466  JOHANN  BERNHARb  DASEDOW. 

as  is  usual  in  the  best  schools,  boarding  institutions,  or  gymnasiums.  And  espe- 
cially we  promise  great  development  of  the  understanding,  by  the  practice  of  a  truly 
philosophical  art  of  thinking. 

The  results  which  have  been  already  shown  prove  that  what  we  promise  is  true. 
In  the  telling,  and  when  their  means  are  not  seen,  they  are  incredible.  Every 
thing  is  so  pleasant  with  us,  that  no  one  wishes  to  be  at  home  again.  At  th<» 
age  of  fifteen  there  is  need  of  punishment  but  few  times  a  year.  The  pupils  learn 
without  sitting  too  much,  and  more  outside  than  in  school-hours.  Of  our  method 
we  can  say  (and  God  knows  it  is  with  fairness  and  reflection,)  as  follows  :  when 
we  have  all  our  apparatus  and  arrangements  all  completed,  a  boy  of  twelve  years 
old,  who  shall  be  sent  to  us,  with  his  manners  not  too  far  destroyed,  and  of  mode- 
rate capacity,  if  he  knows  only  how  to  read  and  to  write,  will  become  with  us, 
without  constraint  or  discomfort,  in  four  years,  well  fitted  to  study  for  either  of  the 
higher  faculties  in  a  university.  For,  whatever  is  valuable  for  all  students  in  the 
philosophical  faculty,  he  will  have  studied  with  us  so  thoroughly  that,  in  order  to 
arrive  at  a  higher  grade,  he  will  need  only  himself  and  his  books.  From  this 
measure  of  our  institution  all  other  things  in  relation  to  it  can  be  judged  of. 

You  wise  cosmopolites,  this  is  said,  not  by  foolish  project-makers,  idle  talkers, 
but  by  men  who  are  worthy  of  friendship  and  of  your  assistance. 

One  language  requires,  with  us,  unless  it  is  to  be  brought  by  grammatical  ex- 
ercises to  the  natural  degree  of  accuracy,  six  months,  in  order  to  enable  the 
students  to  understand  whatever  he  hears  or  reads  in  it,  as  if  it  was  his  mother- 
tongue  5  and  to  speak  and  write  it,  little  by  little,  after  rules,  by  himself. 

After  this  we  require  six  months  more  of  grammatical  exercises,  to  make  a 
Latin  or  a  French  scholar  so  complete,  or  so  little  lacking  of  it,  as  it  is  not  possible 
for  him  to  be  from  the  ordinary  school,  without  uncommon  good  fortune,  genius, 
and  application. 

In  May,  1775,  he  says,  two  boys,  of  thirteen  and  seventeen  years,  were  sent  to 
the  Philanthropinum.  "They  had  minds  of  ordinary  capacity.  Neither  of  them 
had  the  least  attainments  in  study,  or  the  least  rudiments  of  Latin.  They  can 
now,  (Feb.  1st,  1776,  nine  months  afterward.)  understand  a  Latin  address  on 
any  art  which  may  be  selected,  if  only  the  technical  terms  be  explained  to  them, 
and  the  unusual  words  made  clear  by  Latin  synonyms,  or  by  the  connection. 
They  read  a  classical  author  understands  ngly,  if  he  is  easy;  that  is,  if  he  is  good. 
They  can  express  themselves,  either  orally  or  in  writing,  upon  any  subject,  so 
well  that  they  would  get  on  much  better  in  ancient  Rome  than  one  could  do  in 
Leipzig  now,  who  could  write  and  speak  only  low  Dutch." 

This  is  roguery.  Further  on  Basedow  praises  himself  for  having 
found  a  way  of  making  the  work  of  learning  "  three  times  as  short 
and  three  times  as  easy  as  it  usually  is."  All  studies  must  be  arranged 
in  a  common  plan,  and  be  placed,  by  means  of  uniformity  of  text- 
books, in  such  a  connection  that  one  shall  always  shorten  and  assist 
the  other.  Only  the  useful  part  of  each  science  is  to  be  learned. 

To  fill  up  the  sketch  here  given  from  Basedow's  invitation,  I  quote 
the  following  from  a  letter  of  his  written  to  Campe,  the  same  year ; 
which,  as  they  say,  lets  us  into  the  whole  programme.  Latin,  he  says 
in  this,  must  be  learned  by  speaking  ;  and,  for  this  reason,  Basedow 
requires  his  teachers  to  use  every  means  to  gain  facility  in  speaking 
Latin.  They  must  use  all  their  leisure  in  reading  the  colloquies  of 
Erasmus,  Terence,  &c.;  they  must  try,  when  alone,  to  translate  silently 
in  their  thoughts  expressions  which  they  could  not  manage  in  con- 
versation, and  "get  all  their  religious  instruction  from  Castalio's  Bible 
only." 

"The  actual  design  of  the  institution,  it  would  scarcely  be  possible 


JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW.  4^7 

to  follow  out.  But  Latin,  Latin — when  we  see  that  the  end  of  our 
well-trodden  and  brief  road  leads  to  correctness  and  elegance,  (not  to 
say  any  thing  of  eminent  skill,)  in  this  language,  this  alone  can  give 
certain  encouragement.  But  well  for  thee,  thou  dear  young  posterity  ! 
you  learn  Latin,  Latin,  without  rod  or  care !  Greek,  however,  we 
shall  not  teach  by  speaking ;  it  is  too  difficult. 

But  ye  ancient  and  modern  languages,  ye  tormenting  ghosts  of 
youth,  ye  flatterers  of  unthinking  people,  who  have  memory  and  pa- 
tience, when  will  it  be  possible  to  have  the  name  of  being  well-edu- 
cated, intelligent,  and  learned,  without  having  at  first  let  one's  self  be 
destroyed  by  your  discipline  and  afterward  by  your  flattery?'' 

I  return  to  Basedow's  "Inwtotion*  In  this  he  very  openly  asks  for 
contributions.  ''Dearest  cosmopolitans,"  he  says,  "your  wills  may 
be  most  heartily  good  and  your  sentiments  correct ;  but  our  enterprise 
can  not  go  into  operation  except  by  means  of  deeds." 

Let  us,  lastly,  hear  how  urgently  he  invites.*  "We  promise,"  he 
says,  "  under  the  penalty  of  contumely,  that  upon  the  aforesaid  13th 
of  May,  (1776,)  there  will  be  in  the  Philanthropinum  K  much  worth 
seeing,  hearing,  investigating,  and  considering,  by  the  intelligent 
guardians  of  humanity,  in  regard  to  schools,  that  it  will  be  worth  their 
while  for  some  of  them  to  be  sent  to  us,  by  the  order  of  the  German 
Diet,  from  Copenhagen,  Saint  Petersburg,  arid  the  most  distant  places  ; 
for  it  is  a  duty,  by  the  arithmetic  of  morals,  in  respect  to  such  good 
works  as  must  be  of  great  use,  to  proceed  upon  probabilities.  God, 
thou  father  of  posterity,  secure  us,  we  pray  thee,  a  hearing  with  the 
wise  inhabitants  of  the  world." 

The  examination  which  was  to  decide  upon  the  existence  or  non- 
existence  of  the  Philanthropinum  took  place,  and  was,  according  to 
Basedow's  expression,  "attended  by  many  skillful  men,  citizens  of  the 
world,  most  of  whom  had  come  abroad  for  the  purpose.''  Among 
others  came  from  Berlin,  Nicolai  and  Teller ;  from  Halberstadt,  con- 
sistory-councilor Struensee ;  from  Leipzig,  Plattner  and  Zollikofer; 
from  Magdeburg,  Resewitz  and  Schummel;  from  Potsdam,  Campe ; 
from  Quedlinburg,  Stroth  ;  from  Hamburg,  Bode,  the  translator  of 
Montaigne  ;  and  from  Rekalm,  Rochow. 

The  Philanthropinum  however  included  only  thirteen  pupils,  besides 
Emilie  and  Friedrich  Basedow.  Two  accounts  of  the  examination  are 
lying  before  me,  one  by  Basedow,  the  other  by  the  above  named 
professor,  Schummel ;  it  is  entitled  "  Fritz's  journey  to  Dessau."  \ 
They  agree  with  and  complete  each  other.  I  shall,  however,  chiefly 
follow  the  journey,  which  is  in  a  form  of  letters  from  a  boy  of  twelve, 

*  [b.,  58.       J  Basedow's  account  is  in  the  2nd  part  of  "  Philanthropinist  Archive*." 


468  JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW. 

who  goes  with  his  father  to  Dessau  ;  as  it  is  from  an  impartial  per- 
son. 

In  the  third  letter  the  boy  says :  "  I  am  just  come  from  the  Philan- 
thropinum  ;  I  already  know  Herrn  Basedow,  Wolke,  Simon,  Schweig- 
hauser,  and  all  the  little  Philanthropinists.  I  am  already  greatly  de- 
lighted, and  do  not  know  where  to  begin." 

Fritz  goes  to  the  Philanthropinum  with  his  father.  "There  are  two 
great  houses  close  to  each  other,  all  painted  white,  and  right  before 
them  the  great  wide  square  with  trees,  and  between  the  houses  and 
the  trees  the  street  goes  through.  One  of  the  scholars,  but  one  of 
the  real  scholars,  only  one  of  the  lower  ones,  whom  they  call  Famu- 
lants,  stood  at  the  door  and  asked  us  if  we  would  like  to  speak  to 
Herr  Basedow  ?  We  said  yes ;  so  he  let  us  right  into  the  house,  and 
we  knocked,  and  some  one  said  "come  in!"  Herr  Basedow  was 
standing  behind  a  desk,  in  his  dressing-gown,  and  writing ;  we  came 
upon  him  at  a  somewhat  inconvenient  time  ;  but  he  was  very  friendly, 
and  told  father  that  he  must  not  take  it  ill  that  he  had  so  much  work 
to  do  in  the  morning ;  but  that  at  evening  he  would  call  upon  us  at 
our  lodging.  Then  we  went  away,  and  went  into  the  Philanthropinum. 
Father  asked  for  Herr  Wolke.  He  was  at  table,  but  came  immediately 
out.  He  is  a  large,  tall  man,  with  a  worn  face  ;  but  I  know  very  well 
that  that  comes  from  hard  labor ;  for  he  often  works  day  and  night. 
He  otherwise  looks  so  good  and  so  friendly,  that  one  must  be  good 
to  him  from  the  very  first.  He  asked  us  if  we  would  like  to  come  in 
and  see  the  Philanthropinists  at  their  meals,  and  immediately  he 
opened  the  door  and  showed  us  in.  The  whole  table  was  full  of  great 
and  small,  and  there  was  just  one  lady  there  ;  she  was  Frau  Wolke." 

In  the  fourth  letter  he  describes  the  Philanthropinists.  "  Thej> 
all  have  the  hair  cut  short,  and  none  of  them  patronize  the  wigrnaker. 
The  children  go  without  neckcloths,  with  their  necks  open,  the  shirt 
turned  back  over  the  dress." 

In  the  fifth  letter  Fritz  describes  the  little  girl  already  mentioned ; 
"snow-white,  with  coal-black  hair,  and  a  wreath  upon  it.  The  child 
looked  at  me  and  said  to  me  in  Latin,  Salve  ;  and  threw  me  a  kiss." 
This  was  Emilie  Basedow. 

He  very  correctly  describes  the  prince  and  the  princess  as  a  most 
beautiful  pair ;  and  relates  that  the  prince  had  been  in  France  and 
Italy,  and  was  very  much  beloved.* 

*The  author  does  not,  in  this,  flatter  this  excellent  prince.  He  was  a  very  accomplished 
man  ;  to  be  convinced  of  this,  it  would  be  enough  for  any  one  to  see  the  gardens  which  he 
laid  out  at  Worlitz.  The  whole  of  his  little  territory,  indeed,  he  brought  almost  into  the  con- 
dition of  a  garden.  And  what  is  still  more,  he  enacted  paternal  care  over  all,  even  the  very 
least  of  his  subjects,  and  was  heartily  loved  by  all  of  them.  1  was  born  in  Worlitz  ;  my  fath- 
er served  that  oriuce  for  more  than  fifty  years  ;  and  he  himself  gave  me  the  account  of  his 


JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW.  459 

He  mentions  Wieland,  Gothe,  and  Lavater  as  expected,  but  as  not 
coming ;  and  then  describes  the  guests :  Teller,  Rochow,  Zollikofer, 
Bode,  <fec.  Of  consistorial-councilor  Struensee,  of  Halberstadt,  a 
distinguished  educator,  he  says  he  was  not  very  well  pleased ;  or,  at 
least,  he  kept  looking  straight  before  him  with  a  very  serious  face. 

In  the  eighth  letter,  he  comes  to  the  examination  : — 

The  children  did  some  very  droll  things.  First  they  played  the  commander 
game ;  all  together,  some  eight  or  nine ;  do  you  see,  Charley,  this  was  the  way. 
First,  they  all  stood  in  a  row,  like  soldiers.  Herr  Wolke  was  commander  ;  he 
commanded  in  Latin,  and  they  were  to  do  every  thing  that  he  said.  For  exam- 
ple, when  he  said  claudite  oculos,  they  all  shut  their  eyes  ;  or,  circumspicite,  and 
they  all  looked  around  them  ;  or,  imitamini  sartorem,  and  they  all  sewed  like 
tailors ;  or,  imitamini  sutorcm,  and  they  all  drew  out  waxed-ends,  like  cobblers. 
Herr  Wolke  ordered  a  thousand  queer  things. 

Now  I  will  tell  you  about  the  other  game  ;  the  hiding  game.  In  this,  a  word 
is  written  behind  the  blackboard,  where  the  children  can  not  see  it ;  the  name  of 
some  part  of  the  human  body,  or  of  a  plant,  or  a  beast,  or  a  metal ;  and  then  they 
guess  what  it  is,  until  one  of  them  guesses  it ;  and  the  one  who  guesses  it  has  an 
apple  or  a  piece  of  cake  for  a  reward.  One  of  the  visitors  wrote  on  the  board, 
intestina,  the  intestines  ;  and  told  the  children  that  it  was  a  part  of  the  human 
body.  They  then  began  ;  one  guessed  caput,  others  nasus  or  manus,  pes,  digiti, 
pectus,  collum,  labium,  genu,  aures,  ocuLi,  crines,  dorsum,  and  so  on,  for  a  long 
time,  until  at  last  one  cried  out  it  is  the  intestines !  Then  Herr  Wolke  wrote  the 
name  of  a  beast.  I  can  not  now  remember  myself  what  it  was.  They  then  be- 
gan ;  if  you  could  have  seen  it !  Leo,  ursus,  camelus,  elephas,  for  you  must 
understand  it  was  a  four-footed  animal,  eques,  bos,  asinus,  vacca,  SMS,  cam's,  &c. 
"Well,  now  I  remember  it !  at  last  one  said  mus,  a  mouse ;  he  had  guessed  it, 
and  he  received  a  piece  of  cake.  Once  the  name  of  a  city  was  written  ;  and  then 
they  guessed  Lisbon,  Madrid,  Paris,  London,  Stockholm,  Copenhagen,  until  they 
came  to  Petersburg,  which  was  the  name  written  behind  the  board. 

Then  they  played  still  another  game.  Herr  Wolke  ordered  in  Latin,  and  the 
children  imitated  the  voices  of  beasts  5  so  that  we  laughed  until  we  were  weak. 
Sometimes  they  roared  like  a  lion,  then  crowed  like  a  cock,  mewed  like  a  cat; 
made  noises  like  a  donkey,  a  dog,  and  a  raven  ;  in  short,  like  every  thing  which 
was  told  them. 

Herr  Wolke  brought  in  a  picture,  hung  it  up,  and  said,  "  Dear  children,  I 
bring  you  here  a  picture  which  you  have  not  seen  ;  and  I  tell  you  beforehand,  it 
represents  the  most  serious  thing  in  the  world  ;  so  do  you  be  serious  also."  And 
the  children  were.  Now  I  must  first  tell  you  what  the  picture  was.  First,  a 
pregnant  woman  was  sitting  in  an  arm-chair,  and  near  her  stood  a  man  who  held 
her  by  the  hand.  Next,  on  the  other  side  stood  a  table,  and  on  it  lay  two  little 
caps,  one  for  a  girl,  and  the  other  for  a  boy  ;  and  underneath  stood  a  tub,  with 
water  and  a  sponge  in  it.  Then  Herr  Wolke  began  to  ask  what  sort  of  a  woman 
this  was,  and  why  she  looked  so  sad,  and  why  the  man  held  her  by  the  hand ; 
and  the  children  said  that  it  was  a  pregnant  woman,  and  that  the  man  who  stood 
by  her  was  her  husband,  who  was  encouraging  her,  because  she  was  in  great 
danger,  and  would  almost  die.  Then  Herr  "Wolke  asked  further,  what  was  the 
meaning  of  the  two  little  caps  ?  Then  some  of  the  spectators  began  to  laugh ;  but 
if  you  could  once  have  seen  Herr  Wolke,  how  serious  he  was,  and  how  he  at  once 
turned  round  to  us  and  requested  us  very  earnestly  not  to  laugh,  during  so  serious 
a  business,  or  he  should  much  rather  not  teach  at  all.  Then  in  a  twinkling  all 
was  as  still  as  a  mouse.  Then  he  began  again,  and  asked  about  the  little  caps. 
Then  the  children  said,  it  was  not  known  whether  it  was  a  boy  or  a  girl  that  was 
coming,  and  therefore  the  parents  had  made  both  caps.  But  there  were  a  great 
many  things  more  that  Herr  Wolke  said  and  asked  about,  as,  for  example,  he  said 
about  the  table  and  water,  that  when  the  child  came  into  the  world,  it  would 

beneficence ;  which  facts  may  serve  as  an  excuse  for  these  remarks,  which  I  have  written 
from  a  thankful  heart  and  with  truth. 


470  JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW. 

strangle  in  its  own  blood,  if  its  good  parents  did  not  take  it,  and  wash  it,  and  clean 
it.  After  this  Herr  Wolke  began  and  made  an  address  to  the  children,  which  I 
shall  never  forget  in  my  life.  I  remember  almost  all  of  it,  although  1  had  to  cry 
almost  all  the  time.  "  Listen,  dear  children,"  he  said  ;  "  if  I  were  able  to  hate 
any  body,  although  I  am  not,  it  would  be  that  one  among  you  who  could  be  so 
godless  as  to  be  ungrateful  to  his  parents.  Think  once  what  your  mother  has 
undergone  for  you  !  She  came  into  danger  of  death,  for  your  sake,  and  endured 
the  most  inexpressible  pain  ;  and  your  parents  had  cared  for  you  even  before  you 
came  into  the  world.  How  then  do  you  think  you  can  be  thankful  enough  to 
them  ?" 

Then  Herr  Wolke  asked  Fabreau,  one  of  the  children,  where  the  little  children 
came  from.  Then  he  began  to  smile  and  said,  "  Parents  tell  very  different  stories 
about  it.  There  are  judicious  parents,  and  silly  ones.  The  judicious  ones  say 
the  mother  bore  the  child  ;  the  silly  ones,  that  the  stork  brought  it !  "  Then  he 
asked  again,  "If  your  mother  bore  you,  whom  have  you  to  thank  for  being  in  the 
world?"  "  Why,"  he  said,  ''I  have  to  thank  my  mother."  "  But  what  if  it 
was  the  stork  that  brought  you  ?  "  "  Then,"  he  said,  "  I  should  have  to  thank 
the  stork  ;"  and  he  laughed  heartily.  I  wish  I  had  been  as  wise,  in  my  sixth 
year,  as  Fabreau  !  How  I  would  have  answered  my  aunts,  when  they  always 
kept  telling  me  that  silly  story  about  the  stork  !  But  I  am  wiser  now  ;  let  them 
try  it  again ! 

I  could  not  pass  over  this  coarse  and  conceited  examination, 
especially  as  Basedow  himself  speaks  of  it  with  emphasis.  He  says, 
"We  tell  the  children  the  truth  about  the  generation  of  beasts  and 
men.  We  do  not  dwell  upon  the  act  of  generation,  but  upon  the 
results  of  it;  the  painful  pregnancy  of  the  mother."  The  picture 
which  was  hung  up  was  taken  from  the  "Elementary  Book"  and  printed 
on  a  large  scale.  "  Some  hearers,"  relates  Basedow,  "cried  out,  'now 
it's  coming ! '  and  others  laughed,  but  Wolke  said  to  them,  *  we  beg 
you  not  to  laugh,'  and  this  was  the  only  part  of  our  plan  which  was 
laughable."  "O,  how  hard  it  is  for  good  reformers,"  he  adds,  "  to  over- 
come the  hindrances  which  are  placed  in  their  way  by  the  good  ! "  * 

Now  Fritz  comes  to  the  instruction  in  arithmetic. 

First  Herr  Wolke  dictated  a  number  as  long  as  my  arm  ;  the  blackboard  had 
scarcely  been  set  up,  before  Emilie  began  with  149,532  quadrillions,  so  many 
trillions,  so  many  billions,  and  then  the  millions,  thousands,  and  hundreds,  until 
it  was  all  done.  Then  they  went  to  adding.  Herr  Wolke  wrote  a  long  row  of 
figures  under  each  other,  as  many  as  ten,  and  there  was  none  of  the  children  who 
took  chalk  ;  they  reckoned  it  all  in  their  heads,  or  often  counted  upon  their  fingers, 
and  brought  every  thing  out  right  to  a  hair,  and  often  corrected  even  Herr  Wolke, 
when  he  made  mistakes;  but  he  did  that  only  for  sport.  So  they  went  on  for  a 
long  time,  and  the  spectators  all  had  much  pleasure  in  seeing  the  children  so 
ready,  and  able  to  work  out  an  example  before  one  could  turn  his  hand  over. 

From  arithmetic  Wolke  proceeded  to  an  "  experiment  with  all 
sorts  of  little  drawings." 

*  Philanthropinum,  part  2d,  pp.  26,  27.  All  this  is  very  delicate,  however,  in  comparison 
with  an  article  of  Wolke's  in  Vol.  2d  of  the  -'Pedagogical  Conversations,"  entitled.  "  When 
and  how  shall  children  be  taught  that  their  father  and  mother  are  the  origin  of  their  life?" 
and  in  particular  the  extracts  given  from  Basedow's  '"Elementary  Book."  One  paragraph 
begins:  "But  no  woman  becomes  pregnant  until,  &c."  It  appears  from  the  article  that 
Rousseau's  "How  children  are  made,  Sfc."  was  the  immodest  theme  upon  which  Base- 
dow, whose  character  was  the  opposite  of  Lavater's  delicacy,  made  the  m^st  vulgar  and  in- 
decent, variations. 


JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW.  ^^1 

Then  he  took  chalk  and  asked  the  children  what  they  would  like  to  have  him 
draw.  Leonem,  Leonem,  they  all  cried  out  together.  Then  Herr  Wolke  pre- 
tended that  he  was  going  to  draw  a  lion  ;  but  instead  of  that  he  drew  a  great 
beak.  "  Hu,"  they  cried  out,  *'  non  est  leo,  non  est  leo."  k'  Why  not?"  "Quia 
habet  rostrum,"  they  said,  u  Leones  non  habent  rostrum."  Then  Herr  Wolke 
drew  the  ears,  but  frightfully  long.  Then  they  cried  out  again  that  it  was  not 
right ;  that  they  are  asses'  ears.  In  short,  they  told  Herr  Wolke  every  thing 
that  he  was  to  draw,  from  the  head  to  the  tail  5  and  then  they  had  not  had  enough 
of  it.  They  told  him  to  draw  a  boy  on  the  lion.  Then  Herr  Wolke  drew  it 
carefully,  all  wrong  ;  first  an  eye  was  wanting,  then  an  ear,  then  the  nose  ;  and 
the  children  saw  it  in  a  moment,  and  made  him  put  it  in.  And  that  was  not 
enough  either.  The  beast  must  have  a  bridle  in  his  mouth,  and  the  boy  must 
hold  the  bridle  in  his  hand  ;  it  was  a  figure  to  laugh  yourself  speckled  at.  When 
that  was  through,  Herr  Wolke  asked  them  what  he  should  draw  next ;  and  they 
all  cried  out,  domum,  domum  !  "Good,"  said  Herr  Wolke  ;  "  and  now  what  is 
the  first  thing  in  a  house?"  Fundamentum,  Fundamentum  !  Then  in  a  twink- 
ling he  drew  the  foundation.  Then  they  told  him  to  make  the  first  story  and  then 
the  second  story,  and  then  the  roof ;  and  he  d,d  it  "What  next?"  Januam, 
januam  !  u  And  where  must  the  door  be  ?"  In  media,  in  media  !  "  But  I 
will  not  put  it  in  the  middle  this  time,"  said  Herr  Wolke  ;  u  it  shall  be  here ;" 
and  so  he  drew  it  pretty  near  one  end.  "  Yes,"  said  the  children,  "  but  then  there 
must  be  one  at  the  other  end  too."  u  But  why?"  Propter  symmetriam. 
When  that  was  done,  he  proceeded  to  the  window.  Herr  Wrolke  did  it,  on  pur- 
pose, wrongly  ;  but  they  told  him  how  it  must  be  ;  and  which  was  too  large  or 
too  small.  Then  came  the  chimneys  5  and  Emilie  drew  a  chimney-sweep  on  one 
of  them,  with  a  broom.  Then  they  played  another  game,  called  the  judicial 
game.  In  this  they  threw  dice,  and  he  who  lost  had  to  explain  a  picture.  These 
pictures  represented  all  kinds  of  artisans.  The  first  I  did  not  know ;  it  was  a  turner. 
But  I  knew  all  the  others.  There  was  a  sculptor,  a  painter,  and  a  scribe.  The 
sculptor  had  a  chisel  in  his  hand,  and  was  chiseling  a  Minerva,  and  the  whole 
room  was  full  of  statues. 

In  the  twelfth  letter  Fritz  relates  what  happened  on  the  last  day  of 
the  examination.  There  had  been  on  the  first  day  a  sort  of  celebra- 
tion, after  the  pattern  of  Basedow's  universal  religion  ;  but  on  the  last 
day  it  said,  "  First  there  was  divine  service,  and  this  time  according 
to  the  Christian  religion."  Basedow  has  given  the  exercises  performed 
on  the  three  days  of  the  examination.*  The  first  was  a  "  universal 
worship  of  God."  There  was  a  liturgy  alternating  with  a  "  choir  of 
experienced  worshipers  of  God,"  and  with  the  congregation.  The 
whole  is  a  deistical,  ethical,  prosaic  patch-work ;  Christ  is  not  named 
in  it.  For  example : — 

Give  the  dark  nations  wholesome  light ; 
Make  every  doubter  see  ; 
Belief  by  force  continue  not, 
Nor  forced  hypocrisy. 

May  those  with  child  have  strength  from  thee, 
Their  children  strong  be  made  ; 
And  may  the  pain  of  bringing  forth, 
With  pleasure  be  repaid. 

May  youth  grow  up  with  worth  and  strength 
Beneath  thy  training  wise  ; 
And  give  to  all  the  wish  to  aid 
The  schools'  great  enterprise. 

*  Philanthropinist  Contributions,  p.  1,  &c. 


JOHANN  BERNHARI)  BASEDOW. 

Give  wisdom  to  all  friends  of  youth, 
And  tasks  not  too  severe  ; 
The  seed  we  sow  is  st.ill  despised, — 
The  harvest  is  not  here. 

The  second  divine  worship  held  at  the  examination  is  entitled  :  "A 
foundation  for  youth,  of  instruction  and  education,  in  faith  in  God, 
from  the  study  of  nature  and  a  sense  of  conscience,  with  the  help  of 
faith  and  the  example  of  adults."  Nothing  is  said  here,  either,  of 
Christianity ;  but  the  matter  is  a  stupid,  poetical  kind  of  prose,  mostly 
about  the  creation ;  for  example  :  "  Before  the  beginning  of  things 
whispered  no  soft  brook,  roared  no  falling  cataract."  And  the  liturgy 
says  :  "  Hear,  ye  children,  pleasant  teachings,  which  you  will  cer- 
tainly believe,  when  you  understand  them  and  consider  them." 

Lastly,  Basedow  gives  the  divine  service  held  on  the  third  day  of 
the  examination.  It  is  entitled,  "  Foundation  of  a  Christian  instruc- 
tion and  exercises  of  conscience  for  children,  with  the  help  of  their 
elders  ;"  and  begins  with,  "  We  all  believe  on  Jesus  Christ."  The 
former  line,  "  We  all  believe  in  one  God,"  is  considered  as  having 
been  disposed  of  in  the  previous  deistical  service.  The  whole  is 
orthodox,  and  agreeable  to  the  apostolical  confession  of  faith  ;  being 
universally  Christian,  it  appears  calculated  for  Catholics,  Greeks,  and 
Protestants,  for  all  who  believe  in  God  and  in  him  whom  he  has  sent ; 
even  for  Jews.* 

On  this  same  third  day  of  the  examination,  Basedow  delivered  an 
address,  whose  burden  was,  "  Support  the  institute  ! "  He  says : 
"  Fathers,  fathers  !  Mothers,  mothers  !  Have  patience  !  Give  a  part 
of  your  superfluous  manure  for  the  garden  where  our  happiness,  (that 
of  our  children  and  our  child rens'  children,)  is  planted  and  waited 
for.  Remember  the  defects  of  your  own  school  lives."  He  asks  over 
and  over  again  for  thirty  thousand  thalers,  and  uses  all  sorts  of  induce- 
ments to  give.  "  Whoever  gives  not  less  than  fifty  thalers,  but  not 
more  than  five  hundred,  shall  have  his  name,  with  a  number  showing 
how  many  times  fifty  thalers  he  has  given,  cut  in  capitals  in  the 
bark  of  a  young  tree,  in  a  grove  of  lindens,  consecrated  to  that  pur- 
pose." 

After  Basedow's  speech,  Simon  examined  the  children  in  French. 

He  explained  to  them  a  "  picture  of  Spring."  "  First,"  says  the  letter- 
writer,  "he  asked  them  one  and  another  question,  and  then  brought 
out  a  model  of  a  plough  and  of  a  harrow,  and  showed  them  every 
thing  belonging  to  the  plough,  and  how  the  farmer  uses  it  when  he 

*After  what  has  been  said  before  upon  Basedow's  religious  views,  we  might,  wonder  at 
this  orthodoxy.  But  in  this,  as  in  Latin,  he  knew  how  to  comply  with  the  times  De  Marges, 
well  known  for  his  Christian  character,  was  then,  as  superintendent,  at  the  head  of  vhe  church 
n  Dessau. 


JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW.  4^3 

ploughs.  Now  it  was  that  I  saw  what  it  was  to  learn  words  after 
Herr  Basedow's  methods.  I  never,  in  my  life,  knew  what  was  a  har- 
row in  French  ;  and  now,  while  Herr  Simon  was  showing  the  harrow, 
I  heard  it,  for  the  first  time,  called  la  herse,  and  now  I  know  that  I 
can  never  forget  it." 

Afterward  a  historical  examination,  upon  Alexander's  expedition 
to  India,  was  held  by  Mangelsdorf,  the  same  who  translated  the  "Ele- 
mentary Book  "  into  Latin.  Basedow  says  that  the  answers  were  very 
well  made ;  Fritz  says  that  Mangelsdorf  asked  his  questions  of  one 
scholar  especially.  This  scholar  was  one  of  the  four  who  translated 
a  passage  from  Curtius,  and  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  John 
from  Castellio's  Bible.  Basedow  repeated  the  passage  from  Curtius, 
by  periods,  and  each  of  the  four  "  translated  it  correctly  and  with 
facility.  And  none  of  them  had  heard  a  word  of  Latin  a  year  before, 
nor  during  that  year  had  they  ever  committed  one  word  to  memory, 
or  learned  any  thing  from  Donatus  or  the  grammar."  After  another 
year,  he  promised,  these  scholars  should  be  able  to  translate  into 
Latin,  from  any  German  book  which  they  could  understand,  orally  or 
in  writing,  "  with  grammatical  correctness,  and  not  bad  rhetoric."* 
"  The  spectators,"  says  Fritz,  "  were  much  pleased  with  the  Latin, 
all  except  one  couple,  whom  I  heard  reasoning  doubtfully  to  each 
other  by  themselves.  They  said  that  this  was  all  mere  childishness ; 
that  they  ought  to  bring  up  Cicero,  Livy,  Horace,  Virgil,  and  the  like ; 
and  that  then  only  it  would  be  seen  whether  the  Philanthropiniste 
understood  Latin." 

In  geography  and  natural  history,  no  examinations  were  made. 
Two  of  the  elder  Philanthropinists  demonstrated  the  Pythagorean 
theorem,  and  proved  a  trigonometrical  problem. 

After  the  examination  came  an  exhibition  of  two  plays,  by  the  child- 
dren  ;  one  in  French  and  the  other  in  German.  The  prince  took  the 
most  friendly  care  of  the  guests  who  came  to  Dessau  to  the  examin- 
ation, both  there  and  in  Worlitz  ;  so  that  most  of  the  strangers  went 
away  with  high  opinions  of  the  examination  itself,  of  Dessau,  and 
especially  of  the  beautiful  prince  and  princess.  Advantageous  ac- 
counts of  the  result  appeared,  soon  after,  in  the  "Deutsche  Merkur"  and 
in  the  "Allgemeine  Deutsche  Hibliothek.^ 

Among  those  who  declared  themselves  in  favor  of  the  Philanthro- 

*  Ib.,  p  J5.    The  younger  scholars  translated  from  the  "Colloquies  "  of  Erasmus. 

t  ID  the  "Merkur"  for  1776,  is  »he  report  of  Canon  Von  Rochow  Stroth,  of  Quedlinburg.  also 
wrote  upon  the  examination  :  Prof.  Eck,  of  Leipzig,  chaplain  Rambach.  of  Quedlinburg,  and 
others,  wrote  letters  to  Basedow  in  praise  of  it,  which  he  caused  to  be  printed  ("Philanthropi- 
num."  part  2d,  p  107;)  and  provost  Rbtger,  of  Magdeburg,  wrote,  also  on  the  same,  "Letter* 
vfan  Impartial  Cosmopolitan." 


474  JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW. 

pinum  was  Kant.    In  1777,  he  published,  in  the  "Konigsbery  Gazette? 
the  following  article  : — 

For  the  Common  Good. 

There  is  no  want,  in  the  civilized  countries  of  Europe,  of  educational  institutions, 
or  of  teachers,  ambitious  to  be  useful  in  their  calling ;  and  it  is  equally  clear,  that 
they  are  all,  taken  together,  spoilt,  by  the  fact  that  every  thing  in  them  operates 
against  nature,  and  thus  they  are  of  very  much  less  benefit  to  man  than  nature 
has  made  the  latter  capable  of;  and  it  is  clear  that,  inasmuch  as  by  education 
we  become  men,  from  brutish  creatures,  we  should  in  a  short  time  see  around  us 
men  of  an  entirely  different  character,  if  a  method  of  education  wisely  derived 
from  nature  herself  should  come  into  universal  use,  instead  of  one  slavishly  imi- 
tated from  the  custom  of  a  rude  and  ignorant  antiquity.  It  is  however  in  vain  to 
expect  this  benefit  to  the  human  race  from  a  gradual  impi'ovement  of  the  schools. 
They  must  be  revolutionized,  if  any  thing  good  is  to  be  derived  from  them  ;  for 
they  are  bad  in  their  fundamental  organization  ;  and  even  their  teachers  them- 
selves must  receive  a  new  training.  It  is  not  a  slow  reform,  but  a  quick  revolu- 
tion, which  can  accomplish  this.  To  this  end  nothing  is  wanting,  except  one 
single  school,  organized  anew  from  the  very  beginning,  strictly  upon  the  right 
method,  conducted  by  intelligent  men,  not  from  pecuniary  but  from  honorable 
motives,  watched  over  during  its  progress  to  completion  by  the  attentive  eyes  of 
men  of  experience  in  all  countries,  and  sustained  until  its  maturity  by  the  united 
contributions  of  all  the  benevolent.  Such  a  school  would  not  be-merely  for  those 
whom  it  would  instruct,  but — which  is  infinitely  more  important — for  those  to 
whom  it  would  give  an  opportunity  to  train  themselves,  in  gradually  increasing 
numbers,  for  teaching  upon  the  true  system  of  education.  It  would  be  a  seed, 
from  the  careful  protection  of  which,  in  a  short  time,  a  multitude  of  well-trained 
teachers  would  spring  up,  who  would  supply  the  whole  land  with  good  scholars. 
Interest  for  the  common  good  of  all  countries  should  first  be  directed  to  this  end  ; 
to  get  assistance  from  every  place  to  such  a  model  school,  that  it  may  quickly  at- 
tain that  entire  completeness,  the  sources  of  which  are  already  within  it.  For  to 
imitate  its  organization  in  other  countries  immediately,  and  to  keep  imperfect  and 
hindered  in  its  progress  toward  completion,  what  should  be  the  first  perfect  exam 
pie  and  seed-bed  of  good  instruction,  would  be  to  sow  unripe  seed,  in  order  to 
reap  weeds.  Such  an  educational  institution  is  no  longer  a  mere  idea ;  but  the 
actual  and  visible  demonstration  of  its  practicability,  which  has  been  so  long 
needed,  is  given.  Such  a  phenomenon,  in  our  times,  though  overlooked  by  com- 
mon eyes,  must  have  more  importance  to  observers  of  intelligence,  who  are  inter- 
ested in  the  good  of  humanity,  than  the  glittering  nothingness  which  appears  on 
the  rapidly  changing  stage  of  the  great  world  ;  by  which  the  good  of  the  human 
race,  if  not  absolutely  impeded,  is  not  one  hair's  breadth  promoted.  The  public 
designation,  and  especially  the  united  voice  of  upright  and  intelligent  men  of  ex- 
perience in  all  countries,  have  already  taught  the  readers  of  this  paper  to  recognize 
the  educational  institution  of  Dessau  (the  Philanthropinum,)  as  the  only  one 
which  bears  these  marks  of  excellence ;  of  which  it  is  not  one  of  the  least  that,  by 
the  plan  of  its  organization,  it  must  of  itself  naturally  throw  off  all  the  faults  which 
belong  to  its  beginning.  The  incessant  attacks  and  libels  which  have  appeared 
here  and  there,  are  such  general  marks  of  censor iousn ess,  and  of  the  old  custom 
of  defending  one's  self  with  one's  tongue,  that  the  indifference  of  this  sort  of 
people,  who  always  look  with  evil  eyes  at  whatever  shows  itself  good  and  noble, 
would  raise  a  suspicion  of  the  mediocrity  of  the  new  claimant  of  excellence.  An 
opportunity  is  now  given  to  afford  to  this  institution,  which  is  devoted  to  the  good 
of  humanity,  and  that  deserves  the  sympathy  of  all  men,  assistance,  which  will  be 
insignificant  to  each  person,  but  important  from  the  large  number.  If  the  inven- 
tion should  be  tasked  to  contrive  the  means  by  which  a  small  gift  should  do  the 
greatest,  most  lasting,  and  most  universal  good,  it  would  be  found  to  be  that  means 
by  which  the  seeds  of  good  are  planted  and  maintained,  so  that  they  may  grow 
and  strengthen  themselves  with  time.  According  to  this  idea,  and  to  the  high 
opinion  which  we  have  of  the  number  of  benevolent  persons  in  this  country,  we 
refer  to  the  21st  part  of  this  literary  and  political  gazette,  with  the  appendix  ; 
where  we  find  a  numerous  subscription,  from  men  of  standing  in  the  church  and 


JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW.  4^5 

in  schools,  and  especially  from  parents  to  whom  nothing  can  be  indifferent  whicn 
will  serve  for  the  better  education  of  their  children  ;  and  even  from  those  who, 
although  they  have  no  children  themselves,  have  heretofore,  as  children,  received 
education,  and  who  therefore  feel  the  obligation  to  contribute,  if  not  to  the  increase 
of  mankind,  at  least  to  the  improvement  of  their  education.  The  subscription  to 
the  monthly  journal  issued  by  the  Dessau  educational  institution,  entitled  "Peda- 
gogical Conversations,'1'1  is  two  reichsthalers  ten  groschen  of  our  money.  But 
as  it  is  impracticable  exactly  to  determine  the  number  of  issues,  and  as  thus  there 
might  be  a  further  payment  necessary  at  the  end  of  the  year,  it  would  perhaps  be 
best  (though  this  is  left  to  the  good  feelings  of  each  man,)  to  send  a  ducat  for  his 
subscription  ;  the  overplus  of  which,  if  he  demands  it,  shall  be  punctually  returned 
to  him.  The  institution  indulges  in  the  hope  that  there  are  many  liberal  per- 
sons in  all  countries,  who  will  gladly  seize  this  opportunity  to  make  the  small  free- 
will offering  of  this  surplus  over  the  subscription,  as  a  contribution  to  its  support, 
while  it  is  yet  near  being  completed,  but  has  not  received  in  time  the  help  which 
it  expected.  For  since,  as  Herr  O.  C.  R.  Biisching  says,  the  governments  of  the 
present  day  do  not  seem  to  have  any  money  for  the  improvement  of  schools,  it 
must,  unless  they  are  to  be  entirely  broken  up,  be  left  to  wealthy  private  persons, 
to  sustain,  by  generous  contributions,  these  so  universally-important  institutions. 

KANT. 

It  is  remarkable  that  Kant  conceived  as  great  hopes  from  the 
Philanthropinum  as  did  Fichte,  afterward,  from  Pestalozzi's  institu- 
tion;  and  both,  led  by  their  amiable  benevolence,  hoped  for  too  much. 
Kant  perceives  this  himself,  afterward,  as  appears  from  the  following 
passage,  from  his  work  "On pedagogy."  He  says:* 

It  was  imagined  that  experiments  in  education  were  not  necessary ;  and  that, 
whether  any  thing  in  it  was  good  or  bad,  could  be  judged  of  by  the  reason.  But 
this  was  a  great  mistake ;  experience  shows  very  often  that  results  are  pro- 
duced precisely  the  opposite  to  those  which  had  been  expected.  We  also  see 
from  experiment  that  one  generation  can  not  work  out  a  complete  plan  of  educa- 
tion. The  only  experimental  school  which  has  made  a  beginning  toward  break- 
ing the  path  was  the  Dessau  institution.  This  praise  must  be  given  to  it,  in 
spite  of  the  many  faults  which  may  be  charged  against  it ;  faults  which  belong  to 
all  conclusions  based  upon  such  undertakings;  and  which  make  new  experiments 
always  necessary.  It  was  the  only  school  in  which  the  teachers  had  the  liberty 
to  work  after  their  own  methods  and  plans,  and  where  they  stood  in  connection, 
not  only  with  each  other,  but  with  men  of  learning  throughout  all  Germany. 

In  the  first  part  of  the  "Pedagogical  Conversations"  is  found  also 
the  letter  of  "A  poor  country  clergyman  in  Alsace''  to  Simon,  a 
professor  in  the  Philanthropinum,  whose  teacher  the  clergyman  had 
been.  This  clergyman  was  no  other  than  the  excellent  Oberlin,  well 
known  to  all.  Here  is  his  letter  :f 

My  dear  Fritz  :  You  wish  to  be  loved  by  me  as  much  as  you  love  me  ?  Right ; 
lam  glad  to  have  you  say  so.  Judge  now  yourself  whether  I  love  you.  I  carry 
your  institution  in  my  heart.  Oh,  how  willingly  would  I  devote  myself  to  it ;  but 
God  requires  my  services  here.  How  earnestly  have  I  wished  to  be  present  in 
it,  if  only  for  a  few  months  or  even  a  few  weeks,  to  hear,  to  learn,  and  then  to 
go  back,  richer  than  before,  to  my  Steinthal,  and  finish  learning  by  myself!  But 
my  God  has  quite  forbid  me ;  for  nothing  but  my  wish  is  favorable  to  that  wish. 
I  have  already  been  kept  poor,  and  hard  pressed  ;  and  am  so  now  ;  even  to  ex- 
tremity. O,  if  we  had  money,  money  which  is  so  useless  in  many  hands !  So  I 
have  thought  a  thousand  times  since  I  have  known  of  the  institution  at  Dessau ; 
and  so  I  and  my  wife  had  to  think  again,  when  we  read  the  third  part  of  your 
"Archives."  We  thought  of  every  thing,  whether  we  had  not  some  thing 

*  Kant's  works,  Vol.  9,  p.  381.    Rosenkranz's  edition, 
t  Pedagogical  Conversations,  first  part,  pp  97-100 


476  JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEUO  . 

which  we  could  turn  into  money.  I  was  grieved,  for  I  knew  we  had  not.  Then 
my  wife  came  silently  into  my  study,  and  with  pleasure  in  her  eyes  brought  me  a 
pair  of  ear-rings,  with  the  request  that  I  would  send  them  to  the  Philanthropinum, 
or  their  value,  if  we  could  sell  them.  She  had  given  thirty  gulden  for  them,  ten 

or  twelve  years  before.     I  wrote  at  once  to  Herr ,  in  Strasburg,  but  without 

telling  him  the  name  of  the  giver.  Now  I  do  not  know,  my  dear  friend,  whether 
the  ear-rings,  or  the  money  paid  for  them,  will  accompany  this  letter.  You  can 
imagine  how  much  pleasure  I  take  in  these  ear-rings.  I  can  feel  no  regard  for  such 
idle  things,  which  cost  so  monstrous  a  sum  for  so  emaciated  a  purse.  God  gives 
me  bread  to-day,  and  has  promised  it  to  me  for  the  future.  My  friend,  besides 
God  and  ourselves,  no  one  knows  who  has  made  this  gift,  so  little  in  itself;  but 
the  secret  is  placed  fully  at  your  disposal.  I  do  not  know  what,  gift  could  have 
been  made  to  me,  so  agreeable  as  the  three  copies  of  the  ^Elementary  Book."  I 
hardly  know  myself;  for  I  had  been  looking  with  covetous  eyes  upon  those  who 
could  buy  them  ;  and  I  saw  no  shadow  of  hope  that  I  could  ever  buy  them  ;  for 
I  and  my  money-box  are  quite  empty.  I  try  to  make  this  excellent  book  known 
wherever  I  can  in  Strasburg.  My  friend,  I  can  speak  openly  with  you ;  so  many 
copies  frightened  me  and  my  wife.  And  I  could  hardly  restrain  myself;  and 
had  to  make  an  effort  to  keep  from  tears.  Thanks,  and  pleasure,  and  shame,  and 
sorrow  at  my  inability  to  make  a  return  to  the  institution  and  to  you,  were  too 
strong  for  me.  I  can  pay  you  for  them,  my  friend,  in  nothing  but  wishes,  ardent 
wishes  to  my  dear  God,  who  keeps  me  so  poor,  for  you  and  for  your  and  my  care, 
the  institution.  Yes,  my  friend,  I  hold  your  vocation  and  your  labor  enviable. 
May  God  strengthen,  bless,  and  encourage  you,  and — which  I  always  shall  for 
myself — give  you  a  more  tender  love  for  Jesus  and  for  the  children,  bought  with 
his  blood,  and  so  dear  to  him.  Adieu,  my  dear  friend,  and  all  my  friends.  I 
remain,  even  until  death,  and  anew  after  that,  your  sincere,  willing,  and  tender 
friend,  OBERLIN. 

Waldersbach  in  the  Steinthal,  on  the  borders  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  March 
16,  1777. 

In  1776,*  the  same  year  in  which  the  examination  was  held, 
Campe,  then  chaplain  at  Potsdam,  took  the  curatorship  of  the  Phil- 
anthropinum, but  left  it  in  the  following  year.  After  his  departure, 
Basedow  was  again  "  director  of  instruction,"  and  Wolke  vice-curator. 
Trapp,  from  Altona,  became  a  teacher,  but  was  appointed  professor  of 
pedagogy  in  Halle,  in  I778.f  Busse,  "candidate  in  pedagogy,"  and 
known  for  his  mathematical  text-books,  and  who  was  afterward  pro- 
fessor of  mathematics  in  the  mining  academy  at  Freiberg,  became  a 
teacher  in  1778. 

In  1778  there  were  thirty-three  boarders.  The  plan  of  instruction 
was  nearly  as  in  1776,  and  extracts  from  Cicero,  Terence,  &c.,  were 
read.  "At  the  last,  at  the  very  last,"  Basedow  directs  to  instruct  in 
the  principal  heads  of  grammar.  "A  very  wrong  method,  in  the 
opinion  of  most,"  says  he,  "  but  in  truth  the  method  of  nature  and  of 


*  Philanthr.  Archives,  part  3d.  In  the  same  year  Simon  and  Schweighauser  left  the  insti- 
tution. 

t  Trapp  received  this  invitation  by  the  means  of  the  Prussian  minister  for  schools,  Von 
Zedlitz,  who  was  strongly  in  favor  of  Basedow.  In  an  address  "On  patriotism  as  an  object 
of  education,"  Zedlitz  says,  "  The  cuts  of  Basedow's  ''•Elementary  Book  "  should  be  the  first 
manual  for  all  instructors."  They  were  to  be  a  picture-gallery,  by  means  of  which  children 
can  easily  and  clearly  be  taught  the  first  ideas  of  civil  employments. — "Pedagogical  Conversa- 
tion*," Vol.  1.  p  fi04 


JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW.  477 

German  exercises  were  written.  "  For  each  exercise,  the  author 
shall  receive  tickets  of  industry,  according  to  their  value ;  by  which 
he  can  earn  for  himself  golden  points  upon  the  white  table  of  merit."* 

Neuendorf,  afterward  rector  of  the  school  in  Dessau,  had  an 
especial  oversight  of  the  Philanthropinists,  whom,  upon  one  occasion, 
he  addressed  as  follows :  u  My  dear  children,  we  are  here  a  little 
republic,  of  which  each  one  of  us  is  a  free  member.  You  are  my 
young  friends,  and  I  am  your  older  and  more  experienced  friend." 
Trotzendorf  organized  his  school  as  a  republic,  but  declared  himself, 
not  the  older  friend  of  the  youths,  but  the  dictator  perpetuus.  Neuen- 
dorf, as  a  follower  of  Rousseau,  was  seeking  to  show  his  scholars  the 
necessity  of  laws  for  their  republic. 

Turning,  planing,  and  even  threshing,  were  among  the  branches  of 
instruction.! 

While  the  Philanthropinum  made,  many  friends,  it  did  not  want 
enemies.  One  of  them  published  a  romance,  "Spitzbart;  a  comico 
tragic  pedagogical  history  of  this  century.  Parturiunt  montes,  nasci- 
tur  ridiculus  mus,  1779."J;  This  book  had  much  success.  It  was 
directed  especially  against  Basedow.  In  the  third  volume  of  the 
"Pedagogical  Conversations'1'1  is  a  commentary  by  the  institution  upon 
"Spitzbart."  "Although  this  institute,"  it  says,  "  is  still  called  the 
Philanthropinum,  it  is  as  unlike  the  Philanthropinum  which  Basedow 
founded  and  would  have  carried  on,  not  as  a  hen  to  the  egg,  but  as 
the  hen  to  another  fowl.  If  charges  are  to  be  brought  against  Base- 
dow and  his  plans,  they  do  not  apply  to  us,  because  we  have  not 
adhered  to  all  of  them."  They  say,  again,  that  they  have  not  let 
Basedow's  work  go  to  destruction,  but  that  they  occupy  themselves 
no  longer  with  constructing  plans,  but  with  carrying  them  out. 

Criticism  had  had  a  good  effect,  at  all  events. 

As  will  have  been  concluded  from  what  has  been  said,  Basedow 
soon  left  the  institution,  and  even  got  into  a  quarrel  with  Wolke ;  it 
was  out  of  enmity  with  him  that  the  former  refused  to  have  any  part 
in  the  direction.  Wolke  was  now  director,  and  with  him  were  five 
professors.  In  1781,  Salzmann,  professor  and  clergyman  at  Erfurt, 
and  Olivier,  from  Lausanne,  became  teachers.  The  former  was  also 
chaplain;  and,  as  such,  published,  in  1783,  "Divine  services,  held  in 
the  chapel  of  the  Philanthropinum." 

*  In  1782  four  pupils  were  admitted  to  the  Order  of  Industry. 

t  See  appendix  for  full  order  of  exercises. 

J  The  same  professor  Schummel,  who  earlier,  while  a  teacher  in  the  girls'  school  at  Magde- 
burg, had  attended  the  examination  at  Dessau,  and  had  written  "Fritz's  Journey."  was  the  au- 
thor of  "Spilzbart;"  "A  satire,"  says  his  biographer,  Menzel,  upon  the  Philanthropinic 
scheme  of  education  which  he  had  previously  subscribed  to."  The  work  was  perhaps  Jhe 
result  of  a  reaction  from  his  first  excessive  valuation. 


473  JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW. 

In  1782,  Matthisson,  the  poet,  and  Spazier,  became  teachers  in  the 
Philanthropinum.  At  this  time  there  were  fifty-three  boarders,  from 
all  countries  of  Europe,  from  Riga  to  Lisbon. 

Salzmann  left  Dessau,  in  1784,  and,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Duke 
of  Gotha,  founded  his  well-known  institution  in  Schnepfenthal.* 

From  the  year  1778  Basedow  taught  privately  in  Dessau,  and  gave 
great  offense  by  many  vulgarities,  especially  by  drunkenness.  He 
got  into  very  violent  open  quarrels  with  Wolke,  and  even  into  a  law- 
suit, which  was  ended,  in  1783,  by  a  reconciliation.  He  again  wrote 
many  theological  treatises.  In  1785,  he  supervised  the  second  edition 
of  the  '•'Elementary  Book?  and  wrote  "On  the  method  of  teaching 
Latin  by  the  knowledge  of  things;"  and  also  upon  learning  to  read. 
In  1786,  he  published  "New  Assistant  for  Teaching  Reading,  for  the 
knowledge  of  God,  and  for  the  necessary  correctness  in  language ;  by 
Basedow,  and  a  society  laboring  for  enlightenment;"  and  also  "New 
Assistant  for  the  suitable  enlightenment  of  scholars  by  teachers  of  the 
middle  classes."  A  strange  title !  The  book  is  intended  to  contain 
lessons  in  virtue  and  the  principles  of  practical  wisdom.  From  the 
year  1785,  Basedow  was  accustomed  to  take  a  yearly  journey  to 
Magdeburg  for  a  few  months,  and  to  teach  there  in  a  family  school. 
While  there  on  his  third  trip,  in  July,  1790,  he  was  seized  with  a 
hemorrhage.  Feeling  that  his  end  was  near,  he  dictated  some  additions 
of  his  will,  took  an  affectionate  farewell  of  his  youngest  son,  and  died, 
in  the  full  possession  of  his  faculties,  on  the  25th  of  July,  aged  66 
years,  10  months,  and  14  days.  His  last  words  were  characteristic: 
"  I  desire  to  be  dissected  for  the  benefit  of  my  fellow-men."  He  was 
buried  in  the  church  of  the  congregation  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  He 
was  twice  married.  His  first  wife  died  in  Soroe;  with  the  second,  a 
Danish  woman,  he  lived  thirty-three  years,  until  her  death  in  1788. 
She  was  of  a  very  melancholy  disposition,  and  was  especially  affected 
by  the  excommunication  of  her  husband  in  Altona.  Emilie,  his 
daughter,  whom  we  have  so  often  mentioned,  married,  in  1789,  a 
clergyman  named  Cautius,  who  lived  near  Bernburg. 

Let  us  return  once  more  to  the  Philanthropinum. 

There  is  so  much  that  is  strange  and  remarkable  in  the  informa- 
tion which  I  have  given,  that  the  whole  seems  almost  a  pedagogical 
caricature.  Yet  it  would  be,  in  the  highest  degree,  unjust  to 

*  The  authentic  accounts  in  my  possession,  come  down  only  to  1784  ;  so  that  I  am  obliged 
to  break  off  at  that  point.  The  "Pedagogical  Conversations  "  ended  with  their  5th  year,  1784. 
In  1796,  at  the  age  of  thirteen.  I  came  to  Dessau,  and  there  saw  several  of  the  teachers  of  the 
Philanthropiuum  ;  Dutoit.  the  enthusiastic  follower  of  Rousseau,  BUSSP,  Wolke,  and  Neuen- 
dorf. I  was  especially  often  in  the  house  of  the  honest,  benevolent,  and  enthusiastic  Olivier 
of  whose  important  method  of  reading  1  shall  hereafter  speak. 


JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW.  479 

keep  in  the  back-ground  the  good  qualities  of  the  institution,  and  of 
its  managers. 

As  it  regards  the  teachers  in  the  Philanthropinum,  whatever  dif- 
ferences there  may  be  in  estimates  of  them,  we  must  recognize  with 
honor  their  honest  and  unselfish  purposes ;  and  even  for  that  of  Base- 
dow,  in  spite  of  his  shameless  begging  for  plans  which  his  brain, 
which,  says  Gothe,  would  not  let  him  rest  day  or  night,  incessantly 
brought  forth.  He  died  poor,  and  while  dying  requested  to  be  dis- 
sected for  the  benefit  of  his  fellow-men.  Even  his  boasting  habit  of 
promising  impossible  things,  and  even  asserting  them  to  have  been 
done,  at  the  Philanthropinum,  to  the  great  after  injury  of  the  institu- 
tion, may  well  be  ascribed  in  part  to  a  rude  enthusiasm  for  his  plans. 
Most  of  the  teachers  gave  themselves  to  their  work  with  self-sacrificing 
love,  and  with  their  whole  hearts.  With  what  unwearied  and  vivid 
activity  did  Wolke  labor !  Olivier,  to  his  death,  felt  a  youth's  enthusi- 
asm for  his  vocation  as  a  teacher ;  and  the  honest,  conscientious,  and 
persevering  activity  in  teaching,of  Salzmann  and  Campe,  is  well  known. 

Was  then  all  the  labor  of  these  men  in  vain,  and  even  more  than 
in  vain  ?  Certainly  not.  To  convince  ourselves  of  this,  however,  we 
must,  as  in  forming  our  estimate  of  the  character  of  Rousseau,  take 
into  consideration  the  character  of  the  pedagogy  of  that  time ;  not  as 
it  was  exhibited  in  the  single  cases  of  eminent  philologists,  but  as  it 
prevailed  upon  an  average  taken  through  most  of  the  schools.  The 
time  of  youth  was  then,  for  most  of  them,  a  very  miserable  time;  and 
Jie  instruction  was  hard  and  heartlessly  strict.  The  grammar  was 
whipped  into  their  memories,  as  were  also  texts  from  Scripture  and 
hymns.*  A  common  school  punishment  was  the  learning  by  rote  of 
the  119th  Psalm.  The  school  rooms  were  miserably  dark;  it  was  a 
wonder  that  the  children  could  work  with  pleasure  at  any  thing ;  and  no 
less  a  wonder  that  they  had  any  eyes  left  for  any  thing  besides  writ- 
ing and  reading.  The  godless  age  of  Louis  XIV  also  inflicted  upon 
the  poor  children  of  the  higher  ranks  hair  frizzled  with  powder  and 
smeared  with  pomade,  embroidered  coats,  knee-breeches,  silk  stock 

*  Pedagog.  Convers.,  Vol.  3,  p.  467.  In  this  place  is  the  following  item :  "  About  this  time 
died  Hauberle,  Collega  jubilaeus  at  a  village  in  Suabia.  During  the  51  years  7  months  of  his 
official  life,  he  had,  by  a  moderate  computation,  inflicted  91 1,527  blows  with  a  cane,  124,010 
blows  with  a  rod,  20,989  blows  and  raps  with  a  ruler,  136,715  blows  with  the  hand,  10.235 
blows  over  the  mouth,  7.905  boxes  on  the  ear,  1,115.800  raps  on  the  head,  ar.c.  22,763  notabenes 
with  the  Bible,  catechism,  singing-book,  and  grammar.  He  had  777  times  made  boys  kneel 
on  peas,  and  613  times  on  a  three-cornered  piece  of  wood ;  had  made  3001  wear  the  jackass, 
and  1707  hold  the  rod  up  ;  not  to  enumerate  various  more  unusual  punishments  which  he 
contrived  on  the  spur  of  the  occasion.  Of  the  blows  with  a  cane,  about  800,000  were  for  Latin 
words  ;  and  of  those  with  the  rod  76  000  were  for  texis  from  the  Bible  and  verses  from  the 
singing-book.  He  had  about  3.000  expressions  to  scold  with  ;  of  which  he  had  found  about 
two-thirds  ready-made  in  his  native  language,  and  the  rest  he  had  invented  himself." 


480 


JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW. 


ings,  a  sword  at  their  sides ;  all  of  which  was  the  severest  torture  for 
young  and  active  children.* 

Like  Kant,  F.  H.  Jacobi,  Euler,f  and  others,  conceived  at  first  great 
hopes  from  the  institution,  and  that  gained  great  reputation  and 
received  assistance,  in  and  from  all  parts  of  Europe.  The  unnatural- 
ness  of  much  that  was  usual  was  so  strongly  felt,  and  there  was  so 
strong  a  desire  after  freedom,  after  what  may  be  called  natural  in  the 
best  sense  of  the  word,  that,  as  Kant  says,  there  was  a  powerful  wish 
not  only  for  a  reformation,  but  for  a  revolution,  for  the  freedom  of 
youth. 

Rousseau's  oratorical  exhortations  had  caused  much  attention  to  be 
paid  to  the  more  intelligent  management  of  little  children ;  mothers 
nursed  them  themselves,  and  many  effeminate  habits  were  avoided. 

In  the  Philanthropinum,  the  same  principles  were  followed  in 
educating  boys ;  and  bodily  education  was  attended  to  in  a  manner 
which  had  never  been  any  where  seen  before.  J 

The  preposterous  and  painful  clothes  of  boys,  embroidered  coats, 
breeches,  curling,  and  hair-bags,  were  all  done  away  with.  It  may 
be  imagined  how  delightful  it  must  have  been  to  the  boys,  to  be  let 
out  of  their  tormenting  dress — coats,  breeches,  and  cravats — permitted 
to  wear  the  most  convenient  sailor's  jackets  and  pantaloons  of  striped 
blue  and  white  tick,  to  have  their  necks  free  and  their  collars  turned 
down,  §  to  be  quite  rid  of  the  smear  of  powder  and  pomade  in  their 
hair,  and  of  their  hair-bags.  A  report  of  the  institution  for  1779 
says,  "  If  parents  insist  upon  it  that  the  hair  of  their  children  shall  be 
daily  dressed  and  powdered  by  the  usual  barbers,  the  institution  can 
not  answer  for  the  purity  of  their  characters ;  for,  by  means  of  the 
barbers,  they  can  easily  establish  a  connection  with  immoral  persons, 
&c."  This  appeal  was  efficient. 

Care  was  taken  that  the  body  should  be  disciplined  and  hardened. 

*  Most  ofthe  children  can  be  judged  of  by  the  cuts  in  the  "Elementary  Book."  Of  the  influence 
of  the  unnatural  French  manners  upon  the  German  girls,  Gothe  has  given  a  vivid  representa- 
tion in  a  scene  ofthe  earlier  edition  of"ErwinandElmire."  See  his  works,  first  edition,  Vol. 
34,  p.  211. 

t  This  great  mathematician  was  the  author  of  the  favorable  testimony  which  the  Academy 
of  St.  Petersburg  published,  upon  Basedow  and  the  Philanthropinum,  in  1775  Basedow  had 
sent  his  book,  "The.  Philanthropinum,"  to  St.  Petersburg.  They  say,  "The  academy  con- 
siders this  work  worthy  of  its  praises.  It  applauds  in  particular  the  cordial  zeal  with  which 
the  author  is  penetrated  for  the  good  ofthe  human  family ;  and,  as  the  plan  of  education  and 
the  method  of  instruction  for  the  young,  which  is  therein  proposed,  is  in  several  respects 
preferable  to  those  which  have  been  followed  hitherto,  the  academy  has  no  doubt  that  if  it 
shall  be  carried  into  execution,  and  imitated  by  other  institutions,  there  will  result  a  material 
ndvantage  to  the  public." 

1  What  had  been  begun  in  the  Philanihropinum  was  carried  further  by  Gutsmuths,  in  the 
Salzmann  institution,  at  Schnepfenthal.  Gutsmuths  indeed  shows  himself,  in  his  gymnastics, 
the  lorerunner  of  Jahn. 

§  This  wag  the  custom  of  the  children  under  the  care  of  Olivier,  when  I  saw  them  in  17% 


JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW.  481 

The  boys  learned  carpentering  and  turning,  wrestled  in  the  open  air, 
ran  foot-races,  &c.  As  the  instruction  proceeded  as  much  as  possible 
from  actual  seeing,  the  training  of  the  eyes  was  not  neglected. 

Here  also  should  be  mentioned  the  fact  that  the  Philanthropinum, 
and  the  teachers  who  adhered  to  its  principles,  made  special  efforts 
for  the  prevention  of  certain  frightful  secret  practices. 

As  to  instruction,  the  teachers  of  the  Philanthropinum  did  many 
great  services  to  it. 

It  was  one  of  their  favorite  principles,  that  the  scholars  should  learn 
with  love  and  not  with  repugnance.  In  this  they  were  certainly 
right,  although  they  made  many  mistakes  in  their  method  of  inspiring 
this  love  of  learning.  They  severely  blamed  the  unloving  indifference 
of  so  many  teachers  toward  their  pupils,  and  toward  their  pleasure  or 
displeasure  in  learning.  That  teacher  will  accomplish  most,  whose 
work  is  adapted  at  once  to  the  growing  natural  gifts  of  his  scholars, 
and  to  their  weak  conscientiousness.  To  have  regard  only  to  the 
natural  gifts  of  the  children  leads  to  a  servile  following  of  them ;  to 
make  demands  upon  their  conscientiousness  only,  and  to  overlook 
and  neglect  their  individual  endowments,  leads  to  the  tyrannical  prac- 
tice of  requiring  every  thing  from  all  alike.  In  the  first  of  these 
cases,  the  wills  of  the  children  are  left  to  themselves,  and  they  are 
treated  only  as  personified  powers,  vegetating  and  developing  them- 
selves ;  which  the  teacher  must  follow  only,  and  to  which  he  must 
subject  himself  entirely.  In  the  second  case,  on  the  other  hand,  they 
are  regarded  as  personified  wills,  and  they  are  required  to  will  and  to 
do  all  things,  even  the  impossible ;  as  if  one  should  require  a  blind 
man  to  become  a  painter  by  the  power  of  his  will.  In  the  Philan- 
thropinum, the  ethical  element  was  comparatively  neglected;  the 
pleasure  and  wishes  of  the  children  was  too  much  consulted,  and  their 
conscience  and  wills  too  little  called  into  activity ;  even  a  wrong  vanity 
was  put  in  requisition.*  This  may  well  have  happened  in  opposition 
to  the  already  mentioned  caricaturized  character  of  the  ancient  peda- 
gogy, and  its  extreme  severity,  which  commanded  and  set  lessons 
recklessly,  in  reliance  upon  punishment,  had  reference  neither  to  the 
pleasure  nor  the  consciences  of  the  children,  and  would  carry  all 
things  through  by  fear. 

I  now  proceed  to  consider  the  method  followed  in  the  Philanthro- 
pinum in  giving  instruction  on  different  subjects. 

In  teaching  language,  Comenius  was  followed  in  this  respect,  t'  - 

•  In  the  fourth  collection  of  "Worshiping  Exercises,  holden  in  the  chapel  of  the  Philant!    •- 
pinum,"  the  exercises  are  given,  with  which  seven  pupils  were  admitted  to  the  Order  01 
dustrv. 


432  JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW. 

the  teaching  of  words  of  foreign  languages  was  as  much  as  possible 
united  with  the  inspection  of  the  things  designated  by  his  words. 
At  the  examination  in  French,  the  teacher  showed  the  picture  of  a 
harrow  and  called  it  herse.  The  word  was  to  be  impressed  upon  the 
memory  by  seeing,  and  the  sight  by  the  memory.  The  "Elementary 
Book,"  like  the  "  Orbis  Pictus "  before  it,  aimed  at  such  a  united 
knowledge  of  things  and  their  names,  in  different  languages. 

A  second  distinction  between  the  instruction  in  languages  at  the 
Philanthropinum  and  that  elsewhere  was  this,  that  foreign  languages 
were  taught,  first  by  speaking  them,  and  next  by  reading.  The  gram- 
mar, which  in  other  schools  was  always  made  the  beginning,  was  not 
brought  in  until  a  late  period.  But  this  is  not  entirely  new.  In  this 
way,  as  we  have  seen,  Montaigne  learned  Latin ;  Ratich  placed  the 
reading  of  Terence  before  the  grammar ;  and  Locke's  principles  were 
similar.  Basedow  and  Wolke,  however,  were  accustomed  to  cite, 
principally,  various  places  in  Gesner's  "Isagogef  in  one  of  which  it 
is  said,  that  it  is  a  hundred  times  easier  to  teach  a  language  by  use 
and  practice,  without  grammar,  than  it  is  to  teach  it  by  grammar, 
without  use  and  practice. 

To  avoid  repetition,  I  omit  here  the  full  discussion  of  this  pedagogi- 
cal controversy ;  I  shall  hereafter  have  occasion  to  take  it  up  in  my 
account  of  the  Hamiltonian  method.  I  will  only  remark  that,  so  far 
as  I  know,  no  philologist  of  eminence  proceeded  from  the  Philanthro- 
pinum. This  is  the  less  to  be  wondered  at,  since  Basedow  himself 
must  have  been  entirely  destitute  of  all  susceptibility  to  the  grandeur 
and  beauty  of  the  ancient  classics ;  and,  by  his  own  confession,  studied 
the  dead  languages  industriously  himself,  and  caused  them  to  be  dili- 
gently studied  by  others,  only  because  otherwise  the  Philanthropinum 
could  not  be  kept  in  existence. 

The  instruction  in  arithmetic  seems  to  have  been  very  good ;  at 
least  the  manuals  of  Busse,  the  professor  of  mathematics,  have  had 
much  reputation.  In  geometry,  the  views  of  Rousseau  appear  to 
have  been  followed  ;  who,  as  we  have  seen,  insisted  much  upon  draw- 
ing the  geometrical  figures  as  neatly  and  accurately  as  possible.  This 
was  entirely  correct.  Nowhere  is  the  imposing  principle  of  "  Spirit- 
ualism" less  appropriate,  than  in  the  instruction  of  youth.  This 
spiritualism  despises  the  form,  and  immediately  requires  the  idea ; 
whereas  the  young  need  the  best  and  truest  representations,  as  being 
the  symbols  of  the  clearest  and  truest  ideas. 

I  possess  a  collection  of  geometrical  drawings  on  pasteboard,  which 
were  used  for  instruction  in  the  Philanthropinum.  In  these,  nothing 
is  omitted  which  can  make  the  representation  more  correct,  or  the 


JOI1ANN  BERNHARD  BASE  DOW.  433 

demonstration  more  easy.  Even  painting,  in  the  names  of  the  sepa- 
rate parts  of  the  figures,  is  employed ;  and  some  of  the  triangles  can 
even  be  taken  out  of  their  places,  to  show  how  they  may  be  placed 
upon  other  triangles.  The  great  Euclid  certainly  would  not  have 
used  the  word  "cover,"  unless  he  had  actually  laid  one  figure  upon 
the  other. 

Upon  the  instruction  in  geography,  natural  history,  and  physics, 
we  may  give  some  particulars  from  the  "Elementary  Book"  The  geo- 
graphical instruction  is  arranged  in  two  courses,  but  offers  nothing 
special.  But  the  strange  political  and  religious  remarks  of  the  au- 
thor, repulsive  to  men,  and  wholly  unintelligible  to  children,  are 
worthy  of  attention.  Of  the  method  of  procedure,  he  says,  ult  is  a 
practical  method  to  begin  with  a  sketch  of  a  room,  a  house,  a  town, 
and  a  well-known  neighborhood ;  and  then  to  go  on  to  the  map  of  a 
country,  and  so  on  to  a  continent."  This  is  after  Comenius,  and 
Rousseau ;  but  I  do  not  know  whether  this  method  was  actually  fol- 
lowed. 

To  the  geography,  in  the  "Elementary  Book"  is  subjoined  a  some 
what  confused  universal  history,  which  is  mingled  with  all  manner 
of  inappropriate  observations ;  and  this  is  followed  by  portions  of 
mythology,  narrated  in  the  most  vulgar  and  disgusting  manner. 

The  natural  history,  in  the  "Elementary  Book"  contains  one  thing 
and  another  from  the  three  kingdoms ;  and  rather  more  from  physics 
and  astronomy.  The  structure  of  the  human-body  is  also  considered. 
Many  absurdities  are  attributable  to  the  condition  of  natural  science 
at  that  day.  There  is  also  a  technology,  containing  a  description  of 
the  most  common  trades  and  arts. 

All  these  things  were  subjects  of  instruction  at  the  Philanthropi- 
num,  where  the  "Elementary  Book"  indeed,  was  in  its  proper  place. 
The  numerous  representatives  from  nature  and  art,  which  were  placed 
before  the  children,  like  pictures  passed  before  them  in  a  magic  lan- 
tern, must  have  been  a  great  diverson  to  them ;  but  how  wearisome, 
on  the  other  hand,  must  have  been  the  homilies  which  they  had  to 
endure  on  morals,  politics,  and  religion !  Basedow  had  not  bestowed 
any  thought  upon  the  questions,  what  was  appropriate  for  boys  in  this 
country ;  what  stimulates  them ;  what  they  can  understand ;  what 
appeals  to  their  hearts?  Not  less  than  sixty-one  pages,  in  the  "Ele- 
mentary Book?  are  occupied  with  "  Fundamental  Ideas  of  Politics," 
which  tell  about  a  certain  Democratus,  who  lived  in  the  country  of 
Universalia ;  of  a  great  Count  Aristocratus ;  of  actionable  injuries,  &c. 

Religion  is  the  foundation  of  education  ;  upon  the  solidity  of  this 
foundation  depends  the  excellence  of  the  whole  building.  Basedow's 


484  JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW. 

house  was  built  upon  the  sand ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  beautifu 
execution  of  some  of  its  parts,  it  was,  therefore,  uncomfortable  and 
insecure.  What  we  find  on  this  subject,  in  the  "Elementary  Book" 
and  in  the  other  writings,  which  have  proceeded  from  the  Philan- 
thropinum,  go  beyond  any  thing  hitherto  referred  to.  We  expect  to 
find  in  them  only  a  tiresome  rationalism ;  and  it  is  with  wonder  that 
we  discover  more.  I  shall  cite  a  few  examples. 

Wolke  quoted,  with  approval,*  some  remarks  of  a  third  person, 
which  begin  thus:  "To-day  I  revealed  to  Fritz  the  existence  of  a 
God.  For  a  long  time,  I  have  been  preparing  him  for  this  import- 
ant occasion  ;  especially  by  carefully  directing  his  attention  to  every 
thing  in  nature,  and  leading  him  to  guess  at  causes  wherever  hft 
noticed  results."  The  narrator  had  not  taken  the  boy  out  of  the 
village  for  four  days,  that  on  the  fifth  he  might  be  more  impressible 
and  attentive,  when  God  should  then,  for  the  first  time,  be  named  to 
him  as  the  creator  of  the  sun,  <fec.  Here  Wolke  adds  this  observa- 
tion :  "One  who  desires  to  make  the  impressions  of  such  an  occasion 
still  deeper,  and  to  raise  still  higher  the  pleasure  felt  at  the  beauty 
of  nature,  and  in  its  creator,  must  stay  at  home  for  a  still  longer  time, 
with  his  pupil,  in  a  room  whose  windows  are  shut  close,  day  and 
night,  and  which  is  lighted  only  by  a  feeble  lamp.  But  the  pupil 
must  know  nothing  of  the  design,  and  during  this  last  day  must  be 
kept  busily  and  pleasantly  occupied."  The  Fritz  of  this  account 
had,  up  to  the  appointed  day,  never  heard  the  name  of  God ;  or,  at 
least,  ought  not  to  have  heard  it ;  and  is  first  made  acquainted  with 
prayer,  after  this  day  of  revelation ;  having  before  been  taught  to 
thank  his  father  or  guardian  only,  after  meals,  for  his  food  and  drink. 

Something  of  the  same  kind  is  found  in  the  "Elementary  Book"\ 
In  this  the  passage  from  "younger  childhood"  to  "elder  childhood" 
is  thus  described : — 

The  parents  issue  preparatory  orders,  relating  to  the  change,  as  well  in  the  re- 
lations of  the  child  as  of  the  deportment  of  others  toward  him  ;  and  in  relation 
to  the  festivities  of  the  day.  These  are  previously  explained  to  the  child,  a  part 
at  a  time,  and  he  is  practiced,  by  preparatory  exercises,  in  the  behavior  proper  for 
so  great  and  honorable  an  occasion,  also  with  the  admonition,  that  too  childish 
conduct  may  cause  a  postponement  of  the  day  selected.  The  day  comes.  He 
rises,  once  more,  as  a  little  child.  A  few  of  his  mother's  friends  come  in,  with 
pleasure,  to  assist  in  putting  on  his  new  clothes.  An  uncommonly  good  break- 
last  is  provided.  All  his  old  toys,  &c.,  are  collected  and  thrown  away,  and  his 
new  ones  brought  out,  together  with  his  clothes.  The  child  is  congratulated  upon 
having  advanced  to  this  period.  He  is  taken  up  into  a  church,  and  is  taught 
what  is  the  purpose  of  the  assemblies,  which  meet  there ;  but  not  yet  in  the  pe- 
culiarities of  his  national  religion.  They  return  home.  The  father  offers  a  short 
prayer  for  his  child ;  and  a  pair  of  good  singers  sing  an  appropriate  stanza.  Af- 
ter a  few  questions  by  the  parents,  and  answers  by  the  child,  the  rod  is  burned  in 
the  fire.  Now,  for  the  first  time,  the  child  prays,  kneeling,  and  after  a  form.  The 

*  Pedagogical  Conversations,  3d  vol.,  p.  146.        t  Part  1,  pp  87-90. 


JOHANN  BERN1I ARD  BASEDOW. 


486 


father  prays  again,  with  a  hand,  for  benediction,  upon  his  child's  head..  The 
singing  of  a  final  stanza  concludes  the  more  serious  part  of  the  solemnity.  AL 
go  into  the  house,  and  some  guests,  with  their  children,  offer  their  congratulations 
upon  the  change.  After  this,  until  8  o'clock  in  the  evening,  the  company  of 
children  are  entertained,  and  made  to  enjoy  themselves,  after  their  fashion,  but 
with  such  games  as  are  agreeable  to  others,  and  not  too  noisy ;  as  any  other 
would  not  be  suitable  to  the  solemnity  of  the  day.  At  evening,  the  mother 
prays,  with  her  hand,  for  benediction,  upon  the  child's  head.  Next  day,  the 
tutor  prays  for  the  child,  and  over  him,  and  gives  him,  in  the  name  of  his  parents, 
a  beautiful  set  of  tablets,  bound  in  red,  and  whose  vignette  represents  a  whole 
company  of  children,  following  their  teacher  in  prayer.  During  the  day  of  this 
festivity,  at  each  item  of  the  arrangements,  its  reason  is  explained  to  him.  For 
example,  the  reddish  binding  is  for  a  reminder  of  modest  sincerity,  in  which,  for 
one  occasion  and  another,  children  should  be  trained,  even  at  so  early  an  age,  etc., 
etc.  In  this  manner  does  the  little  child  become  an  older  child. 

What  was  Basedow's  ideal  of  divine  worship  will  appear  from  the 
following : — 

For  the  weekly,  and  other  less  extraordinary  solemnities  of  the  family,  a  cham- 
ber should,  if  circumstances  permit,  be  consecrated  ;  that  is,  set  apart  for  this  sole 
use.  Each  object  in  it  is  instructive  and  significant  to  this  end  ;  for  example,  the 
ceiling  signifies  heaven,  or  the  elevated  happiness  of  the  virtuous  after  death,  and 
is  so  finished  as  to  inculcate  this  idea.  The  chief  color  of  the  walls  is  striped  with 
black  stripes,  to  represent  the  preponderance  of  good  over  evil,  in  this  life.  The 
middle  of  the  carpet  has  the  figure  of  a  coffin,  for  the  sake  of  increasing  wisdom, 
by  reminding  men  of  death.  In  the  highest  place,  behind  the  speaker's  seat,  is  a 
box,  in  which  is  kept  the  book  of  God's  laws  and  promises.  The  cover  of  the 
box  has  a  mirror  in  it,  to  indicate  the  necessity  of  self-examination,  according  to 
God's  law.  At  the  sides  of  this  box  burn  two  wax  candles,  to  signify  the  two 
methods  of  acquiring  religious  knowledge,  by  the  instruction  of  others  and  by  our 
own  insight.  Over  the  box,  on  the  wall,  are  represented,  in  statues,  pictures,  or 
words,  the  four  cardinal  virtues;  prudence,  moderation,  justice,  and  benevolence. 
These  means  of  instruction  are  to  be  employed  at  the  beginning  of  every  service, 
with  the  help  of  certain  words,  and  gestures,  and  of  the  liturgy.  All  who  enter 
this  chamber  must  be  cleanly  clad ;  and  no  one  in  it  must  turn  his  back  to  the  box.* 

After  a  variety  of  other  particulars,  he  adds :  "For  setting  forth  a 
domestic  liturgy  and  ceremonial,  a  whole  book  would  be  required. 
True,  many  would  think  ill  of  the  purpose  of  such  a  work  ;  would 
laugh  at  it,  and  revile  it.  Let  them  do  so.  Even  for  its  own  ad- 
vantage, posterity  has  decided  in  favor  of  the  Copernican  system." 
Compare  these  fantasies  with  Luther's  homely  directions  for  the 
father's  devotions  with  his  family  !  Basedow,  as  a  follower  of  Rous- 
seau, seems  to  have  been  led  into  these  singular  details  by  one  remark 
in  "Emile."  This  is,  "  We  depend  too  much  upon  the  unassisted  rea- 
son ;  as  if  men  were  minds  only.  In  neglecting  the  language  of  sym- 
ools,  which  speaks  to  the  imagination,  we  neglect  the  most  impress- 
ive part  of  language.  The  impression  of  words  is  always  feeble; 
and  the  heart  is  better  addressed  through  the  eye  than  through  the 
ear." 

To  the  strange  rhetoric  of  Basedow's  incoherent  religious  addresses 
are  subjoined  hymns  of  a  very  appropriate  character.  For  a  speci- 

*  Same,  part  2,  pp.  110,  111,  113.    But  this  worship  is  described  only   in    Basedow's 
"Alethtnie."    It  reminds  us  much  of  "Wilhelm  Meister." 


486  JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW. 

men,  I  give  the  following,  from  a  collection  entitled  "The  whole  of 
natural  religion  in  hymns."* 

No  mortal  being  Knew  me  yet, 

Within  my  mother's  womb ! 
Not  even  herself!     She  but  believed 

I  was  a  human  child  ! 

There  lay  I,  all  prepared,  I ! 

With  soul  and  flesh,  all  I ! 
I,  now  a  child,  and  soon  a  man, 

Prepared  completely  there  ! 

Thus,  then  was  I  prepared,  I ! 

Not  by  my  parents'  plan  ! 
But  he  who  shaped  me  to  his  rnind, 

He  was  my  God,  my  God ! 

'T  is  God  who  shapes  the  milk-soft  form 

From  out  of  drink  and  food  ; 
Who  changes  these,  and  makes  them  blood; 

And  sends  the  blood  around. 

The  body  uses  what  it  needs, 

And  what  would  harm,  rejects  ! 
By  lungs,  and  by  magnetic  skin — 

Thus  works,  thus  works  my  God  ! 

Thou,  God,  of  father  hast  no  need 

To  make  the  human  form. 
No  generation,  and  no  birth, 

My  primal  father  had. 

The  wind  thou  leadest  on  its  way, 

Teachest  the  air  to  move. 
That  one  may  speak,  another  hear, 

And  both  may  understand. 

In  thinner,  or  in  thicker  air, 

No  sound  nor  life  could  be! 
Father  of  life,  thou  causest  it 

In  measure  just  to  stay  ! 

In  the  place  of  a  Christian,  renewing  faith,  enlivening  for  time  and 
eternity,  was  thus  constructed  a  human,  superficial,  lifeless,  and  ab- 
surd patchwork  of  natural  religion.  From  such  a  barren  seed  could 
never  grow  a  plant  to  bear  fruit,  both  in  time  and  eternity. 

From  the  Dessau  Philanthropinum  a  great  pedagogical  excitement 
and  agitation  spread  over  Germany  and  Switzerland,  and,  indeed, 
over  a  great  part  of  Europe.  This  is  evident,  both  from  the  list  of 
the  patrons  of  Basedow's  "Elementary  Book,"  and  from  the  fact  that 
boys  were  sent  to  his  school  from  all  quarters,  from  Riga  to  Lisbon. 

Educational  institutions,  on  the  model  of  the  Philanthropinum, 
arose  in  all  quarters.  Ulysses  von  Salis  first  established  one,  in  1775, 
at  Marschlins,  in  Switzerland.  He  selected  for  its  principal  the  well- 
known  Dr.  Bahrdt,  who  had  been  professor  of  theology  at  Giessen, 
but  was  about  being  sent  away  for  his  heterodoxy.  Salis  and  Bahrdt, 

*  The  original  is  not  rhymed.    (Translator.) 


JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW.  43*7 

however,  had  a  disagreement  within  a  year,  and  the  latter  accepted 
an  appointment  from  Count  von  Leiningen,  as  superintendent  at  Durk- 
heim.  The  count,  at  the  same  time,  gave  him  the  occupation  of 
Castle  Heidenheira,  for  the  erection  of  a  philanthropinist  institute. 
But  this  feeble  institution  expired  after  three  years,  (in  1779,)  Bahrdt 
being  deposed  by  the  royal  council  for  theological  error.  By  the  as- 
sistance of  Teller,  however,  he  found  an  appointment  at  Halle,  under 
the  protection  of  the  minister,  Zedlitz. 

Campe  founded  a  third  institution,  in  Hamburg,  after  leaving  Des- 
sau. This  he  left,  in  1783,  to  the  care  of  Trapp,  who,  however,  seems 
to  have,  let  it  quite  perish,  for  he  went  to  Wolfenbtittel,  in  1786. 
Salzmann's  Institute,  founded  in  1784,  existed  longest,  and  still  exists. 
Among  the  teachers  and  pupils  of  this  institution,  have  been  such 
men  as  Gutsmuths  and  Karl  Ritter. 

The  Philanthropinists  exerted  an  influence,  not  only  through  these 
institutions,  but  through  a  multitude  of  authors,  for  young  and  old,  who 
swarmed  all  over  Germany.  At  the  head  of  the  teachers  who  wrote, 
stands  Campe.  The  most  successful  of  his  writings  was  "The  Swiss 
Family  Robinson"  (Robinson  der  Jungere.)  He  seems  to  have  been 
induced  to  write  this  by  Rousseau's  strong  recommendation  of  the 
'''•Robinson  Crusoe"  of  Defoe,  as  a  book  for  children.  But  Campe's 
Robinson  is  far  below  its  original,  and  is  much  weakened  and  diluted, 
by  the  sapient  observations  of  the  children,  and  weak  and  silly  preach- 
ments about  morals  and  usefulness.  Campe's  books  on  travels  also 
had  much  success,  especially  that  upon  the  discovery  of  America ; 
although  even  this  truly  poetical  material  was  injured  by  tiresome 
disquisitions,  doubly  tiresome  for  children.  Campe's  purely  ethical 
writings  for  children,  like  his  "  Theopkron,  or  the  Experienced  Coun- 
selor of  Youth"  must  have  been  unendurable  to  a  sprightly  boy. 
"As  soon  as  Campe's  Robinson  came  into  the  hands  of  all  children, 
of  the  educated  classes,  the  biblical  histories  disappeared.  In  conse- 
quence, there  came  up,  besides  the  practical  prose  of  our  youthful  re- 
lations, a  theoretical  element  of  them.  There  grew  up  a  generation 
of  youth,  who  regarded  nothing  but  what  was  material,  domestic,  or 
of  immediate  use  in  the  external  relations  of  life  ;  and  full  of  childish 
pertness."*  When  the  poisonous  wind  of  the  desert  blows,  all  the 
fresh,  green,  tender  plants,  quickly  fail  and  wither.  But  many  chil- 
dren escaped  the  fatal  effects  of  the  pedagogical  Simoom,  which,  at 
that  time,  blew  from  France  over  Germany. 

Among  Campe's  works  for  teachers,  his  collection  of  writings  on 

*  Schlosser,  ("History  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  3,  2,  163,)  in  his  excellent  character  of 
Campe.  My  own  vivid  recollection  of  the  effect  upon  myself,  when  a  boy,  of  these  juvenile 
hooks,  fully  coincides  with  his  remarks  upon  them. 


488  JOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW. 

the  whole  subject  of  schools  and  education  must  be  placed  first.  He 
was  assisted  in  this  undertaking  by  educators  and  instructors  of  like 
views  with  himself,  Resewitz,  Elers,  Trapp,  &c.  This  includes  trans- 
lations of  Locke's  "Thoughts  on  Education''  and  Rousseau's  "JSmile  ;n 
and  it  deals  with  the  most  important  pedagogical  problems ;  especially 
those  upon  which  the  old  and  new  schools  in  education  are  at  va- 
riance. 

After  Carnpe,  Salzmann  was  the  most  influential  of  this  class  of 
pedagogical  writers. 

Their  restless  activity  gave  the  Philanthropinists  great  influence 
upon  the  educational  systems  of  Germany.  They  attacked  in  all  ways 
the  old  schools ;  who,  on  their  part,  sheltered  themselves  behind  re- 
ceived principles,  and  often  made  successful  attacks  upon  the  many 
weak  points  exposed  by  the  assailing  Reformers. 

Notwithstanding  this  hostile  attitude,  however,  the  old  schools 
could  not  wholly  avoid  the  influence  of  the  Philanthropinists.  Some 
rectors  of  gymnasia  even  passed  over  to  the  ranks  of  their  oppo- 
nents; as  Gedike,  rector  of  the  Gray  Friars'  Gymnasium,  at  Berlin. 
In  an  ode*  to  Basedow  he  says : — 

Thou  North- Albion's  son,  lighted  the  sparkling  torch, 

Flung'st  it  aloft  with  a  Hercules'  mighty  arm — 
Many  ran  toward  thee,  kindled  their  lights  from  thine, 
Brighter  and  brighter  the  light  of  the  torches  shone, 
Till  the  very  snorers  rose, 
Rubbing  their  sleepy,  blinking  eyes. 

Gedike  also  assisted  in  Campe's  collection  of  educational  writing. 
Being  a  man  naturally  inclined  to  the  older  schools,  a  legitimist,  he 
would  have  been  doubly  welcome  to  the  Philanthropinists,  could  he 
have  been  ranked  as  an  able  philologist  even  by  the  humanists.  He 
was,  .moreover,  much  too  rough  as  a  teacher. 

Far  above  him,  though  a  cotemporary,  stands  Meierotto,  the  able 
rector  of  the  Joachimsthal  Gymnasium,  at  Berlin.  His  brethren 
called  him  the  Frederic  the  Great  of  the  rectors.  He  never  wrote 
any  odes  to  Basedow,  but  was  indefatigable  in  his  efforts  to  secure  in- 
struction in  drawing  in  his  gymnasium,  a  cabinet  of  natural  objects 
collected  there,  an  area  with  apparatus  for  gymnastic  exercises ;  and 
thus  proved  himself  an  honorably  sincere  and  earnest  educator,  and 
intelligently  accquainted  with  the  new  pedagogy. 

The  isolated,  independent  labors  of  the  Philanthropinists  grew 
weaker  and  weaker  toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  ;f  and, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth,  a  new  epoch  of  reform  com- 
menced with  the  establishment  of  the  Pestalozzian  institution  at 

*  Not  rhymed.     ( Translator. ) 

t  Only  Salzmann's  institution,  at  Schuepfenthal,  as  we  have  seen,  outlasted  the  century 


IOHANN  BERNHARD  BASEDOW.  439 

Burgdorf,  and  the  substitution  of  the  too  theoretical  Pestalozzians  it? 
the  place  of  the  too  practical  Philanthropinists. 

In  the  educational  institutions  and  writings  of  the  followers  o 
Basedow  are  found  only  imitations,  or,  at  the  most,  variations  of  wha 
was  practiced  and  written  in  the  Philanthropinum ;  and,   in  fact,  in 
that  institution  itself,  only  imitations  and  variations  upon  the  themes 
of  Rousseau's  "Emile" 

We  shall  now  leave  the  consideration  of  the  philanthropist  schools 
proper ;  but  it  will  still  be  of  the  utmost  interest  to  trace  the  influ- 
ence of  Rousseau's  thoughts,  and  of  Basedow's  realization  of  them, 
upon  other  eminent  Germans,  whether  belonging  to  the  old  or  the 
new  school,  or  seeking  to  harmonize  the  two.  We  shall,  at, the  same 
time,  see  what  peculiar  educational  thoughts  and  views  were  origi- 
nated in  such  men,  by  means  of  so  great  a  pedagogical  revolution. 
In  our  account  of  the  Philanthropinum,  Gothe  and  Kant  have  already 
been  quoted  for  this  purpose.  To  these  may  now  be  added  Hamann 
and  Herder,  and  lastly,  Friederich  August  Wolf,  the  official  successor 
and  antipodes  of  the  philanthropist,  Trapp ;  the  most  genial  of  the 
later  philologists ;  who  ought  to  have  been  ashamed  to  shelter  him- 
self, in  the  defense  of  classical  education,  behind  prescription.. 


INTERIOR  ARRANGEMENTS  IN  THE  PHILANTHROPINUM. 

At  five  o'clock,  a  house-servant  awoke  a  "  famulant,"  and  the  latter  a  teacher, 
and  the  other  fanmlants.  The  teacher  then  inspected  their  rooms,  to  see  if  every 
thing  was  in  good  order,  and  their  business  properly  arranged.  At  a  quarter  be- 
fore six,  the  reveille  was  sounded,  by  a  servant  or  famulant,  when  all  the  teachers 
and  Philanthropinists  arose.  Then  the  teacher  and  inspector  of  the  day  visited 
all  the  pupils  in  their  rooms,  and  called  the  attention  of  each  to  any  thing  in  re- 
gard to  which  he  was  to  blame.  After  having  passed  inspection,  and  washed,  and 
dressed,  the  pupils  met  in  the  fourth  auditorium  for  morning  devotions.  After 
this  all  went  to  breakfast,  and  then,  in  winter  at  eight  o'clock,  in  summer  at 
seven,  to  the  school-rooms.  The  order  of  exercises  there  was  as  follows : — 

For  the  First  Class  of  Older  Boarders. 

From  8  to  9.  Instruction  in  taste,  and  in  German  style,  by  Prof.  Trapp,  from 
Ramler's  "Batteux,"  Schutzen's  "Manual  for  Training  the*  Understanding 
and  the  Taste,"  and  Sul/er's  "First  Exercises,"  (Vorubungen.)  This  for  the 
first  three  days  of  the  week.  In  the  other  three,  Prof.  Trapp  instructed  in  natural 
religion  and  morals,  from  Basedow's  "Natural  Wisdom  for  those  in  private 
stations." 

From  9  to  10.  Dancing,  with  a  master,  riding,  with  riding-master  Schrodter, 
under  the  inspection  of  Feder  and  Hauber,  alternately,  every  day,  except  Wednes- 
day and  Saturday.  Dancing  was  taught  in  the  fourth  auditorium,  riding  in  the 
prince's  riding-school. 

10  to  12.  Instruction  by  Basedow,  at  his  house,  in  Latin ;  either  in  ancient 
history,  (with  accompanying  studies,)  or  in  practical  philosophy,  from  Cicero  "De 
Officiis." 

12  to  1.     Dinner. 

1 — 2.  Moderate  exercise ;  as,  turning,  planing,  and  carpentry,  in  the  rooms 
of  Prince  Dietrich's  palace,  granted  for  that  purpose  by  the  prince. 

2 — 3.  Monday  and  Tuesday,  Geography,  by  Hauber,  from  Pfennig's  "Geog- 
raphy." Wednesday,  knowledge  of  the  human  body,  and  a  partial  course  in 
Chemistry,  by  the  prince's  privy  councilor  and  private  physician,  Kretzschmar, 


490  JOHANN  BE11NHA11D  BASEDOW. 

at  his  house,  where  the  preparations  and  instruments  were  at  hand.     On  the 
other  three  days  of  the  week,  mathematical  drawing,  by  Prof.  Wolke. 

3  —  5.  French  and  universal  history,  by  Prof.  Trapp,  from  Schrockh's  "Uni- 
versal History,"  and  Millot's  "Historic  Universelle,"  during  five  days.  Satur- 
day, a  news-lecture,  by  Hauber,  to  make  the  elder  pupils  gradually  acquainted 
with  public  transactions  and  remarkable  occurrences. 

5  —  6.     Mathematics,  by  Busse,  from  Ebert's  "Further  Introduction   to  the 
Philosophical  and  Mathematical  Sciences,"  during  the  first  three  days  of  the 
week;  in  the  other  three,  physics,  from  Erxleben's  "Natural  Philosophy." 

6  —  7.     Knowledge  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  by  Wolke,  from  Schmid's 
"Book  of  the  Celestial  Bodies,"  twice  a  week  ;  the  other  four  days,  Greek,  by 
Dauner,  from  rector  Stroth-s  "Chrestomathia  Graeca,"  Lucian's  "Timon,"  and 
Xenophon's  "Memorabilia." 

For  the  Second  Class  of  Elder  Scholars. 

8  —  9.     Similar  to  the  studies  of  the  first  class  ;  by  Prof.  Trapp. 

9  —  10.     Riding  and  dancing,  interchangeably  with  the  first  class.     Arithme- 
tic for  some  of  them,  with  Prof.  Trapp. 

10  —  11.     Latin,  with  Hauber;   from  Basedovv's  "Chrestomathia  in  historia 
antiqua." 

11  —  12.     Latin,  with  Danner  ;  from  Basedovv's  "Chrestomathia." 

1  —  2.    Turning  and  planing,  in  alternation  with  first  class. 

2  —  3.     Drawing,  with  Doctor  Samson.     Some  were  instructed  with  the  first 
class  ;  and  some  study  arithmetic,  with  Busse. 

3  —  5.     Same  exercises  as  the  first  class. 

5  —  6.     Mathematics,  with  Danner,  three  days  ;  on  the  other  days,  some  were 
taught  with  the  first  class,  and  others  received  various  kinds  of  private  instruction. 
6—  7.     English,  from  the  "Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  with  Prof.  Trapp. 

For  the  First  Class  of  Younger  Scholars. 

8  —  9.    Reading  German,  with  Jahn  ;   the  books  being,  Von  Rochow's  and 
Weissen's  "Children's  Friend,"  Campe's  "Manual  of  Morals  for  Children,  of 
the  Educated  Classes,"  Feddersen's  "Examples  of  Wisdom  and  Virtue,"  Funk's 
"Little  Occupations  for  Children,"  and  "First  nourishment  for  the  sound  hu- 
man understanding." 

9  —  10.     Writing,  with  Vogel,  alternately  with  the  second  class,  all  the  week  ; 
and  instructive  conversation  with  rector  Neuendorf,  at  his  room,  or  during  walks. 

10—11.  Latin,  with  Feder  ;  from  "Phaedrus,"  Busching's  "Liber  Latinus," 
and  select  parts  of  Basedow's  "Liber  Elementaris,"  and  "Chrestomathia  Col- 
loquiorum  Erasmi." 

11  —  12.     French,  with  Jasperson. 

1  —  2.     Music,  and  recreation,  under  care  of  Feder. 

2  —  3.     Drawing,  with  Doctor  Samson,  under  charge,  alternately,  of  Jasper- 
son,  Vogel,  and  Spener. 

3  —  4.     Dancing,  with  the  master,  under  care  of  Vogel. 

4  —  5.     French,  with  Spener;  from  select  portions  of  Basedow's  "Manua. 
d'education." 

5  —  6.     Latin,  with  Feder;  from  select  portions  of  the  Latin  "Elementary 
Book." 

6  —  7.     For  walking,  under  the  care  of  Neuendorf. 

For  the  Second  Class  of  Younger  Pupils. 

8—  9.  Writing,  with  Vogel. 

9  —  10.  Writing  and  walking,  alternately  with  first  class. 

1  0—12.  Latin,  with  Wolke. 

1—2.  As  the  first  class. 

2  —  3.  Drawing,  as  in  first  class. 

3  —  4.  Dancing,  as  in  first  class. 

4  —  5.  French,  with  Jasperson  ;  from  seclect  parts  of  the  "Manual  d'educa 


5  —  6.     Instructive  reading,  with  Jahn,  in  his  room. 

6  —  7.     Conversation   with  Neuendorf.     On  the  first  and  fifteenth  of  each 
month,  letter-writing  was  practiced.     "Walks  were  taken  two  afternoons  a  week. 


PESTALOZZl'S  PRINCIPLES   OP   EDUCATION.  491 

The  foregoing  sketch  of  Pestalozzi's  labors,  and  their  influence  on 
the  popular  schools  of  Germany,  abridged  from  the  Centennial  Dis- 
courses of  two  of  his  avowed  disciples,  Dr.  Blochmann,  of  Dresedn, 
and  Dr.  Diesterweg,  of  Berlin,  represent  the  extreme  views  enter- 
tained by  the  admirers  of  the  great  Swiss  educator.  There  is  a 
large  number  of  educators  and  teachers,  at  the  head  ot  whom  is 
Karl  van  Raumer,  at  one  time  a  resident  at  Yverdun,  for  the  purpose 
of  studying  the  system  and  methods  of  the  Pestalozzian  Institution, 
who,  while  they  acknowledge  the  value  of  Pestalozzi's  services  to 
the  instruction  and  industrial  training  of  the  poor,  and  to  the  true 
theory  of  education,  maintain  that  his  principles  and  methods  as 
developed  and  applied  by  himself,  are  in  some  respects  unsound  and 
incomplete. 

The  following  summary  and  comparative  view  of  his  principles,  is 
taken  from  an  article  by  William  C.  Woodbridge,  in  the  American 
Annals  of  Education,  for  January,  1837. 

As  the  result  of  his  investigations,  Pestalozzi  assumed  as  a  funda- 
mental principle,  that  education,  in  order  to  fit  man  for  his  desti- 
nation must  proceed*according  to  the  laws  of  nature.  To  adopt  the 
language  of  his  followers — that  it  must  not  act  as  an  arbitrary 
mediator  beteen  the  child  and  nature,  between  man  and  God, 
pursuing  its  own  artificial  arrangements,  instead  of  the  indications 
of  Providence — that  it  should  assist  the  course  of  natural  develop- 
ment, instead  of  doing  it  violence — that  it  should  watch,  and  follow 
its  progress,  instead  of  attempting  to  mark  out  a  path  to  a  precon- 
ceived system. 

I.  In  view  of  this  principle,  he  did  not  choose,  like  Basedow,  to 
cultivate  the  mind  in  a  material  way,  merely  by  inculcating  and 
engrafting  every  thing  relating  to  external  objects,  and  giving  me- 
chanical skill.     He  sought,  on  the  contrary,  to  develop,  and  exercise, 
and  strengthen  the  faculties  of  the  child  by  a  steady  course  of  ex- 
citement to  self-activity,  with  a  limited  degree  of  assistance  to  his 
efforts. 

II.  In  opposition  to  the  haste,  and  blind  groping  of  many  teach- 
ers without  system,  he  endeavored  to  find  the  proper  point  for  com- 
mencing, and  to  proceed  in  a  slow  and  gradual,  but  uninterrupted 
course,  from  one  point  to  another — always  waiting  until  the  first 
should  have  a  certain  degree  of    distinctness  in  the  mind  of  the 
child,  before  entering  upon  the  exhibition  of  the  second.     To  pur- 
stie  any  other  course  would  only  give  superficial  knowledge,  which 
would  neither  afford  pleasure  to  the  child,  nor  promote  real  progress. 

III.  He   opposed   the   undue   cultivation   of   the   memory   and 
understanding,  as  hostile  to  true  education.     He  placed  the  essence 
of  education  in  the  harmonious  and  uniform  development  of  every 
faculty,  so  that  the  body  should  not  be  in  advance  of  the  mind,  and 
that  in  the  development  of  the  mind,  neither  the  physical  powers, 
nor  the  affections,  should  be  neglected;  and  that  skill  in  action 
should  be  acquired  at  the  same  time  with  knowledge.     When  this 
point  is  secured,  we  may  know  that  education  has  really  begun, 
and  that  it  is  not  merely  superficial. 

IV.  He  required  close  attention  and  constant  reference  to  the 
peculiarities  of  every  child,  and  of  each  sex,  as  well  as  to  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  people  among  whom  he  lived,  in  order  that  he  might 
acquire  the  development  and  qualifications  necessary  for  the  situa- 
tion to  which  the  Creator  destined  him,  when  he  gave  him  these 


492  PESTALOZZl'S   PRINCIPLES   OF   EDUCATION. 

active  faculties,  and  be  prepared  to  labor  successfully  for  those 
among  whom  he  was  placed  by  his  birth. 

V.  While  Basedow  introduced  a  multitude  of  subjects  of  in- 
struction into  the  schools,  without  special  regard  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  intellectual  powers,  Pestalozzi  considered  this  plan  as 
superficial.     He  limited  the  elementary  subjects  of  instruction  to 
Form,  Number  and  Language,  as  the  essential  condition  of  definite 
and  distinct  knoledge ;  and  believed  that  these  elements  should  be 
taught  with  the  utmost  possible  simplicity,  comprehensiveness  and 
mutual  connection. 

VI.  Pestalozzi,   as  well  as  Basedow,   desired  that  instruction 
should  commence  with  the  intuition  or  simple  perception  of  external 
objects  and  their  relations.     He  was  not,  however,  satisfied  with 
this  alone,  but  wished  that  the  art  of  observing  should  also  be  ac- 
quired.    He  thought  the  things  perceived  of  less  consequence  than 
the  cultivation  of  the  perceptive  powers,  which  should  enable  the 
child  to  observe  completely, — to  exhaust  the  subjects  which  should 
be  brought  before  his  mind. 

VII.  While  the  Philanthropinists  attach  great  importance  to 
special  exercises  of  reflection,   Pestalozzi  would  not  make  this  a 
subject  of  separate  study.     He  maintains  that  every  subject  of 
instruction  should  be  properly  treated,  and  thus  become  an  exercise 
of  thought;  and  believed,  that  lessons  on  Nurriber,  and  Proportion 
and  Size,  would  give  the  best  occasion  for  it. 

VIII.  Pestalozzi,  as  well  as  Basedow,  attached  great  importance 
to  Arithmetic,  particularly  to  Mental  Arithmetic.     He  valued  it, 
however,  not  merely  in  the  limited  view  of  its  practical  usefulness, 
but  as  an  excellent  means  of  strengthening  the  mind.     He  also 
introduced   Geometry   into   the   elementary   schools,   and   the   art 
connected   with   it,    of  modeling   and   drawing   beautiful   objects. 
He  wished,  in  this  way,  to  train  the  eye,  the  hand,  and  the   touch, 
for  the  more  advanced  species  of  drawing,  which   had  not    been 
thought  of  before.     Proceeding  from  the  simple  and  intuitive,  to 
the  more  complicated  and  difficult  forms,  he  arranged  a  series  of 
exercises  so  gradual  and  complete,  that  the  method  of  teaching 
this  subject  was  soon  brought  to  a  good  degree  of  perfection. 

IX.  The  Philanthropinists  introduced   the  instruction  of  lan- 
guage into  the  common  schools,  but  limited  it  chiefly  to  the  writing 
of   letters  and   preparation    of    essays.     But    Pestalozzi  was   not 
satisfied  with  a  lifeless  repetition  of  the  rules  of  grammar,  nor  yet 
with  mere  exercises  for  common  life.     He  aimed  at  a  development 
of  the  laws  of  language  from  within — an  introduction  into  its  in- 
ternal nature  and  construction  and  peculiar  spirit — which  would 
not  only  cultivate  the  intellect,  but  also  improve  the  affections. 
It  is  impossible  to  do  justice  to  his  method  of  instruction  on  this 
subject,  in  a  brief  sketch  like  the  present — but  those  who  have 
witnessed  its  progress  and  results,  are  fully  aware  of  its  practical 
character  and  value. 

X.  Like  Basedow,   Rochow  and  others,  Pestalozzi  introduced 
vocal  music  into  the  circle  of  school  studies,  on  account  of  its  power- 
ful influence  on  the  heart.     But  he  was  not  satisfied  that  the  children 
should  learn  to  sing  a  few  melodies  by  note  or  by  ear.     He  wished 
them  to  know  the  rules  of  melody  and  rhythm,  and  dynamics — to 
pursue  a  regular  course  of  instruction,  descending  to  its  very  ele- 
ments, and  rendering  the  musical  notes  as  familiar  as  the  sounds 
of  the  letters.     The  extensive  work  of  Nageli  and  Pfeiffer  has  con- 
tributed very  much  to  give  this  branch  of  instruction  a  better  form. 

XI.  He  opposed  the  abuse  which  was  made  of  the  Socratic 
method  in  many  of  the  Philanthropinic  and  other  schools,  by  at 


PESTALOZZl'S   PRINCIPLES   OF   EDUCATION.  493 

tempting  to  draw  something  out  of  children  before  they  had  received 
any  knowledge.  He  recommends,  on  the  contrary,  in  the  early 
periods  of  instruction,  the  established  method  of  dictation  by  the 
teacher  and  repetition  by  the  scholar,  with  a  proper  regard  to 
rhythm,  and  at  a  later  period,  especially  in  the  mathematical  and 
other  subjects  which  involve  reasoning,  the  modern  method,  in  which 
the  teacher  merely  gives  out  the  problems  in  a  pioper  order,  and 
leaves  them  to  be  solved  by  the  pupils,  by  the  exertion  of  their 
own  powers. 

XII.  Pestalozzi  opposes  strenuously  the  opinion  that  religious 
instruction  should  be  addressed  exclusively  to  the  understanding; 
and  shows  that  religion  lies  deep  in  the  hearts  of  men,  and  that  it 
should  not  be  enstamped  from  without,  but  developed  from  within ; 
that  the  basis  of  religious  feeling  is  to  be  found  in  the  childish  dis- 
position to  love,   to  thankfulness,   to  veneration,    obedience    and 
confidence  toward  its  parents;  that  these  should  be  cultivated  and 
strengthened  and  directed  toward  God ;  and  that  religion  should 
be  formally  treated  of  at  a  later  period  in  connection  with  the  feelings 
thus  excited.     As  he  requires  the  mother  to  direct  the  first  develop- 
ment of  all  the  taculties  of  her  child,  he  assigns  to  her  especially 
the  task  of  first  cultivating  the  religious  feelings. 

XIII.  Pestalozzi  agrees  with  Basedow,  that  mutual  affection 
ought  to  reign  between  the  educator  and  the  pupil,  both  in  the 
house  and  in  the  school,  in  order  to  render  education  effectual  and 
useful.     He  was,  therefore,  as  little  disposed  as  Basedow  to  sustain 
school  despotism ;  but  he  did  not  rely  on  artificial  excitements,  such 
as  those  addressed  to  emulation.     He  preferred  that  the  children 
should  find  their  best  reward  in  the  consciousness  of  increased 
intellectual  vigor;  and  expected  the  teacher  to  render  the  instruc- 
tion so  attractive,  that  the  delightful  feeling  of  progress  should  be 
the  strongest  excitement  to  industry  and  to  morality. 

XIV.  Pestalozzi  attached  as  much  importance  to  the  cultivation 
of  the  bodily  powers,  and  the  exercise  of  the  senses,  as  the  Philan- 
thropinists,  and  in  his  publications,  pointed  out  a  graduated  course 
for  this  purpose.     But  as  Gutsmuths,  Vieth,  Jahn,  and  Clias  treated 
this  subject  very  fully,  nothing  further  was  written  concerning  it 
by  his  immediate  followers. 

Such  are  the  great  principles  which  entitle  Pestalozzi  to  the  high 
praise  of  having  given  a  more  natural,  a  more  comprehensive  and 
deeper  foundation  for  education  and  instruction,  and  of  having 
called  into  being  a  method  which  is  far  superior  to  any  that  preceded 
it. 

But  with  all  the  excellencies  of  the  system  of  education  adopted 
by  Pestalozzi,  truth  requires  us  to  state  that  it  also  involves  serious 
defects. 

1.  In  his  zeal  for  the  improvement  of  the  mind  itself,  and  for 
those  modes  of  instruction  which  were  calculated  to  develop  and 
invigorate  its  faculties,   Pestalozzi  forgot  too  much  the  necessity 
of  general  positive  knowledge,  as  the  material  for  thought  and  for 
practical  use  in  future  life.     The  pupils  of  his  establishment,  in- 
structed  on  his  plan,  were  too  often  dismissed  with  intellectual 
powers  which  were  vigorous  and  acute,  but  without  the  stores  of 
knowledge  important  for  immediate  use-«-well  qualified  for  mathe- 
matical and  abstract  reasoning,  but  not  prepared  to  apply  it  to  the 
business  of  common  life. 

2.  He   commenced   with   intuitive,   mathematical   studies  too 
early,  attached  too  much  importance  to  them,  and  devoted  a  por- 
tion of  time  to  them,  which  did  not  allow  a  reasonable  attention 


494  PESTALOZZl'S    PRINCIPLES   OF   EDUCATION. 

to  other  studies,  and  which  prevented  the  regular  and  harmonious 
cultivation  of  other  powers. 

3.  The  method  of  instruction  was  also  defective  in  one  important 
point.     Simplification  was  carried  too  far,  and  continued  too  long. 
The  mind  became  so  accustomed  to  receive  knowledge  divided  into 
its  most  simple  elements  and  smallest  portions,  that  it  was  not 
prepared  to  embrace  complicated  ideas,  or  to  make  those  rapid 
strides  in  investigation  and  conclusion  which  is  oae  of  the  most 
important  results  of  a  sound  education,  and  which  indicates  the 
most  valuable  kind  of  mental  vigor  both  for  scientific  purposes  and 
for  practical  life. 

4.  He  attached  too  little  importance  to  testimony  as  one  of  the 
sources  of  our  knowledge,  and  'devoted  too  little  attention  to  his- 
torical truth.     He  was  accustomed  to  observe  that  history  was 
but  a  'tissue  of  lies;'  and  forgot  that  it  was  necessary  to  occupy  the 
pupil  with  man,  and  with  moral  events,  as  well  as  with  nature  and 
matter,  if  we  wish  to  cultivate  properly  his  moral  powers,  and 
elevate  him  above  the  material  world,. 

5.  But  above  all,  it  is  to  be  regretted,  that  in  reference  to  re- 
ligious education,  he  fell  into  an  important  error  of  his  predecessors. 
His  too  exclusive  attention  to  mathematical  and  scientific  subjects, 
tended,  like  the  system  of  Basedow,  to  give  his  pupils  the  habit 
of  undervaluing  historical  evidence   and    of   demanding  rational 
demonstration  for  every  truth,  or  of  requiring  the  evidence  of  their 
senses,  or  something  analogous  to  it,  to  which  they  were  constantly 
called  to  appeal  in'their  studies  of  Natural  History. 

It  is  precisely  in  this  way,  that  many  men  of  profound  scientific 
attainments  have  been  led  to  reject  the  evidence  of  revelation,  and 
some,  even,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  to  deny  the  existence  of  Him, 
whose  works  and  laws  they  study.  In  some  of  the  early  Pestaloz- 
zian  schools,  feelings  of  this  nature  were  particularly  cherished  by 
the  habit  of  asserting  a  falsehood  in  the  lessons  on  Mathematics 
or  Natural  history,  and  calling  upon  the  pupils  to  contradict  it  or 
disprove  it  if  they  did  not  admit  its  truth.  No  improvement  of 
the  intellectual  powers,  can,  in  pur  view,  compensate  for  the  injury 
to  the  moral  sense  and  the  diminished  respect  for  truth,  which  will 
naturally  result  from  such  a  course. 

6.  While  Pestalozzi  disapproved  of  the  attempts  of  the  Philan- 
thropinists  to  draw  forth  from  the  minds  of  children,  before  they 
had  stores  of  knowledge,  he  seemed  to  forget  the  application  of  his 
principle  to  moral  subjects,  or  to  imagine  that  this  most  elevated 
species  of  knowledge  was  innate.     He  attempted  too  much  to  draw 
from  the  minds  of  his  pupils  those  great  truths  of  religion  and  the 
spiritual  world  which  can  only  be  acquired  from  revelation;  and 
thus  led  them  to  imagine  they  were  competent  to  judge  on  this 
subject  without  external  aid.     It  is  obvious  that  such  a  course 
would  fall  in  most  unhappily  with  the  tendencies  produced  by  other 
parts  of  the  plan,  and  that  we  could  not  hope  to  educate  in  such  a 
mode,  a  truly  Christian  community. 

The  personal  character  of  Pestalozzi  also  influenced  his  views 
and  methods  of  education  on  religious  subjects.  He  was  remark- 
ably the  creature  of  powerful  impulses,  which  were  usually  of  the 
most  mild  and  benevolent  kind ;  and  he  preserved  a  child-like  charac- 
ter in  this  respect  even  to  old  age.  It  was  probably  his  tempera- 
ment, which  led  him  to  estimate  at  a  low  rate  the  importance  of 
positive  religious  truth  in  the  education  of  children,  and  to  main- 
tain that  the  mere  habit  of  faith  and  love,  if  cultivated  toward 
earthly  friends  and  benefactors  would,  of  course,  be  transferred  to 
our  Heavenly  Father,  whenever  his  character  should  be  exhibited 


PESTALOZZl'S   PRINCIPLES   OF   EDUCATION.  495,. 

to  the  mind  of  the  child.  The  fundamental  error  of  thj.s^view 
was  established  by  the  unhappy  experience  of  his  own  institution. 
His  own  example  afforded  the  most  striking  evidence  that  the 
noblest  impulses,  not  directed  by  established  principles,  may  lead 
to  imprudence  and  ruin,  and  thus  defeat  their  own  ends.  As  an 
illustration  of  this,  it  may  be  mentioned  that,  on  one  of  these  oc- 
casions, frequently  occurring,  on  which  he  was  reduced  to  extremity 
for  want  of  the  means  of  supplying  his  large  family,  he  borrowed 
four  hundred  dollars  from  a  friend  for  the  purpose.  In  going 
home,  he  met  a  peasant,  wringing  his  hands  in  despair  for  the  loss 
of  his  cow.  Pestalozzi  put  the  entire  bag  of  money  into  his  hands, 
and  ran  off  to  escape  his  thanks.  These  circumstance,  combined 
with  the  want  of  tact  in  reference  to  the  affairs  of  common  life, 
materially  impaired  his  powers  of  usefulness  as  a  practical  in- 
structor of  youth.  The  rapid  progress  of  his  ideas  rarely  allowed 
him  to  exeucte  his  own  plans;  and,  in  accordance  with  his  own 
system,  too  much  time  was  employed  in  the  profound  development 
of  principles,  to  admit  of  much  attention  to  their  practical  appli- 
cation. 

But,  as  one  of  his  admirers  observed,  it  was  his  province  to  edu- 
cate ideas  and  not  children.  He  combated,  with  unshrinking 
boldness  and  untiring  perseverance,  through  a  long  life,  the  pre- 
judices and  abuses  of  the  age  in  reference  to  education,  both  by  his 
example  and  by  his  numerous  publications.  He  attacked  with  great 
vigor  and  no  small  degree  of  success,  that  favorite  maxim  of  bigotry 
and  tyranny,  that  obedience  and  devotion  are  the  legitimate  off- 
spring of  ignorance.  He  denounced  that  degrading  system,  which 
considers  it  enough  to  enable  a  man  to  procure  a  subsistence  for 
himself  and  his  offspring — and  in  this  manner,  merely  to  place  him 
on  a  level  with  the  beast  of  the  forest ;  and  which  deems  everything 
lost  whose  value  can  not  be  estimated  in  money.  He  urged  upon 
the  conscience  of  parents  and  rulers,  with  an  energy  approaching 
that  of  the  ancient  prophets,  the  solemn  duties  which  Divine  Pro- 
vidence had  imposed  upon  them,  in  committing  to  their  charge 
the  present  and  future  destinies  of  their  fellow-beings.  In  this 
way  he  produced  an  impulse,  which  pervaded  the  continent  of 
Europe,  and  which,  by  means  of  his  popular  and  theoretical  works, 
reached  the  cottages  of  the  poor  and  the  palaces  of  the  great.  His 
institution  at  Yverdun  was  crowded  with  men  of  every  nation; 
not  merely  those  who  were  led  by  the  same  impulse  which  inspired 
him,  but  by  the  agents  of  kings  and  noblemen,  and  public  institu- 
tions, who  came  to  make  themselves  acquainted  with  his  principles, 
in  order  to  become  his  fellow-laborers  in  other  countries. 


FREDERIC  EBERHARD  VON  ROCHOW. 


MEMOIR. 

FREDERIC  EBERHARD  VON  ROCHOW,  the  third  son  of  the  Prussian 
Minister  of  State,  Frederic  William  von  Rochow,  was  born  October 
11,  1734,  at  Berlin.  After  receiving  the  best  education  which 
private  teachers  and  the  'Knights'  Academy'  at  Brandenburg  could 
give,  he  became,  in  1*750,  ensign  in  the  regiment  of  Carbineers  at 
Rathenau,  where  Frederic  II.  noticed  him  in  a  military  review  and 
promoted  him  to  the  Garde  du  Corps  at  Potsdam.  In  1752,  he 
was  commissioned,  and  in  1756,  he  was  in  active  service,  captured 
the  Imperial  General  Labkonitz  at  the  battle  of  Labkonitz,  and  was 
wounded  in  his  left  arm.  In  the  next  campaign,  in  the  battle 
around  Prague,  he  was  wounded  in  the  right  arm;  and  in  1758, 
resigned  his  commission,  and  retired  to  his  estate  at  Rekahn,  near 
Brandenburg — married  the  daughter  of  Chancellor  von  Bere,  and 
devoted  himself  to  agricultural  pursuits  and  scientific  studies.  En- 
dowed with  a  lively  sensibility  and  active  benevolence,  he  studied 
the  condition  of  the  laboring  population  on  his  estates,  and  devoted 
himself  to  its  amelioration.  Becoming  acquainted  with  Basedow's 
'  Aims  and  Methods  of  Education,'  he  devoted  himself  with  sound 
judgment  and  discriminating  charity  to  improving  the  schools  and 
homes  of  his  own  peasantry — but  not  without  encountering  many 
untoward  hindrances  and  much  opposition  from  those  whom  he 
strove  to  benefit. 

During  the  years  1771  and  1772  wet  weather  prevailed  and  much 
hay  and  grain  were  ruined,  and,  in  consequence,  famine  and  disease 
befell  man  and  beast.  Rochow  did  all  in  his  power  to  relieve  his 
tenants  and  his  country  people  by  advice  and  active  help.  He  en- 
gaged a  regular  physician  at  a  fixed  salary  to  treat  his  people  with- 
out charge  for  attendance,  medicine,  and  advice ;  but  an  unreason- 
able prejudice,  superstition,  a  total  ignorance  of  reading  and  writ- 
ing, rendered  his  best  efforts  useless.  The  people  accepted  the 
remedies,  which  he  paid  for,  but  did  not  use  them ;  the  most  simple 
prescriptions  of  cleanliness  and  order  were  not  followed,  and  they 
would  secretly  employ  other  remedies,  consult  quacks,  miracle-doc- 

32  (497) 


498 


FREDERIC  EBERHARD  VON  ROCHOW. 


tors,  and  old  women,  for  which  they  paid  roundly,  while  many 
died  a  miserable  death. 

Profoundly  grieved  by  these  terrible  consequences  of  ignorance 
and  superstition,  von  Rochow  was  one  day  sitting  before  his  writing 
desk,  engaged  in  sketching  a  lion  held  by  the  hunter's  net.  *  So,' 
he  mused,  'the  noble  gift  of  God,  reason,  which  every  man  pos- 
sesses, is  surrounded  by  a  tissue  of  prejudice  and  ignorance, — so 
much  so,  that,  like  the  lion  here,  it  can  not  make  use  of  its  strength. 
If  only  a  little  mouse  would  come,  to  gnaw  and  cut  a  few  meshes 
of  the  net,  perhaps  the  lion  would  apply  his  strength  and  break  his 
bonds.' — And  he  began  to  draw  the  mouse,  which  has  cut  some 
of  the  meshes  of  the  net  which  holds  the  lion.  Then  a  sudden 
thought  occurred  to  him  :  *  Suppose  you  were  that  mouse !' — And 
the  whole  chain  of  cause  and  effect  lay  clear  before  him.  The 
peasant  was  so  ignorant — because  he  grows  up  like  an  anima? 
among  animals.  His  instruction  can  have  no  effect  upon  him,  since 
the  schools  are  so  mechanically  conducted ;  and  the  church  is  no 
better,  since  the  clergyman  speaks  a  language  which  he  can  not 
understand.  The  sermon  is  a  connected  discourse,  which  he  hears 
from  duty,  but  which  tires  him,  because,  not  accustomed  to  such 
style  and  language,  he  can  not  follow  up  its  ideas,  and  even  if  good 
and  compact,  it  leaves  no  conviction  in  his  mind.  Such  teachers, 
as  Christ  said  of  old,  are  generally  'blind  guides,'  and  'thus  the 
state  suffers  more  from  this  condition  of  the  peasantry,  than  from 
defeat  after  the  bloodiest  battle.' 

'  My  God !'  he  mused,  '  can  not  the  peasantry,  the  true  strength 
of  the  state,  be  instructed  and  become  better  qualified  for  all  good 
work  ?  How  many  men  could  I  have  saved  to  the  country,  who 
have  been  sacrificed  to  their  own  ignorance,  which  ought  to  have 
been  prevented  ?  Yes !  I  will  be  the  mouse ;  and  may  God  help 
my  purpose.' 

School  Books. 

And  the  next  morning,  on  the  very  sheet  upon  which  he  had 
sketched  the  lion  and  mouse,  he  began  to  write  the  titles  of  the 
thirteen  chapters  of  a  '  School  book  for  Country  Teachers.  At  noon 
he  showed  it  to  his  clergyman,  Stephen  Rudolph,  who  approved  it 
and  recommended  him  to  advise  with  Chief-Counselor  Teller,  in 
Berlin.  The  latter  appreciated  his  enterprise  and  gave  him  his 
hearty  support.  His  first  literary  effort  appeared  in  1772,  under 
the  title  :  '  School  Book  for  Children  of  Country  People  and  for  the 
use  of  Village  Schools."1  Its  chief  object  was  to  elevate  the  intelli- 
gence and  practical  skill  of  teachers ;  and  he  advocates  an  increase- 


FREDERIC  EBERHARD  VON  ROCHOW.  499 

of  their  salary,  so  as  to  dispense  with  tuition  fees,  so  that  all  in- 
struction might  be  free,  and  poor  parents  have  no  excuse  for  with- 
holding their  children  from  school. 

This  book,  of  which  several  editions  were  published  during  his 
life,  created  much  interest  among  educators,  and  arrested  the  atten- 
tion of  Minister  von  Zedlitz,  deserves  a  description,  as  being  the 
first  beginning  of  a  sound  elementary  instruction  for  country  schools, 
and  because  there  are  still  many  countries  that  might  learn  from  it 
much  on  popular  education. 

In  the  introduction  to  the  first  edition,  the  author  modestly  in- 
quires :  '  Who  called  you  to  be  a  teacher  of  the  country  people  f 
And  he  answers:  'My  heart  yearns  to  help  men  who,  besides  the 
severity  of  their  condition,  are  suffering  under  the  burden  of  igno- 
rance and  prejudice.  The  cause  of  many  evils,  destructive  to  the 
state,  lies  in  the  neglected  education  of  the  young  in  rural  districts.' 
He  knew  the  rudeness  and  barbarism  of  the  peasantry ;  but  felt 
that  the  soul  of  a  peasant  child  is  as  precious  as  the  soul  of  a  child 
of  the  nobleman. 

Want  of  Competent-  Teachers. 

'Not  having  found  any  thing  that  to  him  appeared  directly  suita- 
ble for  the  common  people  and  their  children,  he  had  attempted  to 
produce  it,' — closing  with  the  remark — 'all  efforts  to  improve  their 
education  will  be  unavailing  without  competent  teachers.' 

On  this  last  point,  Biisching,  Counselor  of  the  Consistory,  in  his 
'  Journey  from  Berlin  to  Rekahn?  communicates  his  conversation 
with  Rochow  (June,  1775):  'The  children  can  not  learn  without 
teachers,  on  whom,  consequently,  all  depends.'  'I  know  not,'  says 
Biisching,  *  whether  I  ought  to  be  astonished  or  vexed,  that  so  little 
is  done  to  provide  schools  in  cities  and  the  country  with  able  teach- 
ers. There  are  plenty  of  complaints,  wishes,  and  writing,  but  no 
money  or  respect  for  their  work ;  and  yet  without  these  nothing 
can  be  done,  especially  in  common  schools.  I  can  hardly  tolerate 
the  common  idea,  that  for  the  first  elements,  moderate  skill  is  suf- 
ficient, since  it  is  all-important  that  children  are  not  only  not 
spoiled  in  their  first  learning,  but  are  taught  in  the  best  and  most 
careful  manner.'  Rochow  says:  'Since  there  is  no  state  (1775) 
which  provides  for  the  proper  remuneration  and  honor  of  the 
teacher,  so  as  to  render  the  position  desirable,  it  appears  necessary 
to  find  candidates  who  will  devote  themselves  to  it  with  the  same 
pious  enthusiasm  which  inspires  others  to  become  missionaries 
among  the  heathen.'  '  Without  teachers  full  of  this  missionary 
spirit,  the  true  reform  of  the  people  must  fail.  He  who  is  not 


500  FREDERIC  EBERHARD  VON  ROCHOW. 

penetrated  by  the  saving  power  of  the  doctrine  of  Jesus,  who  de- 
sires not  from  all  his  heart  the  welfare  of  man,  will  be  an  hireling ; 
and  reading,  writing,  and  ciphering  will  in  the  end  be  the  only  pro- 
duct of  our  schools,  and  thus  hold  out  but  little  hope  for  the  exten- 
sion of  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  coldness  with  which  hirelings 
in  the  church  speak  of  religion  is  more  injurious  than  their  silence. 
He,  whose  heart  is  not  warmed  by  the  spiritual  power  of  religion, 
has  no  call  to  be  its  teacher.' 

In  the  introduction  to  his  School  book,  Rochow  remarks :  *  As 
medicine  is  given  to  sick  children  through  their  nurses,  so  also  this 
attempt  at  reform  ;  I  want  to  infuse  into  teachers  what  I  consider 
good  methods  for  them  to  use.'  He  then  defines  the  plan  of  his 
book ; — l  the  beginning  consists  of  exercises  of  observation,  which 
are  continued  for  about  six  months,  and  are  then  followed  by 
demonstrations  of  cause  and  effect,  to  lead  to  reflection  and  the  use 
of  language  in  description.'  All  of  which,  though  familiar  now,  was 
unheard  of  as  the  preparatory  conditions  of  instruction  proper  at 
that  day. 

In  a  preface  to  the  second  edition  of  his  book,  he  treats  on  cate- 
chetic  instruction,  by  which  he  means  instruction  by  conversation, 
not  theological  or  church  catechising.  'By  conversation  children 
learn  quicker  and  more  accurately ;  for  they  can  ask  questions,  and 
by  questions  the  attention  is  kept  awake,  and  they  learn, to  com- 
prehend, to  form,  and  express  their  thoughts  on  what  they  under- 
stand— in  a  word,  they  become  rational.'  With  this  view,  he  de- 
cidedly opposed  the  so-called  literal  and  tabulated  method,  intro- 
duced by  the  Berlin  Real-school,  as  not  at  all  suitable  for  country 
schools.  Abbot  Felbiger,  who  had  been  trained  in  the  Berlin  sys- 
tem, and  had  published  the  principles  of  morality  in  tabular  form 
for  the  schools  of  Silesia,  entered  into  a  friendly  correspondence 
with  Rochow  on  his  book,  which,  however,  soon  ceased,  as  Felbiger, 
in  all  probability,  was  not  inclined  to  adopt  the  views  of  its  author. 

The  contents  of  Rochow's  School  book  consists  of  16  chapters, 
which,  in  ordinary  but  attractive  style,  treat  of: — 1.  Attention  and 
Studiousness ;  2.  Cause  and  Effect;  3.  The  Foundation;  4.  Truth, 
Certainty,  Probability,  Error,  Faith,  Unbelief,  Credulity,  Supersti- 
tion ;  5.  On  the  Human  Soul ;  6.  On  Religion ;  7.  Doctrine  of  Virtue 
according  to  the  Bible ;  8.  Society  and  Government,  Law  and  Sol- 
diery ;  9.  Relations ;  10.  Politeness  in  Intercourse  and  Conversation, 
Letter-writing;  11.  Arithmetical  Exercise  of  Reason;  12.  Measure- 
ments of  Surfaces  and  Solids,  and  something  on  Mechanics,  with  a 
table  of  Weights  and  Measures;  13.  Of  Optical  Illusion ;  14.  Com- 


FREDERIC  EBERHARD  VON  ROCHOW.  50  j 

mon  Phenomena,  for  the  increase  of  useful  knowledge ;  15.  Recrea- 
tion, for  the  preservation  of  health,  and  simple  remedies  for 
reestablishing  lost  health;  16.  Farming,  and  what  is  necessary  in 
all  kinds  of  agricultural  work.  These  subjects  are  all  treated  in  a 
practical  manner,  with  dignity  and  originality.  Much  that  has 
since  been  prepared,  as  the  basis  of  common  school  instruction,  is 
here  anticipated,  and  in  many  particulars  developed  in  a  masterly 
manner. 

His  second  publication  was  the  *  Reader?  the  first  edition  of  which 
bore  the  title  of  'Peasants'  Friend?  which,  in  the  next  edition,  was 
changed  into  '  Children's  Friend? 

Rochow  and  Von  Zedlitz. 

The  publication  of  these  books  brought  Rochow  into  correspond- 
ence and  personal  intercourse  with  Baron  von  Zedlitz,  and  other 
higher  officials  at  Berlin,  connected  or  interested  in  the  establish- 
ment and  improvement  of  schools. 

The  Minister,  in  a  letter  dated  Jan.  17,  1773,  writes: — 'Praise  is 
due  the  man  who  could  be  induced  to  prepare  school  books  from  a 
sole  regard  to  their  general  utility.  Allow  me  to  consult  you  as  a 
person,  who  is  able  to  render  powerful  aid  to  the  great  plans  of  the 
best  of  kings  for  the  improvement  of  country  schools,  and  who  has 
patriotism  enough  to  be  disposed  to  render  such  service.'  From 
this  date,  the  Minister  does  not  enter  on  any  great  or  small  reform 
in  popular  schools,  without  obtaining  Rochow's  opinion.  In  regard 
to  the  application  of  the  sum  of  100,000  thalers,  from  the  interest 
of  which  the  salaries  of  teachers  in  the  electorate  of  Brandenburg 
should  be  paid,  the  Minister  desires  some  Saxon  schoolmasters. 
Rochow,  in  answer,  says :  '  With  all  due  deference  I  beg  your 
gracious  preference  for  my  own  countrymen.  The  Saxons,  as 
much  as  I  honor  the  Tellers,  Gellerts,  etc.,  nantes  in  gurgite  vasto, 
are  not  specially  qualified  for  schoolmasters  among  the  Branden- 
burgians.  An  offending  accent,  an  effeminate  manner  of  living, 
orthodoxy,  that  means  punctuality  in  form,  not  in  essentials,  etc., 
are,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  the  characteristics  of  the  Saxon,  and  in  the 
end  will  prove  no  patriotic  attachment  for  our  State.*  '  The  attrac- 
tion of  Saxon  manners  around  Dresden  and  Leipsic  is  deceptive, 
and  disappears  upon  close  investigation ;  it  can  not  stand  the  test 
of  good  morals.  Our  intentions  of  colonization  can  not  be  realized 
here.  If  the  Prussians,  from  the  Margraviate  and  from  Silesia  (my 
new  schoolmaster  is  from  Halberstadt)  are  honored  and  paid,  I  hope 
we  shall  soon  find  an  abundance  of  good  teachers,  and  be  able  to 
engage  some  also  for  this  part  of  the  country.'  '  I  have  some  young 


502  FREDERIC  EBERHARD  VON  ROCHOW. 

people  trained  on  my  plan  of  making  good  teachers.  For  as  we 
have  seen  for  many  years  in  the  cathedral  school  of  Halberstadt, 
nobody  teaches  after  a  method  better  than  he  who  has  found  out 
its  advantages  in  himself.'  Basedow,  in  reference  to  this  sugges- 
tion, adds :  '  Nor  should  the  method,  except  in  your  Rekahn  and 
some  schools  near  by,  where  you  can  exercise  a  personal  superin- 
tendence, be  introduced  in  other  communes  until  a  sufficient  num- 
bor  of  teachers  have  been  trained,  which  can  be  done  by  two  years 
practice  in  Rekahn'  (January,  1773).  Again  Rochow  writes  to 
Zedlitz,  in  reference  to  the  king's  pressing  any  body  into  the  ser- 
vice :  '  I  need  not  mention  that  such  trained  teachers  must  not,  of 
necessity,  on  account  of  their  size,  be  good  soldiers.'  As  early  as 
1773,  Rochow  gives  way  to  the  following  expressions  on  instruction 
in  religion :  *  Much  more  perfection  could  be  obtained,  by  having 
taught  outside  of  the  school  all  that  is  Lutheran,  Reformed,  or  Ro- 
man Catholic,  which  the  clergyman  can  supply  during  a  long  pre- 
paration for  confirmation ;  while  in  school,  nothing  should  be  taught 
but  such  a  knowledge  of  God  as  can  be  derived  from  reading  his 
works,  and  the  general  principles  of  Christian  morality.'  In 
December,  of  the  same  year :  '  What  punishments  shall  I  devise  for 
parents  who,  notwithstanding  a  free  school,  detain  their  children  at 
home  to  work  ?  My  principle  is :  children  belong  to  the  State, — • 
the  State  must  provide  for  their  education,  and  that  they  learn 
reading,  writing,  ciphering,  and  how  to  think  correctly.  The  proper 
school  period  can  not  be  replaced  in  after  life.'  He  then  makes 
propositions  for  the  establishment  of  teachers'  seminaries. 

In  1774,  Counselor  Zedlitz  pays  a  visit  to  Rochow's  school, 
and  Busching  the  next  year;  Zedlitz  writes  to  the  latter:  'Ro- 
chow is  too  impatient  because  things  do  not  progress  as  fast  as  he 
desires.'  Zedlitz  also  made  a  report  of  his  visit  to  the  king,  and 
spoke  to  Rochow  of  his  intention  to  organize  a  teachers'  seminary 
in  Klosterbergen,  complaining  of  the  obstacles  put  in  his  way  by 
the  Chief  Consistory.  *  He  who  will  improve  the  schools,'  replies 
Rochow,  *  must  not  be  a  schoolman  but  an  honest  statesman.  There 
are  no  universal  prescriptions  for  schools,  no  more  than  we  have 
universal  medicines.'  Rochow  describes  the  wants  of  country 
schools,  and  what  he  has  done  to  relieve  them.  Zedlitz  writes  in 
1775 :  '  Help  me  to  some  patience,  and  to  means  by  which  ecclesi- 
astical inspectors  and  clergymen  may  become  more  active,  or  may 
be  entirely  withdrawn  from  the  supervision  of  country  schools.' 
In  1776,  a  difference  of  opinion  sprang  up  between  Zedlitz  and 
Rochow.  '  Especially,  I  think,'  writes  the  former,  *  that  metaphysi- 


FREDERIC  EBERHARD  VON  ROCHOW.  503 

€al  education  of  the  peasantry  should  be  managed  with  caution, 
and  never  be  recommended.  Where  schoolmasters  have  not  such 
a  good  superintendent  (as  Rochow),  they  very  often  will  go  astray 
and  do  injury  ;  they  become  pragmatical.'  Hence  this  last  favorite 
expression ;  after  this  doubts  sprang  up  in  the  ministry,  whether  it 
would  be  generally  beneficial,  to  let  the  common  classes  be  made 
sensible  (be  educated).  Rochow;  in  his  reply,  endeavors  to  refute 
these  objections,  and  declares,  as  the  final  object  of  his  labors  and 
thoughts,  to  train  good  Christians,  obedient  subjects,  and  skill- 
ful farmers;  and  he  is  not  insensible  to  an  expression  of  Zedlitz, 
who,  in  an  academical  discourse,  termed  him  a  '  cosmopolitan  en- 
thusiast.'1 The  letters  become  shorter  and  less  frequent,  more 
formal  and  reserved ;  Rochow  waits  for  the  Minister  of  State  to 
make  inquiries;  no  direct  communication  comes  from  him  any 
longer.  His  correspondence  with  other  persons,  however,  increases, 
though  it  is  not  of  a  like  importance.  Afterward  Zedlitz  offers  a 
position  to  Rochow,  which  the  latter  declines,  and  recommends,  in 
the  absence  of  other  teachers,  to  the  Minister  the  appointment  of 
Dr.  Bahrdt  of  Halle,  as  director  of  a  seminary  shortly  to  be  estab- 
lished: 'I  know  you  will  smile;  but  would  it  not  be  better  for 
Bahrdt,  than  to  starve  in  Halle  with  wife  and  child  ?'  The  Minister 
replies  August  7th,  1799  :  'It  is  true  Bahrdt  would  be  a  good  prin- 
cipal of  the  seminary.  But  (1)  he  is  married  and  has  children; 
you  know  we  do  not  want  that  in  teachers;  (2)  the  instruction  in 
school  should  not  be  given  over  to  the  clergy,  but  neither  should 
we  intentionally  offend  them.  They  would  believe  themselves  en- 
titled to  cry  out,  if  we  would  confide  the  instruction  of  teachers  to 
a  man  who  is  not  strictly  orthodox.  I  take  it  my  duty  not  to  re- 
gard the  stings  in  the  heel  of  superstition  if  I  have  to  take  my 
way  right  over  the  snake's  body ;  but  when  I  can  pass  around  and 
yet  reach  my  place,  why  should  I  cause  the  beast  to  hiss ;  it  is  only 
the  devil's  music.7 

Only  one  volume  of  Rochow's  correspondence  has  been  pub- 
lished ;  and  nothing  more  is  known  about  his  further  intercourse. 
There  are  six  letters  of  Rochow  to  Gleim,  in  one  of  which,  after 
expressing  his  thanks  for  a  copy  of  '  Halladat,'  he  says :  *  Not  in 
words  of  such  value,  but  with  similar  feelings,  I  expect  to  return 
your  favor,  as  I  have  just  finished  an  enlarged  second  edition  of  the 
work  which  has  for  two  years  engaged  my  attention,  but  could  not 
be  finished  without  many  experiments.  Many  of  your  excellent 
pieces  contain  consolation  for  the  heterogeneous  labors  of  the  pro- 

*  Trendelenburg  :  Frederic  the  Great  and  Minister  von  Zedlitz.     Berlin.     1859. 


504  FREDERIC  EBERHARD  VON  ROCHOW. 

fession  I  have  chosen,  namely  :  by  enlightening  the  people,  (who, 
according  to  Isaiah  [chap,  ix.,  verse  11],  without  metaphor,  t;  walk 
in  darkness,")  to  lay  a  foundation  for  salutary  reforms.  Hitherto, 
an  all-governing  providence  has  blessed  my  weak  endeavors  beyond 
my  expectation.  This  gives  me  confidence,  and  supports  my  failing 
courage,  when  I  see  my  aim,  its  perfection,  so  far  away  from  my 
work.  But  great  and  small  powers  must  act  in  concert,  if  darkness 
is  ever  to  be  lifted  from  the  nations.  By  all,  and  for  all,  abilities 
must  be  worked  toward  a  general  felicity ;  and  while  I  attempt, 
from  the  numerous  instances  of  truth,  to  select  for  the  peasant  what 
is  most  useful  to  his  understanding,  you  raise  yourself  to  the  height 
of  a  great  teacher  and  governor  of  mankind,  and  by  the  all-power- 
ful strength  of  poetry,  devoted  to  noble  objects,  you  convert  dis- 
cord into  harmony.  Oh,  that  for  all  spiritual  gifts  there  were  gen- 
eral objects.  I  almost  undertake  to  find  such  a  plan  in  the  excla- 
mation of  the  angels :  Glory  to  God  on  high,  on  earth  peace  and 
good  will  toward  all  men !  A  good  work  of  genius  aiming  at  this 
end  testifies  that  its  author,  that  he  is  in  sympathy  with  the  angels.' 

March  13th,  1776,  he  sent  to  Gleim  a  copy  of  his  work  and  re- 
quested him  to  state  frankly  his  opinion :  *  As  undeserved  and  as 
humiliating  is  often  to  me  the  praise,  which  expresses  too  warmly 
friendship,  yet  your  approval  is  a  prize  I  have  wished  for.  If  I  can 
obtain  that,  and  from  all  a  general  opinion  on  my  book,  that  it  is 
useful,  I  am  satisfied.' 

Local  School  Reforms. 

Beside  this  authorship  and  correspondence  in  the  interest  of  pub- 
lic instruction  generally,  Rochow  began  a  reform  in  the  schools  on 
his  own  estates,  which  before  had  only  ordinary  teachers,  old  and 
incompetent.  When  the  old  teacher  at  Rekahn  died,  in  1773,  the 
place  was  offered  to  Henry  J.  Bruns,  a  pupil  of  the  cathedral 
school  at  Halberstadt,  who  had  been  an  inmate  of  Rochow's  family 
for  seven  years,  as  musician  and  copyist,  and  had  made  himself  fa- 
miliar with  Rochow's  ideas,  as  well  as  increased  his  knowledge  by 
aid  of  that  nobleman's  library,  and  afterward  had  become  cantor 
and  organist  of  St.  John's  church  in  Halberstadt.  This  excellent 
man,  full  of  tenderness,  amiability,  and  childlike  disposition,  be- 
came the  instrument  through  which  Rochow's  principles  of  educa- 
tion were  carried  out  for  the  next  twelve  years.* 

Reforms  in  the  other  two  schools,  at  Gettin  and  Krahne,  were  in- 
troduced in  1774.  Rochow  made  to  each  of  these  schools  a  gift 

*  He  (lied  in  1794— forty-eight  years  old.     Rochow  had  a  monument  placed  in  his  garden,  with 
this  significant  inscription:  HE  WAS  A  TEACHER. 


FREDERIC  EBERHARD  VON  ROCHOW.  5Q5 

of  one  hundred  thalers.  He  commenced  his  improvements  by  first 
building  new  school-houses ;  the  one  at  Rekahn,  for  that  time,  was 
an  excellent  building.  All  tuition  fees  were  abolished,  and  the 
necessary  books  and  other  aids  of  instruction  were  furnished.  The 
Reader  (Rochow's  Kinderfreund)  was  given  to  every  child  in  the 
schools,  of  whom  there  were  sixty  to  seventy,  divided  in  two 
classes,  under  separate  teachers.  The  smallest  children  of  the 
lower  class  attended  school  but  one  hour  daily  during  the  first 
year;  gradually  their  attendance  was  prolonged.  Generally  they 
were  admitted  at  the  age  of  six  years,  and  promoted  at  the  end  of 
every  school  year.  A  vacation  of  two  weeks  occurred  at  harvest 
time,  and  a  like  one  in  the  spring.  An  industrial  school  for  girls 
was  established  in  the  hall  of  the  castle,  where  a  lady  taught  needle- 
work, knitting,  etc.  The  period  for  attending  school  was  fixed  from 
six  to  fourteen  years ;  during  the  last  year  the  pupils  were  instructed 
in  religion  preparatory  to  their  confirmation.  After  confirmation 
the  child  was  permitted  to  withdraw  from  the  school,  but  up  to  that 
age,  his  attendance  was  continuous. 

The  subjects  of  instruction  were  selected  for  these  schools  on 
Rochow's  principle :  '  No  man  can  do  any  work  without  reason,  ».«, 
he  can  not  expect  a  regular  result  and  success.'  *  Right  or  wrong, 
acts  or  omissions,  are  decided  by  what  every  one  thinks  on  right  or 
wrong ;  in  one  word,  whether  he  acts  conscientiously.'  *  Every 
thing  in  school  must  be  understood ;  all  new  and  difficult  things 
must  be  explained  orally  and  by  conversation.' 

In  a  circular  addressed  to  his  teachers,  May  6,  1776,  he  expresses 
himself  on  religious  instruction,  describing,  as  its  main  object,  'to 
train  the  children  to  become  sincere  worshipers  of  God,  who,  by 
their  deportment,  prove  that  they  belong  to  Christ,  and  desire  to 
become  subjects  of  his  blessed  kingdom  for  ever ;  next  to  train 
them  into  such  men,  skillful  in  every  good  work,  because  they  know 
the  road  to  heaven  passes  over  this  earth ;  that  fidelity  to  the  duties 
of  life  is  a  practice  of  Christianity,  making  easier  the  duties  of  re- 
ligion, and  causing  the  light  to  shine  before  the  people  in  the  useful- 
ness and  skill  of  daily  labor.'  He  was  of  opinion  that,  by  the 
largest  possible  cultivation  of  the  mind,  the  knowledge  of  duty,  and 
the  practice  of  it,  would  be  furthered.  School  education  should 
aim  to  make  children  practical  and  useful  men. 

For  progressive  instruction  in  reading  and  in  the  subjects  sub- 
mitted to  the  pupils,  Rochow  wrote  his  '  Kinderfreund '  in  two 
parts,  and  proposed  that  they  should  be  published  by  the  govern- 
ment and  be  generally  introduced  in  country  schools.  The  manu- 


506  FREDERIC  EBERHARD  VON  ROCHOW. 

script  was  for  a  long  time  before  the  school  authorities,  without  any 
decision  being  made,  when  the  author  reclaimed  it,  and  the  first 
edition  of  the  first  part  appeared  in  1776,  the  second  part  in  1777, 
and  the  work  attained  great  reputation.  It  was  translated  into 
French,  Danish,  Polish,  and  modified  to  suit  the  Catholic  schools  in 
the  Rhine  provinces,  and  passed  through  four  editions. 

When  the  author  was  introduced  to  King  Frederic  William  III., 
the  latter  said :  '  I  learned  to  read  from  your  '  Kinderfreund?  Ro- 
chow  must  have  known  this  before ;  for  as  early  as  1785,  he  wrote : 
*  Hail  to  the  young  prince,  who  from  this  school  book  learns  more 
than  he  can  ordinarily  of  the  condition  of  those,  to  increase  whose 
happiness  will  be  one  day  his  duty.'  And  Frederic  William  III. 
seems  to  have  remembered  many  important  things  from  Rochow's 
Reader. 

If  it  is  remembered  that  the  present  authors  of  school  readers 
only  have  to  collect  from  the  many  noble  materials  existing  in  order 
to  find  excellent  selections  for  their  purpose,  so  that  in  our  day  it  is 
almost  hard  to  produce  a  bad  reader,  Rochow  was  not  so  favorably 
situated.  In  the  first  place,  he  found  no  good  material  on  hand 
which,  he  could  employ  as  subjects  of  useful  instruction  for  country 
scholars ;  the  whole  spirit  of  the  same  economy,  and  special  em- 
ployment being  new,  he  was  obliged  to  compose  himself.  In  the 
second  place,  his  book  had  to  carry  out  consistently  a  purpose  with- 
in distinct  limits,  and  thus  all  his  material  had  to  be  similar  in 
character  and  each  limited ;  and  Rochow  consequently  was  under  the 
necessity  of  writing  all  himself.  It  is  not  easy  to  conceive  the  sim- 
ple relations  of  ordinary  rural  life  in  their  variety,  significance,  and 
importance,  to  render  them  easily  understood  in  their  original 
causes,  to  make  attractive  whatever  is  laudable,  and  create  aversion 
to  all  evil,  and  to  do  this  always  in  a  childlike,  noble,  sensible,  in- 
structive, and,  so  to  say,  in  an  always  novel  manner,  within  the 
limits  of  the  faculties  of  the  young.  In  all  this,  Rochow  had  been 
eminently  successful.  The  late  School  Counselor,  O.  Schulz,  of 
Berlin,  had  not  despised  to  learn  from  Rochow's  Kinderfreund, 
when  he  composed  his  own  very  excellent  Readers.  More  than 
100,000  copies  of  the  'Kinderfreund'  has  been  distributed;  and  in 
1830,  a  new  edition  was  published  by  Counselor  Turk,  at  Branden- 
burg, under  the  title,  '  The  New  Children's  Friend.' 
Educational  Publications. 

In  addition  to  his  Reader,  Rochow  published  the  following  edu- 
cational works: — 1.  Manual  of  Catechetic  Forms  for  Teachers. 
First  edition,  1783.  Second  edition,  1789.  This  book  contains 


FREDERIC  EBERHARD  VON  ROCHOW.  597 

material  on  four  subjects,  viz. :  Object  of  Teaching,  Means,  Order 
and  Method  of  Teaching ;  the  author's  opinion  against  the  prevail- 
ing opinion,  that  education  was  not  beneficial  to  the  lower  classes, 
and  his  aim  to  show  that  a  true  power  of  reason  can  be  attained 
only  by  a  genuine  education.  He  maintains  in  the  introduction : 
*  From  the  power  of  thinking,  directed  early  and  in  a  proper  man- 
ner, come  good  principles,  and  from  good  principles  issue  good 
actions.  Knowledge  gives  ability.  He  who  can  speak  distinctly 
and  intelligently,  makes  himself  understood  easily ;  he  who  knows 
language  and  is  attentive,  is  able  to  understand ;  he  who  knows  only 
that  mankind  is  obliged,  by  their  mutual  relations,  to  live  in  love, 
and  can  enjoy  happiness  only  as  far  as  they  love  God  and  one  an- 
other, can  not  be  the  enemy  of  mankind  ;  and  he  who  observes  only 
the  injurious  tendencies  of  bad  habits,  will  be  inclined  to  guard 
against  them.  To  do  all  this  is,  to  enlighten  and  to  cultivate. 

2.  *  Catechism  of  Sound  Reason,  or  an  attempt  to  define  import- 
ant words,  in  their  general  signification,  illustrated  by  examples  for 
the  purpose  of  a  more  just  and  more  improving  knowledge.'     Ber- 
lin and  Stettin:    F.  Nicolai,  1786.     From  this  book  the  teachers 
of  our  day  may  learn  how  to  abstract  ideas,  not  only  by  definitions 
but  also  by  examples.     It  contains  in  all,  definitions  of  67  words. 

3.  'The  Regulations  of  the  Cathedral  Chapter  for  the  better  Gov- 
ernment and  Organization  of  the  Teachers'  Seminary  at  Halberstadtf 
— first  issued  in  1789. 

4.  *  Corrections? — A  collection  of  definitions,  full  of  pedagogic 
suggestions,  not  intended  for  the  school  alone,  but  for  the  educated 
classes  of  his  time,  was  issued  in  1792.     Two  years  afterward  he 
published  a  second  volume,  in  which  he  gives  the  fruits  of  his  reflec- 
tions on  the  most  important  ideas  on  politics  and  morals  of  his  age. 

5.  In  1792,  he  translated  Mirabeau's  *  Discourse  on  National  Edu- 
cation."1    He  also  wrote  on  Schools  for  the  Poor ;   on  Abolition  of 
Public  Beggary ;  on  the  Credit  System ;  on  Government ;  on  the 
Formation  of  National  Character  by  Popular  Schools ;  on  German 
Law  and  Christian  Principles  ;  on  A  History  of  My  Schools. 

These  various  writings  gave  him  many  friends,  as  well  as  some 
enemies,  or  at  least,  many  opponents  who  would  not  agree  to  the 
success  of  his  schools,  which  were  visited  by  strangers  so  frequently 
that  the  work  of  the  teachers  was  much  disturbed.  In  Riemann's 
'Description  of  the  Schools  at  RekahnJ  of  1798,  we  find:  4  Mr.  Ru- 
dolph, the  clergyman,  who  assisted  in  the  organization  of  the  schools, 
expresses  himself,  twenty-five  years  afterward,  thus :  "  The  people 
have  become  more  considerate ;  they  more  freely  enter  into  conver- 


508  FREDERIC  EBERHARD  VON  ROCHOW. 

sation,  and  are  less  timid  than  before.  Their  morals  are  much  bet- 
ter than  in  other  villages,  though  an  outward  demeanor  and  abstain- 
ing from  excess  is  not  yet  become  general." ' 

The  greatest  merit  of  Rochow's  schools  and  efforts  lies  in  this,  that 
in  the  countries  of  Prussia,  especially  in  many  parts  of  Saxony,  they 
imparted  the  first  impulse  to  a  reformation  of  the  popular  schools, 
which  at  that  time  were  in  a  wretched  condition.  At  present,  the 
schools  on  the  Rekahn  estates  are  no  better  than  elsewhere ;  but 
during  the  life  of  Rochow  they  shone  as  brilliant  examples,  and  have 
carried  the  well  deserved  reputation  of  their  founder  to  the  present 
day.  The  proprietor  of  another  large  estate  had  scarcely  seen  the 
schools  of  Rochow,  when  he  established  a  free  school  for  the  chil- 
dren of  his  tenants,  which  became  a  model  school;  after  which 
other  institutions  in  his  neighborhood  were  formed.  And  this  in- 
fluence went  beyond  Germany.  When  Count  Reventlow,  from  the 
island  of  Funen,  heard  of  Rochow's  school,  he  caused  three  schools 
to  be  built  in  1784,  in  which  he  introduced  the  Kinderfreund  and 
the  methods  of  Rekahn.  More  than  any  man  of  his  time,  he  gave 
a  rational  aim  and  method  to  the  popular  school,  and  in  thousands 
of  schools  scattered  all  over  the  German  States,  by  means  of  his 
school  books ;  and  the  teachers  trained  after  his  methods,  helped  to 
convert  the  peasant  into  an  observing,  thinking,  self-governing  man. 

Von  Rochow  died  in  his  own  home  May  16,  1805,  at  the  age  of 
seventy,  and  was  buried  in  a  new  graveyard  laid  out  by  himself, 
and  called  Rochow's  Rest.  A  monument  is  also  dedicated  to  his 
memory  in  a  grove  near  Halberstadt.  He  is  one  of  the  representa- 
tive men  of  his  age  and  country — one  of  those  men  who,  if  he  did 
not  lay  the  foundations,  helped  to  build  up  a  system  of  popular 
education  for  a  great  nation.  He  had  the  sagacity  to  see  the 
identity  of  interests  in  the  different  classes  of  the  same  community. 
Born  to  the  inheritance  of  a  great  estate,  he  expended  his  time 
and  money,  to  make  his  dependents,  and  the  common  people  every 
where,  partakers  of  the  civilization  of  his  age. 


1.    PRIMARY  EDUCATION  IN  GERMANY. 


HISTORICAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


To  Germany,*  as  a  whole,  as  one  people,  and  not  to  any  particular 
state  of  Germany,  as  now  recognized  on  the  map  of  Europe,  belongs  the 
credit  of  first  thoroughly  organizing  a  system  of  public  education  under 
the  administration  of  the  civil  power.  Here,  too,  education  first  assumed 
the  form  and  name  of  a  science,  and  the  art  of  teaching  and  training 
children  was  first  taught  systematically  in  seminaries  established  for  this 
special  purpose. 

But  not  to  Germany,  or  to  any  one  people  or  any  civil  authority  any 
where,  but  to  the  Christian  Church,  belongs  the  higher  credit  of  first  in- 
stituting the  public  school,  or  rather  the  parochial  school,  for  the  elemen- 
tary education  of  the  poor,  which  was  the  earliest  form  which  this  mighty 
element  of  modern  society  assumed.  After  the  third  century  of  the 
Christian  era,  whenever  a  Christian  church  was  planted,  or  religious  in- 
stitutions established,  there  it  was  the  aim  of  the  higher  ecclesiastical 
authorities  to  found,  in  some  form,  a  school  for  the  nurture  of  children  and 
youth  for  the  service  of  religion  and  duties  of  society.  Passing  by  the 
ecclesiastical  and  catechetical  schools,  we  find,  as  early  as  529,  the  council 
of  Vaison  strongly  recommending  the  establishment  of  village  schools. 
In  800  a  synod  at  Mayence  ordered  that  the  parochial  priests  should  have 

•Mr.  W.  E.  Hickson,  in  his  valuable  pamphlet,  entitled  "Dutch  and  German  Schools," 
published  in  London  in  1840,  well  says  : 

"  We  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  German  states,  although  under  different  governments,  are 
not  nations  as  distinct  from,  and  independent  of  each  other,  as  France  and  Spain,  or  as  Russia 
and  Great  Britain.  Each  of  the  German  states  is  influenced  more  or  less  by  every  other  ;  the 
whole  lying  in  close  juxta-position,  and  being  linked  together  by  the  bond  of  a  common  lan- 
guage and  literature.  The  boundary  line  that  separates  Prussia  from  Hesse  on  one  side,  or 
from  Saxony  on  another,  is  not  more  defined  than  that  of  a  county  or  parish  in  England.  A 
stone  in  a  field,  or  a  post  painted  with  stripes,  in  a  public  road,  informs  the  traveler  that  he  is 
passing  from  one  state  into  another,  that  these  territorial  divisions  make  no  change  in  the  great 
characteristics  of  the  people  :  whatever  the  name  of  the  state,  or  the  color  of  the  stripes,  the 
people,  with  merely  provincial  differences,  are  the  same  :  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Adriatic,  they 
are  still  Germans.  The  national  spirit  may  always  be  gathered  from  the  national  songs,  and  in 
Germany  the  most  popular  are  those  which  speak  of  all  Germans  as  brothers,  and  all  German 
states  as  belonging  to  one  common  country,  as  may  be  gathered  from  the  following  passage  of 
a  song  of  M.  Arndt  :— 


"What  country  does  a  German  claim? 
His  Fatherland  ;  know'st  thou  its  name  1 
Is  it  Bavaria.— Saxony  ? 
An  inland  state,  or  on  the  sea  1 
There,  on  the  Baltic's  plains  of  sand  7 
Or  mid  the  Alps  of  Switzerlandl 
Austria,  the  Adriatic  shores  ? 
Or  where  the  Prussian  eagle  soars  1 
Or  where  hills  covered  by  the  vine, 


Adorn  the  landscape  of  the  Rhine  1 
Oh  no,  oh  no.  not  there,  alone, 
The  land,  with  pride,  we  call  our  own. 
Not  there.     A  German's  heart  or  mind 
Is  to  no  narrow  realm  confined. 
Where'er  he  hears  his  native  tongue, 
When  hymns  of  praise  to  God  are  suof, 
There  is  bis  Fatherland,  and  he 
Has  but  one  country — Germany  I" 


510  HISTORY  OF  PRIMARY  EDUCATION  IN  GERMANY. 

schools  in  the  towns  and  villages,  that  the  little  children  of  all  the  faith- 
ful might  icarn  letters  from  them ;  "  let  them  receive  and  teach  these 
with  the  utmost  charity,  that  they  themselves  may  shine  as  the  stars  for 
ever.  Let  them  receive  no  remuneration  from  their  scholars,  unless  what 
the  parents  through  charity  may  voluntarily  offer."  A  council  at  Rome, 
in  836.  under  Eugene  II.,  ordained  that  there  should  be  three  kinds  of 
schools  established  throughout  Christendom ;  episcopal,  parochial  in 
towns  and  villages,  and  others  wherever  there  could  be  fi>um'  place  and 
opportunity.  In  836,  Lothaire  I.  promulgated  a  decree  to  establish  eight 
public  schools  in  some  of  the  principal  cities  of  Italy,  "  in  order  that  oppor- 
tunity may  be  given  to  all,  and  that  there  may  be  no  excuse  drawn  from 
poverty  and  the  difficulty  of  repairing  to  remote  places."  The  third 
council  of  Lateran,  in  1179,  says:  "  Since  the  Church  of  God,  as  a  pious 
mother,  is  bound  to  provide  that  opportunity  for  learning  should  not  be 
withdrawn  from  the  poor,  who  are  without  help  from  patrimonial  riches, 
be  it  ordained,  that  in  every  cathedral  there  should  be  a  master  to  teach 
both  clerks  and  poor  scholars  gratis."  This  decree  was  enlarged  and 
again  enforced  by  Innocent  HI.  in  the  year  1215.  Hence,  in  all  colleges 
of  canons,  one  bore  the  title  of  the  scholastic  canon.  The  council  of 
Lyons,  in  1215.  decreed  "that  in  all  cathedral  churches,  and  others  pro- 
vided with  adequate  revenues,  there  should  be  established  a  school  and  a 
teacher  by  the  bishop  and  chapter,  who  should  teach  the  clerks  and 
other  poor  scholars  gratis  in  grammar,  and  for  this  purpose  a  stipend 
should  be  assigned  him."* 

Such  was  the  origin  of  the  popular  school,  as  now  generally  under- 
stood— everywhere  the  offspring,  and  companion  of  the  Church ;  sharing 
with  her,  in  large  measure,  the  imperfections  which  attach  to  all  new 
institutions  and  all  human  instrumentalities ;  encountering  peculiar  diffi- 
culties from  the  barbarism  of  the  age  and  people  through  which  it  passed, 
and  which  it  was  its  mission  to  enlighten ;  and  every  where  crippled  by 
insufficient  endowments,  unqualified  teachers,  and  the  absence  of  all  text 
books,  and  necessary  aids  to  instruction  and  illustration.  The  discovery 
of  the  art  of  printing,  in  1440,  and  the  consequent  multiplication  of  books  at 
prices  which  brought  them  more  within  reach  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
people ;  the  study  and  use  of  the  vernacular  language  by  scholars  and 
divines,  and  particularly  its  employment  in  the  printing  of  the  Bible, 
hymns,  popular  songs,  school  books,  and  in  religious  instruction  gener- 
ally; the  recognition  by  the  municipal  authorities  of  cities,  and  at  a  later 
period  by  the  higher  civil  power,  of  the  right,  duty  and  interest  of  the 
state,  in  connection  with,  or  independent  of  the  church,  to  provide  liberally 
and  efficiently  for  the  education  of  all  children  and  youth;  and  above  all, 
the  intense  activity  given  to  the  human  mind  by  the  religious  movement 
of  Luther,  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  ;  the  assertion  of  the 
right  of  private  judgment  in  the  interpretation  of  the  scriptures ;  the  break- 
ing up  of  existing  ecclesiastical  foundations,  and  the  diversion  of  funds 

•  Digby's  Mores  Catholic!. 


HISTORY  OF  PRIMARY  EDUCATION  IN  GERMANY.  51 1 

from  religious  to  educational  purposes, — all  these  causes,  combined  with 
the  general  progress  of  society,  co-operated  to  introduce  an  advantageous 
change  in  the  organization,  administration,  instruction  and  discipline  o! 
the  popular  school.  But  the  progress  actually  made  from  year  to  year, 
and  century  even  to  century,  was  slow,  and  after  three  hundred  years  of 
effort,  there  is  much  yet  to  be  done  even  in  those  states  and  communities 
which  have  accomplished  the  most  toward  improving  the  outward  or- 
ganization and  instrumentalities  of  the  schools,  and  above  all  its  internal 
life  in  the  improved  qualification  and  position  of  the  teachers — for  as  is 
the  teacher,  so  is  the  school.  A  brief  reference  to  a  few  of  the  more 
prominent  names  in  the  history  of  popular  education  in  Germany,  and 
through  Germany,  of  Modern  Europe,  is  all  that  can  be  attempted  at 
this  time  and  in  this  connection.  Among  these  names  stands  prominent 
that  of  Martin  Luther. 

In  a  letter  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  in  the  year  1526,  Luther  says  :* 

"Since we  are  all  required,  and  especially  the  magistrates,  above  all  other 
things,  to  educate  the  youth  who  are  born  and  are  growing  up  among  us,  and 
to  train  them  up  in  the  fear  of  God  and  in  the  ways  ot  virtue  it  is  needful  that 
we  have  schools  and  preachers  and  pastors.  If  the  parents  will  not  reform, 
they  must  go  their  way  to  ruin,  but  if  the  young  are  neglected  and  left  without 
education,  it  is  the  fault  of  the  state ;  and  the  effect  will  be  that  the  country 
will  swarm  with  vile  and  lawless  people,  so  that  our  safety,  no  less  than  the 
command  of  God  requireth  us  to  foresee  and  ward  off  the  evil."  He  maintains 
in  that  letter  thai  the  government,  "  as  the  natural  guardian  of  all  the  young," 
has  the  right  to  compel  the  people  to  support  schools.  "  What  is  necessary  to 
the  well-being  of  a  state,  that  should  be  supplied  by  those  who  enjoy  the  privi- 
lege of  such  state  Now  nothing  is  more  necessary  than  the  training  of  those 
who  are  to  come  after  us  and  bear  rule.  If  the  people  are  too  poor  to  pay  the 
expense,  and  are  already  burdened  with  taxes,  then  the  monastic  funds,  which 
were  originally  given  for  such  purposes,  are  to  be  employed  in  that  way  to  re- 
lieve the  people."  The  cloisters  were  abandoned  in  many  cases,  and  the  diffi- 
cult question,  what  was  to  be  done  with  their  funds,  Luther  settled  in  this  judi- 
cious manner.  How  nearly  did  he  approach  to  the  policy  now  so  extensively 
adopted  in  this  country,  of  supporting  schools  partly  by  taxation  and  partly  by 
funds  appropriated  for  that  purpose. 

In  1524  he  wrote  a  remarkable  production,  entitled  "  An  Address  to  the 
Common  Councils  of  all  the  Cities  of  Germany  in  behalf  of  Christian  Schools," 
from  which  a  few  passages  may  here  be  extracted.  After  some  introductory 
remarks,  he  comes  directly  to  his  point,  and  says  to  his  countrymen  collec- 
tively : 

"  I  entreat  you,  in  God's  behalf  and  that  of  the  poor  youth,  not  to  think  so 
lightly  of  this  matter  as  many  do.  It  is  a  grave  and  serious  thing,  affecting 
the  interest  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  and  of  all  the  world,  that  we  apply  our- 
selves to  the  work  of  aiding  and  instructing  the  young If  so 

much  be  expended  every  year  in  weapons  of  war,  roads,  dams,  and  countless 
other  things  of  the  sort  for  the  safety  and  prosperity  of  a  city;  why  should  not 
we  expend  as  much  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor,  ignorant  youth,  to  provide  them 
with  skillful  teachers  1  God  hath  verily  visited  us  Germans  in  mercy  and 
given  us  a  truly  golden  year.  For  we  now  have  accomplished  and  learned 
young  men,  adorned  with  a  knowledge  of  literature  and  art,  who  could  be  of 
great  service  if  employed  to  teach  the  young.  .  .  . 

Even  if  the  parents  were  qualified,  and  were  also  inclined  to  teach,  they  have 
so  much  else  to  do  in  their  business  and  household  affairs  that  they  can  not  find 
the  time  to  educate  their  children.  Thus  there  is  a  necessity  that  public  teach- 

'  The  following  extracts  are  taken  from  Dr.  Sears'  "Life  of  Martin  Luther,"  published  bv 
the  American  Sunday  School  Union. 


512  HISTORY  OF  PRIMARY  EDUCATION  IN  GERMANY. 

ers  be  provided.  Otherwise  each  one  would  have  to  teach  his  own  children, 
which  would  be  for  the  common  people  too  great  a  burden.  Many  a  fine  boy 
would  be  neglected  on  account  of  poverty ;  and  many  an  orphan  would  suffer 
from  the  negligence  of  guardians.  And  those  who  have  no  children  would 
not  trouble  themselves  at  all  about  the  whole  matter.  Therefore  it  becometh 
rulers  and  magistrates  to  use  the  greatest  care  and  diligence  in  respect  to  the 
education  of  the  young. 

The  diligent  and  pious  teacher  who  properly  instructeth  and  traineth  the 
young,  can  never  be  fully  rewarded  with  money.  If  I  were  to  leave  my  office 
as  preacher,  I  would  next  chose  that  of  schoolmaster,  or  teacher  of  boys;  for  I 
know  that,  next  to  preaching,  this  is  the  greatest,  best,  and  most  useful  voca- 
tion; and  I  am  not  quite  sure  which  of  the  two  is  the  better;  for  it  is  hard  to 
reform  old  sinners,  with  whom  the  preacher  has  to  do,  while  the  young  tree 
can  be  made  to  bend  without  breaking." 

In  1527,  a  visitation  was  made  of  the  churches  and  schools  of  the  elec- 
torate of  Saxony,  in  which  more  than  thirty  men  were  employed  a  whole 
year.  The  result  in  respect  to  education  was,  that  the  u  Saxon  school 
system,"  as  it  was  called,  was  drawn  up  by  the  joint  labors  of  Luther  and 
Melancthon ;  and  thus  ihe  foundation  was  laid  for  the  magnificent  organ- 
ization of  schools  to  which  Germany  owes  so  much  of  her  present  fame. 

In  a  letter  to  Margrave  George,  of  Bradenburg,  July  18,  1529: — 

"  I  will  tell  you  what  Melancthon  and  myself,  upon  mature  consideration, 
think  best  to  be  done.  First,  we  think  the  cloisters  and  foundations  may  con- 
tinue to  stand  till  their  inmates  die  out Secondly,  it  would  be 

exceedingly  well  to  establish  in  one  or  two  places  in  the  principality  a  learned 
school,  in  which  shall  be  taught,  not  only  the  Holy  Scriptures,  but  law,  and  all 
the  arts,  from  whence  preachers,  pastors,  clerks,  counselors,  &c.,  may  be 
taken  for  the  whole  principality.  To  this  object  should  the  income  ot  the 
cloisters  and  other  religious  foundations  be  applied,  so  as  to  give  an  honorable 
support  to  learned  men ;  two  in  theology,  two  in  law,  one  in  medicine,  one  in 

mathematics,  and  four  or  five  for  grammar,  logic,  rhetoric,  Arc 

Thirdly,  in  all  the  towns  and  villages,  good  schools  for  children  should  be  es- 
tablished, from  which  those  who  are  adapted  to  higher  studies  might  be  taken 
and  trained  up  for  the  public." 

Under  these  instructions  and  appeals  a  school  law  was  adopted  in 
Wirtemberg  in  1559,  and  modified  in  1565 ;  in  Saxony  in  1560,  and 
improved  in  1580;  in  Hesse  in  1565;  and  in  Brandenberg,  still  earlier; 
which  recognized  and  provided  for  the  classification,  inspection,  and  sup- 
port of  public  schools  on  substantially  the  same  plan  which  prevails  to 
this  day  throughout  Germany. 

The  pedagogical  work  of  Luther — his  labors  to  improve  the  method  of 
instruction — were  continued  by  Trotzendorf,*  in  Goldberg,  from  1530  to 
1556;  by  Sturm,  in  Strasbourg,  from  1550  to  1589;  by  Neander.  in  Ile- 
feld,  fiom  1570  to  1595,  whose  schools  were  all  Normal  Schools,  in  the 
original  acceptation  of  the  term,  pattern  or  model  schools,  of  their  time. 
They  were  succeeded  by  Wolfgang  Ratich,  born  at  Wilster.  in  Holstein, 
in  1571 ;  by  Christopher  Helwig,  born  near  Frankfort,  in  1581 ;  and  by 
Amos  Comenius.  born  at  Comna,  in  Moravia,  in  1592 ;  who  all  labored, 
by  their  writings,  and  by  organizing  schools  and  courses  of  instruction,  to 
disseminate  improved  methods  of  teaching.  Comenius  was  invited  by 
an  act  of  parliament  in  1631,  to  visit  England  for  the  purpose  of  intro- 

*  Trotzendorf  practiced  the  monitorial  system  of  instruction  two  hundred  arid  fifty  years  be- 
fore 13r.  Bell  or  Joseph  Lancaster  set  up  their  claims  for  its  discovery 


HISTORY  OF  PRIMARY  EDUCATION  IN  GERMANY.  513 

ducing  his  method  into  the  public  institutions  of  that  country.     But  in- 
ternal commotions  interrupted  and  ultimately  defeated  his  plans. 

In  1618.  the  religious  war — known  as  the  Thirty  Years'  war — broke  out 
in  Germany,  and  for  an  entire  generation  swept  over  the  land,  wasting 
harvest  fields,  destroying  cities,  tearing  fathers  from  the  protection  ot 
their  families,  scattering  teachers  and  schools,  and  arresting  the  progress 
of  all  spiritual  and  educational  improvement.  At  the  close  of  the  war,  and 
in  some  of  the  smaller  states  during  its  progress,  the  civil  government  be- 
gan to  take  effectual  steps  to  secure  the  attendance  of  children  at  school, 
by  making  it  compulsory  on  parents,  on  penalty  of  fine  and  imprisonment 
for  neglect,  to  send  them  during  a  certain  age.  This  was  first  attempted 
in  Gotha,  in  1643  ;  in  Heildesheim,  in  1663;  and  in  Prussia,  in  1669  ;  and 
Calemberg,  in  1681.  About  this  period,  two  men  appeared.  Philip  J 
Spener.  born  in  the  Alsace  in  1635,  and  Augustus  Herman  Franke,  born 
at  L  beck  in  1663 ;  who,  the  first  by  the  invention  of  the  catechetic 
method,  and  the  last,  a  pupil  of  the  former,  by  the  foundation  of  the 
orphan-house  at  Halle  in  1696,  were  destined  to  introduce  a  new  era  in 
the  history  of  education  in  Germany. 

The  history  of  the  orphan-house  at  Halle,  is  a  beautiful  illustration  of 
practical  Christian  charity,  and  the  ever-extending  results  of  educational 
labor.  While  pastor  of  Glaucha,  a  suburb  of  Halle,  he  was  in  the  habit 
of  distributing  bread  to  the  poor,  with  whose  poverty  and  ignorance  he 
was  equally  distressed.  To  relieve  at  once  their  physical  and  spiritual 
destitution,  he  invited  old  and  young  into  his  house,  and  while  he  distributed 
alms,  he  at  the  same  time  gave  oral  and  catechetical  instruction  in  the 
principles  of  the  Christian  faith.  To  benefit  the  orphan  children  still 
more,  he  took  a  few  into  his  family  in  1694.  and  to  avail  himself  of  the 
gifts  of  the  charitable,  he  resorted  to  the  following  expedient,  according 
to  his  biographer,  Dr.  Guerike : 

"  He  caused  a  box  to  be  fastened  up  in  the  parlor  of  the  parsonage-house, 
and  wrote  over  it,  '  Whoso  hath  this  world's  goods,  and  seeth  his  brother  have 
need,  and  shutteth  up  his  bowels  of  compassion  from  him,  how  dwelleth  the 
love  of  God  in  him  V  (1  John  iii.  17,)  and  underneath,  '  Every  one  accoiding  as 
he  purposeth  in  his  heart,  so  let  him  give;  not  grudgingly  or  of  necessity ;  for 
God  loveth  a  cheerful  giver,'  (2  Cor.  ix.  17.)  This  box,  which  was  destined 
for  the  reception  of  the  casual  gifts  of  those  who  visited  Franke,  was  fixed  up 
at  the  commencement  of  1695;  and  not  in  vain.  The  passage  (2  Cor.  ix.  8,) 
had  fallen  in  his  way.  a  short  time  before  this  circumstance,  and  now  occurred 
the  incident  related" in  his  letter  to  Schade.  '  This,'  says  he,  'served  to  show 
me,  how  God  is  able  to  make  us  abound  in  every  good  work.' 

'  After  the  poor's-box  had  been  fixed  up  in  my  dwelling  about  a  quarter  of  a 
year,'  relates  Franke,  'a  certain  person  put,  at  one  time,  four  dollars  and  six- 
teen groschen  into  it.  On  taking  this  sum  into  my  hand,  I  exclaimed  with 
great  liberty  of  faith,— This  is  a  considerable  sum,  with  which  something  really 
good  must  be,  accomplished;  I  will  commence  a  school  with  it  for  the  poor. 
Without  conferring,  therefore,  with  flesh  and  blood,  and  acting  under  the  im- 
pulse of  faith,  I  made  arrangement  for  the  purchase  of  books  to  the  amount  of 
two  dollars,  and  engaged  a  poor  student  to  instruct  the  poor  children  fora  couple 
of  hours  daily,  promising  to  give  him  six  groschen  weekly  for  so  doing,  in  the 
hope  that  God  would  meanwhile  grant  more;  since  in  this  manner  a  couple  of 
dollars  would  be  spent  in  eight  weeks.' 

Franke,  who  was  ready  to  offer  up  whatever  he  had  to  the  service  of  his 
neighbor,  fixed  upon  the  ante-chamber  of  his  study,  for  the  school-room  of  the 


514  HISTORY  OF  PRIMARY  EDUCATION  IN  GERMANY. 

poor  children,  who  began  regularly  to  receive  instruction  at  Easter,  1695.  In 
this  school-room,  he  caused  a  second  box  to  be  fixed  up,  with  the  inscription, 
'  For  the  expenses  of  the  instruction  of  the  children,  needful  books  &c.,'  and  un- 
derneath, '  He  that  hath  pity  upon  the  poor,  lendeth  to  the  Lord;  and  that  which 
he  hath  given,  will  he  pay  him  again,'  (Prov.  xix.  17.) 

At  Whiisuntide,  Franke  was  visited  by  some  friends,  who  were  much  pleased 
at  his  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  poor,  to  which  they  contributed  a  few  dollars. 
Others  also  gave  small  donations,  from  time  to  time,  to  the  school-box,  boon 
after  Whitsuntide,  when  some  of  the  townspeople  saw  how  regularly  the 
children  of  the  poor  received  instruction,  they  became  desirous  of  sending  their 
children  likewise  to  the  same  teacher,  and  offered  to  pay  him  weekly  a  grros- 
chen  for  each  child  ;  so  that  the  teacher  now  received  sixteen  groschen  weekly 
for  a  five-hours'  daily  instruction.  The  number  of  his  scholars,  that  summer, 
amounted  to  between  fifty  and  sixty,  of  which  the  poor,  besides  gratuitous  in- 
struction, also  received  alms,  twice  or  thrice  a-week,  to  incite  them  to  attend 
school  the  more  willingly.  Donations  in  money,  and  linen,  for  shins  for  the 
poor  children,  began  now  to  arrive  fiom  other  places. 

About  Whitsuntide  of  the  same  year.  Franke  laid  also  the  first  foundation 
for  what  was  subsequently  called  the  royal  school.  The  widow  of  a  nobleman 
desired  him  to  send  her  a  domestic  tutor  for  her  own,  and  one  of  her  friend's 
children.  He  found  no  one  who  was  sufficiently  far  advanced  in  his  studies, 
and  therefore  proposed  to  the  parents,  to  send  their  children  to  Halle,  and  that 
he  would  then  provide  for  their  education,  by  able  teachers  and  guardians, 
The  parents  agreed  to  this  plan;  and  a  few  months  afterward,  an  additional 
number  of  youths  were  sent,  and  thus  origin  a  ted  the  seminary  above  mentioned, 
which,  in  1709.  consisted  of  an  inspector,  twenty-three  teachers,  and  seventy- 
two  scholars  ;  and  in  1711.  by  means  of  Franke's  exertions,  had  a  building  ap- 
propriated exclusively  to  it. 

In  the  summer  of  the  same  year,  1695,  Franke  unexpectedly  and  unsolicit- 
edly  received  a  very  considerable  contribution ;  for  a  person  of  rank  wrote  to 
him  with  the  offer  of  five  hundred  dollars,  for  the  purpose  of  distribution  among 
the  poor,  and  especially  among  the  indigent  students.  This  money  was  shortly 
afterward  paid  over  to  him.  He  then  selected  twenty  poor  students,  whom  he 
assisted  with  a  weekly  donation  of  four,  eight,  or  twelve  groschen;  'and  this,' 
says  he,  '  was  in  reality  the  origin  of  the  poor  students'  participating  to  the  pres- 
ent hour,  in  the  benefits  of  the  orphan-house.5 

In  the  autumn  there  was  no  longer  sufficient  room  in  the  parsonage  for  the 
increasing  number  of  scholars;  he  therefore  hired  a  school-room  of  one  of  his 
neighbors,  and  a  second  in  the  beginning  of  the  winter.  He  then  divided  the 
scholars  into  two  classes,  and  provided  a  separate  teacher  for  the  children  of 
the  townspeople,  and  another  for  the  children  of  the  poor.  Each  teacher  gave 
four  hours  instruction  daily,  and  received  a  guilder  weekly,  besides  lodging 
and  firing  gratis. 

But  Franke  was  soon  made  to  see,  that  many  a  hopeful  child  was  deprived, 
when  out  of  school,  of  all  the  benefit  he  received  in  it.  The  idea  therefore 
occurred  to  him,  in  the  autumn  of  1695,  to  undertake  the  entire  charge  and  edu- 
cation of  a  limited  number  of  children ;  '  and  this,'  says  he,  '  was  the  first  in- 
citement I  felt,  and  the  first  idea  of  the  erection  of  an  orphan-house,  even  before 
I  possessed  the  smallest  funds  for  the  purpose.  On  mentioning  this  plan  to 
some  of  my  friends,  a  pious  individual  felt  induced  to  fund  the  sum  of  five 
hundred  dollars  for  that  purpose, — twenty-five  dollars  for  the  interest  on  which 
were  to  be  paid  over  every  Christmas,  which  has  also  been  regularly  received. 
On  reflecting  upon  this  instance  of  the  divine  bounty,  I  wished  to  seek  out  some 
poor  orphan  child,  who  might  be  supported  by  the  yearly  interest.  On  this, 
four  fatherless  and  motherless  children,  all  of  the  same  family,  were  brought  to 
me.  I  ventured,  in  confidence  upon  God,  to  receive  the  whole  four;  but  as  one 
of  them  was  taken  by  some  other  good  people,  only  three  were  left ;  but  a  fourth 
soon  appeared  in  the  place  of  the  one  that  had  been  taken.  I  took  therefore 
these  four;  placed  them  with  religious  people,  and  gave  them  weekly  half  a 
dohar  for  the  bringing  up  of  each.  On  this,  it  happened  to  me,  as  is  generally 
the  case,  that  when  we  venture  to  give  a  groschen  to  the  poor  in  faith,  we  feel 
afterward  no  hesitation  in  venturing  a  dollar  upon  the  same  principle.  For 
after  having  once  begun  in  God's  name,  to  receive  a  few  poor  orphans  without 
my  human  prospect  of  certain  assistance,  (for  the  interest  oi  the  five  hundred 


HISTORY  OF  PRIMARY  EDUCATION  IN  GERMANY.  515 

dollars  was  not  sufficient  to  feed  and  clothe  a  single  one  )  I  boldly  left  it  to  the 
Lord  to  make  up  for  whatever  might  be  deficient.  Hence  the  orphan-house  was 
by  no  means  commenced  and  founded  upon  any  certain  sum  in  hand,  or  on  the 
'assurances  of  persons  of  rank  to  take  upon  themselves  the  cost  and  charges,  or 
upon  any  thing  of  a  similar  nature,  as  was  subsequently  reported,  and  as  some 
were  inclined  to  suppose;  but  solely  and  simply  in  reliance  on  the  living  God 
in  heaven. 

'  The  day  after  I  had  undertaken  the  charge  of  the  four  orphans  above-men- 
tioned, two  more  were  added;  the  next  day,  another;  two  days  afterward,  a 
fourth,  and  one  more  after  the  lapse  of  a  week.  So  that,  on  the  16th  November, 
1695,  there  were  alieady  nine,  who  were  placed  with  pious  people.'  He  fixed 
upon  George  Henry  Neubauer,  a  student  of  divinity,  to  have  the  oversight  of 
their  education  and  their  bringing  up.  '  Meanwhile,'  continues  he,  '  the  faithful 
God  and  Father  of  the  fath»rless;  who  is  able  to  do  abundantly  above  what  we 
can  ask  or  think,  came  so  powerfully  to  my  aid,  that  foolish  reason  could  never 
have  expected  it.  For  he  moved  the  hearts  of  those  persons  of  rank  who  had 
given  me  the  five  hundred  dollars  already  mentioned,  to  present  me  with  an 
additional  sum  of  a  thousand  dollars  in  the  beginning  of  the  winter.  And  in 
the  middle  of  the  winter,  another  person  of  rank  was  incited  to  send  me  three 
hundred  dollars  to  enable  me  to  continue  my  attention  to  the  poor.  Another 
individual  gave  a  hundred  dollars,  and  others  gave  donations  01  smaller  sums/ 

Franke  had  hitherto  distributed  the  money  destined  for  the  poor  students 
weekly  ;  but  in  1696,  the  "idea  occurred  to  him,  ins.ead  of  a  weekly  allowance, 
to  give  them  dinner  gratuitously  ;  '  in  the  firm  confidence  in  God  that  he  would 
from  time  to  time  send  such  supplies,  as  to  enable  this  arrangement  to  be  con- 
tinued.' By  this  he  expected  to  be  of  greater  service  to  the  poor  students ;  he 
could  also,  in  this  manner  become  better  acquainted  with  them,  and  possess  a 
better  insight  into  their  life  and  conduct ;  and  lastly,  restrain  the  applications 
of  the  less  needy,  who  would  gladly  have  been  more  delicately  fed.'  Two 
open  tables  were  therefore  provided— each  for  twelve  poor  students;  and  that 
one  thing  might  assist  the  other,  he  selected  the  teachers  of  the  charity-school 
from  them.  This  was  the  origin  of  the  teachers'  seminary,  which  afterward 
gradually  arose  out  of  it. 

The  schools  of  the  children  of  the  townspeople  who  paid  a  certain  sum  for 
their  instruction,  though  inadequate  to  the  expense,  were  separated  from  the 
school  for  the  poor,  at  the  request  of  the  townspeople  themselves;  and  in  Sep- 
tember 1697,  another  school  was  added  for  those  tradesmen's  children  who 
were  instructed  in  the  elements  of  superior  science.  About  this  time  also,  more 
classes  were  required  in  the  orphan  school,  on  account  of  the  increased  number 
of  the  pupils.  The  boys  and  girls  received  separate  instruction,  and  when  any 
of  the  former 'manifested  abilities,  they  were  again  separated  from  the  rest,  and 
instructed  in  languages  and  the  sciences  by  particular  teachers.  In  May,  1699, 
Franke  united  this  class  of  the  orphan  children  with  the  class  of  the  trades- 
men's children,  who  likewise  received  superior  instruction.  These  arrange- 
ments for  imparting  a  more  learned  education,  show  us  the  rudiments  from 
whence  the  Latin  school  or  Gymnasium  afterward  developed  itself  in  Franke's 
institutions,  which  in  1709  was  attended  by  two  hundred  and  fifty-six  children, 
of  whom  sixty-four  were  orphans,  divided  into  seven  classes ;  and  in  1730, 
hy  more  than  five  hundred  pupils. 

At  the  time  of  his  death,  the  Orphan  House,  or  Hallische  Waisen- 
haus,  embraced  all  the  institutions  which  now  belong  to  it. 

1.  The  Orphan  Asylum,  established  in  1694.  in  which  over  5,000  or- 
phans had  been  educated,  up  to  1838,  gratuitously.     Such  of  the  boys  as 
manifest  peculiar  talent,  are  prepared  for  the  university,  and  supported 
there. 

2.  The  Royal  Pcedagogium,  founded  in  1696,  for  the  education  01 
children  of  rich  and  noble  families.     Up  to  1839.  2  850  individuals  had 
been  educated  in  this  boarding  institution.     The  profits  of  thi»  school  are 
paid  ov«r  to  the  orphan  asylum. 


516  HISTORY  OF  PRIMARY  EDUCATION  IN  GERMAN V 

3.  The  Latin  School,  established  in  1697,  for  pupils  from  abroad,  01 
less  wealthy  condition  than  the  former,  and  for  boys  of  the  city  of  Halle. 

4.  The  German  School,  for  boys  and  girls  whose  parents  do  not  wish 
to  give  them  a  classic  education. 

These  several  schools  number  from  3,000  to  4,000  pupils.*  of  every  age, 
and  in  every  study.  Besides  these  schools  there  are  other  features  in  the 
institution. 

5.  The  Canstein  Bible  Press,  established  in  1712,  to  furnish  the  Bible 
at  a  cheap  rate.     The  profits  on  the  sale  of  an  edition  are  applied  to 
diminish  the  expense  of  the  next  edition. 

6.  A  Library,  commenced  by  Franke  by  setting  apart  his  own  books 
for  the  use  of  his  school?,  and  which  now  number  20,000  volumes. 

7.  An  Apothecary's  Shop,  commenced  by  Franke  as  a  medicine  chest 
for  the  poor,  and  the  profit  of  which,  after  furnishing  the  wants  of  the 
orphan-house,  are  applied  to  the  support  of  the  institution. 

8.  A  Book  Establishment,  in  which  the  classics,  and  school  books,  are 
published  at  a  low  price,  not  only  for  the  institution,  but  for  the  trade 
generally. 

9.  A  house  for  widows. 

We  have  dwelt  on  the  labors  of  Franke,  because  he  proved  his  faith  in 
God  by  his  works,  and  because  he  was  an  educator  in  the  largest  and 
best  sense  of  that  designation. 

According  to  his  biographer,  the  first  teachers'  class  was  founded  by 
Franke  in  1697,  by  providing  a  table  or  free  board  for  such  poor  students 
as  stood  in  need  of  assistance,  and  selecting,  a  few  years  later,  out  of  the 
whole  number,  twelve  who  exhibited  the  right  basis  of  piety,  knowledge, 
skill  and  desire  for  teaching,  and  constituting  them  his  "  Seminarium 
Prseceptorum."  Teachers'  Seminary.  These  pupil  teachers  received 
separate  instruction  for  two  years,  and  obtained  a  practical  knowledge  of 
methods,  in  the  classes  of  the  several  schools.  For  the  assistance  thus 
rendered  they  bound  themselves  to  teach  for  three  years  in  the  institution 
after  the  close  of  their  course.  In  1704.  according  to  Raumer,  this  plan 
was  matured,  and  the  supply  of  teachers  for  all  the  lower  classes  were 
drawn  from  this  seminary.  But  besides  the  teachers  trained  in  this 
branch  of  Franke's  great  establishment,  hundreds  of  others,  attracted  by 
the  success  of  his  experiment,  resorted  to  Halle,  from  all  parts  of  Europe, 
to  profit  by  the  organization,  spirit,  and  method  of  his  various  schools. 
Among  the  most  distinguished  of  his  pupils  and  disciples  may  be  named, 
Count  Zinzendorf.  the  founder  of  the  communities  of  United  Brethren, 
or  Moravians,  in  Herrnhut,  in  1722;  Steinmetz.  who  erected  a  Normal 
School  in  Klosterbergen,  in  1730;  Hecker,  the  founder  of  the  first  Real 

*  It  is  interesting  to  a  visitor  to  remark  in  the  chief  cities  of  Germany,  during  certain  hours 
!he  silence  of  the  streets,  with  their  entire  desertion  by  children,  and  the  contrast  of  the  change 
produced  by  the  clock  striking  twelve.  The  road  and  footway  then  suddenly  swarm  with 
children,  carrying  books  and  slates,  and  returning  from  the  studies  of  the  morning  The  most 
striking  sight  of  the  kind  we  ever  witnessed  was  at  Halle,  where,  as  we  approached  a  large 
educational  establishment,  called  the  "Hallische  Wa  senhaus,"  the  whole  of  its  juvenile  in- 
mates, 3.000  in  number,  burst  forth  into  the  street,  and  filling  up  the  entire  roadway,  formed 
an  unbroken  stream  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  length.— Ifickson's  Dutch  and  German  School* 


X 

HISTORY  OF  PRIMARY  EDUCATION  IN  GERMAN!.  517 

School  in  Berlin,  to  which  a  seminary  for  teachers  was  attached  in  J74S  ; 
Rambalt,  who  lectured  in  the  Universities  in  Jena  and  Giessen  in  pedagogic, 
and  reformed  the  schools  in  Hesse-Darmstadt ;  Felbiger,  who  reorgan- 
ized the  schools  of  Silesia,  and  afterward  those  of  Austria ; — these,  and 
others  scarcely  less  distinguished,  were  among  the  most  eminent  and  suc- 
cessful teachers  of  the  day,  and  were  known  as  the  school  of  Pietists. 

The  educational  school  of  Franke  was  followed  by  Basedow,  (born  at 
Hamburg,  in  1723,)  Campe,  and  Salzman,  who  acquired  for  themselves 
a  European  reputation  by  the  Philanthropinum,  founded  by  the  former  at 
Dessau,  in  1781. 

This  institution  gave  its  name  to  the  school  of  educationists,  known 
as  Philanthropinic,  and  which  prevails  at  this  day  in  some  sections  of  Ger- 
many.  Its  earliest  development  on  the  continent  was  made  by  Rous- 
seau, in  his  "  Emile,"  and  by  John  Locke,  in  England,  in  his  "  Thoughts 
on  Education."  Its  great  aim  was  the  formation  of  a  practical  charac- 
ter, and  this  was  to  be  accomplished  by  following  the  indications  of  na- 
ture. The  body,  as  well  as  the  mind,  was  to  be  hardened  and  invigora- 
ted, and  prepared  to  execute  with  energy  the  designs  of  the  mind.  The 
discipline  of  the  family  and  school  was  softened  by  constant  appeals  to 
the  best  principles  in  the  child's  nature.  Particular  attention  was  paid  to 
instruction  in  language,  music,  and  the  laws  and  objects  of  nature.  Many 
of  these  principles  became  engrafted  onto  the  teachers  of  Normal  Schools, 
and  through  their  pupils  were  introduced  into  the  common  schools. 

About  this  time  appeared   Henry  Pestalozzi,   who  followed  in  the 
track  of  the  Philanthropinic  School,  and  by  his  example  and  writings,  dif- 
fused a  new  spirit  among  the  schools  of  primary  instruction,  all  over  Eu- 
rope.   Although  born  in  Switzerland,  at  Zurich,  in   1746,  and  although 
his  personal  labors  were  confined  to  his  native  country,  and  their  immedi- 
ate influence  was  weakened  by  many  defects  of  character,  still  his  gen- 
eral views  of  education  were  so  sound  and  just,  that  they  are  now  adopted 
by  teachers  who  never  read  a  word  of  his  life  or  writings,  and  by  many 
who  never  heard  of  his  name.     When  the  Prussian  government,  in  1809, 
undertook  systematically  the  work  of  improving  the  elementary  schools, 
as  a  means  of  creating  and  diffusing  a  patriotic  spirit  among  the  people, 
the  fame  of  Pestalozzi  was  at  its  height.     To  him  and  to  his  school,  to  his 
method  and  to  his  disciples,  the  attention  of  the  best  teachers  in  the  king- 
dom was  turned  for  guidance  and  aid.     Several  enthusiastic  young  teach- 
ers were  sent  to  his  institution  at  Yverdun,  to  study  his  methods  and  im- 
bibe his  spirit  of  devotion  to  the  children  of  the  poor.     Through  them, 
and  others  who  went  directly  to  Pestalozzi,  these  principles  and  methods 
were  transplanted  not  only  into  various  parts  of  Prussia,  but  also  into  the 
schools  and  seminaries  of  other  states  in  Germany. 

The  schools  of  most  of  the  teachers  and  educators,  whose  names  have 
oeen  introduced,  were  in  reality  Teachers'  Seminaries,  although  not 
so  designated  by  themselves  or  others.  Their  establishments  were  not 
simply  schools  for  children,  but  were  conducted  to  test  and  exemplify 


518  HISTORY  OF  PRIMARY  EDUCATION  IN  GERMANV 

principles  and  methods  of  education,  and  these  were  perpetuated  and 
disseminated  by  means  of  books  in  which  they  were  embodied,  or  of  pupils 
and  disciples  who  transplanted  them  into  other  places. 

As  has  been  already  stated,  on  the  authority  of  Franke's  biographer, 
and  of  Schwartz,  Raumer,  and  other  writers  on  the  history  of  education 
in  Germany,  the  first  regularly-organized  Teachers'  Seminary,  or  Normal 
School,  (not  normal  in  the  sense  in  which  the  word  was  originally  used, 
as  a  school  of  children  so  conducted  as  to  be  a  model  or  pattern  for  teach- 
ers to  imitate,  but  a  school  of  young  men,  who  had  already  passed  through 
an  elementary,  or  even  a  superior  school,  and  who  were  preparing  to  be 
teachers,  by  making  additional  attainments,  and  acquiring  a  knowledge 
of  the  human  mind,  and  the  principles  of  education  as  a  science,  and  of  its 
methods  as  an  art)  was  established  in  Halle,  in  a  part  of  Hanover,  prior 
to  1704.  About  the  same  period,  Steinmetz  opened  a  class  for  teachers 
in  the  Abbey  of  Klosterberge,  near  Magdeburg,  and  which  was  continued 
by  Resewitz,  by  whom  the  spirit  and  method  of  Franke  and  the  pietists 
were  transplanted  into  the  north  of  Germany.  In  1730,  lectures  on 
philology  and  the  best  methods  of  teaching  the  Latin,  Greek  and  German 
languages,  were  common  in  the  principal  universities  and  higher  schools. 
The  first  regularly-organized  seminary  for  this  purpose,  was  established 
at  Gottingen,  in  1738.  and  by  its  success  led  to  the  institution  of  a  similar 
course  of  study  and  practice  in  Jena,  Helle,  Helmstadt,  Heidelberg,  Ber- 
lin, Munich,  &c. 

In  1735,  the  first  seminary  for  primary  school  teachers  was  established 
in  Prussia,  at  Stettin,  in  Pomerania.  In  1748,  Hecker,  a  pupil  of  Franke, 
and  the  founder  of  burgher,  or  what  we  should  call  high  schools,  estab- 
lished an  institution  for  teachers  of  elementary  schools,  in  Berlin,  in  which 
the  king  testified  an  interest,  and  enjoined,  by  an  ordinance  in  1752.  that 
the  country  schools  on  the  crown  lands  in  New  Mark  and  Pomerania 
should  be  supplied  by  pupil  teachers  from  this  institution  who  had  learned 
the  culture  of  silk  and  mulberries  in  Hecker's  institution,  with  a  view  of 
carrying  forward  industrial  instruction  into  that  section  of  his  kingdom. 
In  1757,  Baron  von  Furstenberg  established  a  seminary  for  teachers  at 
Minister,  in  Hanover.  In  1767,  the  Canan  von  Rochow  opened  a  school 
on  his  estate  in  Rekane,inBrardenburg,  where,  by  lectures  and  practice, 
he  prepared  schoolmasters  for  country  schools  on  his  own  and  neighboring 
properties.  To  these  schools  teachers  were  sent  from  all  parts  of  Ger- 
many, to  be  trained  in  the  principles  and  practice  of  primary  instruction. 
In  1770,  Bishop  Felbinger,  organized  a  Normal  (model)  School  in  Vienna, 
with  a  course  of  lectures  and  practice  for  teachers,  extending  through 
four  months ;  and  about  the  same  time  the  deacon  Ferdinand  Kinder- 
mann,  or  von  Schulstein,  as  he  was  called  by  Maria  Theresa,  converted 
a  school  in  Kaplitz.  in  Bohemia,  into  a  Normal  Institution.  Between 
1770  and  1800,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  following  Table,  teachers'  semina- 
ries were  introduced  into  nearly  every  German  state,  which,  in  all  but 
three  instances,  were  supported  in  whole  or  in  part  by  the  government 


HISTORY  OF  PRIMARY  EDUCATION  IN  GERMANY  519 

As  the  demand  for  good  teachers  exceeded  the  supply  furnished  by  these 
seminaries,  private  institutions  have  sprung  up,  some  of  which  have  at- 
tained a  popularity  equal  to  the  public  institutions.  But  in  no  state  have 
such  private  schools  been  able  to  sustain  themselves,  until  the  gov- 
ernment seminaries  and  the  public  school  system  had  created  a  demand 
for  well-qualified  teachers.  And  in  no  state  in  Europe  has  the  experi- 
ment of  making  seminaries  for  primary  school  teachers  an  appendage  to 
a  university,  or  a  gymnasium,  or  any  other  school  of  an  academic  char- 
acter, proved  successful  for  any  considerable  period  of  time,  or  on  an  ex- 
tensive scale. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  there  were  about  thirty 
teachers'  seminaries  in  operation.  The  wars  growing  out  of  the  French 
Revolution  suspended  for  a  time  the  movements  in  behalf  of  popular  ed- 
ucation, until  the  success  of  the  new  organization  of  schools  in  Prussia, 
commencing  in  1809,  arrested  the  attention  of  governments  and  individ- 
uals all  over  the  continent,  and  has  led,  within  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century,  not  only  to  the  establishment  of  seminaries  nearly  sufficient  to 
supply  the  annual  demand  for  teachers,  but  to  the  more  perfect  organiza- 
tion of  the  whole  system  of  public  instruction. 

The  cardinal  principles  of  the  system  of  Primary  Public  Instruction  as 
now  organized  in  the  German  states,  are, 

First.  The  recognition  on  the  part  of  the  government  of  the  right,  duty 
and  interest  of  every  community,  not  only  to  co-operate  with  parents  in 
the  education  of  children,  but  to  provide,  as  far  as  practicable,  by  efficient 
inducement  and  penalties,  against  the  neglect  of  this  first  of  parental 
obligations,  in  a  single  instance.  The  school  obligation, — the  duty  of  pa- 
rents to  send  their  children  to  school,  or  provide  for  their  instruction  at 
home, — was  enforced  by  law  in  Saxe-Gotha,  in  1643 ;  in  Saxony  and 
Wirtemberg.  in  1659 ;  in  Hildesheim  in  1663  ;  in  Calemberg.  in  1681 ;  in 
Celle,  in  1689  ;  in  Prussia,  in  1717  ;  and  in  every  state  of  Germany,  before 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century.  But  it  is  only  within  the  last  thirty 
years,  that  government  enactments  have  been  made  truly  efficient  by  en- 
listing the  habits  and  good  will  of  the  people  on  the  side  of  duty.  We 
must  look  to  the  generation  of  men  now  coming  into  active  life  for  the 
fruits  of  this  principle,  universally  recognized,  and  in  most  cases  wisely 
enforced  in  every  state,  large  and  small,  Catholic  and  Protestant,  and 
having  more  or  less  of  constitutional  guaranties  and  forms. 

Second.  The  establishment  of  a  sufficient  number  of  permanent  schools 
of  different  grades,  according  to  the  population,  in  every  neighborhood, 
with  a  suitable  outfit  of  buildings,  furniture,  appendages  and  apparatus. 

Third.  The  specific  preparation  of  teachers,  as  far  as  practicable,  for 
the  particular  grade  of  schools  for  which  they  are  destined,  with  oppor- 
tunities for  professional  employment  and  promotion  through  life. 

Fourth.  Provision  on  the  part  of  the  government  to  make  the  schools 
accessible  to  the  poorest,  not.  except  in  comparatively  a  few  instances, 


520  HISTORY  OF  PRIMARY  EDUCATION  IN  GERMANY 

and  those  in  the  most  despotic  governments,  by  making  them  free  to  the 
poor,  but.  cheap  to  all. 

Fifth.  A  system  of  inspection,  variously  organized,  but  constant,  gen- 
eral, and  responsible — reaching  every  locality,  every  school,  every 
teacher,  and  pervading  the  whole  state  from  the  central  government  to 
the  remotest  district. 

The  success  of  the  school  systems  of  Germany  is  universally  attributed 
by  her  own  educators  to  the  above  features  of  her  school  law — especially 
those  which  relate  to  the  teacher.  These  provisions  respecting  teachers 
may  be  summed  up  as  follows  : — 

1.  The  recognition  of  the  true  dignity  and  importance  of  the  office  of 
teacher  in  a  system  of  public  instruction. 

2.  The  establishment  of  a  sufficient  number  of  Teachers'  Seminaries,  or 
Normal  Schools,  to  educate,  in  a  special  course  of  instruction  and  practice, 
all  persons  who  apply  or  propose  to  teach  in  any  public  primary  school, 
with  aids  to  self  and  professional  improvement  through  life. 

3.  A  system  of  examination  and  inspection,  by  which  incompetent  per- 
sons are  prevented  from  obtaining  situations  as  teachers,  or  are  excluded 
and  degraded  from  the  ranks  of  the  profession,  by  unworthy  or  criminal 
conduct. 

4.  A  system  of  promotion,  by  which  faithful  teachers  can  rise  in  a  scale 
of  lucrative  and  desirable  situations. 

5.  Permanent,  employment  through  the  year,  and  for  life,  with  a  social 
position  and  a  compensation  which  compare  favorably  with  the  wages 
paid  to  educated  labor  in  other  departments  of  business. 

6.  Preparatory  schools,  in  which  those  who  wish  eventually  to  become 
teachers,  may  test  their  natural  qualities  and  adaptation  for  school  teach- 
ing before  applying  for  admission  to  a  Normal  School. 

7.  Frequent  conferences  and  associations  for  mutual  improvement,  by  an 
interchange  of  opinion  and  sharing  the  benefit  of  each  others'  experience. 

8.  Exemption  from  military  service  in'  time  of  peace,  and  recognition, 
in  social  and  civil  life,  as  public  functionaries. 

9.  A  pecuniary  allowance  when  sick,  and  provision  for  years  of  infirmity 
and  old  age,  and  for  their  families  in  case  of  death. 

10.  Books  and  periodicals,  by  which  the  obscure  teacher  is  made  par- 
taker in  all  the  improvements  of  the  most  experienced  and  distinguished 
members  of  the  profession  in  his  own  and  other  countries. 

With  this  brief  and  rapid  survey  of  the  history  and  condition  of  Popu- 
lar Education  in  GeVmany,  we  will  now  pass  to  a  more  particular  descrip- 
tion of  primary  schools  in  several  states,  with  special  reference  to  the  or- 
ganization and  course  of  instruction  of  Normal  Seminaries,  and  other 
means  arid  agencies  for  the  professional  training  of  teachers.  Before 
doing  this,  we  publish  a  table,  prepared  from  a  variety  of  school  docu- 
ments, exhibiting  the  number  and  location  of  Normal  Schools  in  Germany, 
with  the  testimony  of  some  of  our  best  educators  as  to  the  result  of  this- 
Normal  School  system. 


JOHANN   MATTHIAS   GESNER* 

[Translated  from  the  German  of  Von  Raumer,  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education.] 


JOHANN  MATTHIAS  GESNER  was  the  son  of  a  preacher,  and  born 
in  1691,  at  Roth,  a  village  of  Ansbach,  in  the  Rezat.  He  early  lost 
his  father,  but  was  well  instructed  after  his  death  by  his  stepfather, 
Pastor  Zuckermantel,  and  afterward  sent  to  the  gymnasium  at  Ans- 
bach. Under  the  learned  Pastor  Kohler,  he  here  acquired  not  only 
Latin  and  Greek,  but  also  Hebrew,  Arabic,  and  Syriac,  and  several 
modern  languages. 

In  1710,  he  went  to  the  University  of  Jena,  where  he  studied 
Hebrew  more  thoroughly  under  Danz,  and  attended  the  theological 
lectures  of  Buddeus,  to  whom  he  became  much  attached.  This 
teacher  had  long  entertained  the  wish  that  a  great  want  in  the  uni- 
versity should  be  supplied.  After  their  university  studies,  most  of 
the  theological  students  went  into  situations  which  required  positive 
pedagogical  knowledge  and  efficiency.  Many  became  school  officers, 
many  tutors,  and  still  others  school  inspectors.  But  in  the  university 
there  was  not  the  least  pains  taken  to  prepare  the  students,  in  any 
measure,  for  these  duties.  This  want,  Buddeus  thought,  could  be  best 
supplied  by  the  erection  of  a  pedagogical  seminary.  In  the  young 
Gesner  he  believed  that  he  had  found  the  right  man  to  be  placed  at 
the  head  of  such  an  institution.  He  therefore  induced  him  to  write 
the  "Instituliones  rei  Scholasticce?  which  appeared  in  1715,  and  were 
to  serve  as  a  compendium  for  the  use  of  this  seminary.  All  were 
astonished  at  the  learning,  sound  judgment,  and  clearness  of  the 
author  at  twenty-four  years. 

Even  in  this  work,  Gesner's  tendency  to  polymathia  showed  itself; 
for  it  contains  many  of  the  outlines  of  his  later  "Isagoge  in  Eruditi- 
onem  Universalem." 

He  fully  discussed  instruction  in  the  ancient  languages.  It  would 
be  imagined  that  an  experienced  educator  was  speaking,  upon  hearing 
the  acute  rules  which  he  sometimes  gives  for  teachers. 

In  his  remarks  upon  instruction  in  Hebrew  and  the  modern  lan- 
guages, he  gives  evidence  of  his  studies  at  Ansbach  and  Jena. 

*  Materials.— 1.  "J.  A.  Ernesti  Narratio  de  J.  M.  Gesner  ad  D  Ruhnkenium."  2.  Qes- 
ner's  Works  ;  viz., »' Institutiones  rei  Scholastics."  Jena.  1715 ;  ^Mi-nor  German  Works,"  Got- 
tingen,  1756;  "Opu»cula  Minora,"  Breslau,  1743;  '-Prima  Linece,  Isagoges  in  Eruditionem 
Universalem.  Accedunt  prcblectiones  per  J.  N.  Niclas."  2  vols  ;  Leipzig,  1774. 


522  JOHANN  MATTHIAS  GESNER. 

He  then  passes  to  other  studies,  recommending  especially  the  pure 
and  mixed  mathematics. 

He  did  not,  however,  confine  himself  entirely  to  instruction,  but 
considered  all  that  lies  within  the  province  of  pedagogy.  Thus,  he 
fully  discusses  the  requisites  of  a  teacher ;  not  only  as  to  knowledge 
and  gifts  for  teaching,  but  also  moral  character.  He  further  describes 
the  scholar,  and  gives  directions  for  examining,  guiding,  and  manag- 
ing him. 

In  short,  this  little  book,  for  that  time,  completely  fulfilled  its  pur- 
pose, as  the  compendium  of  pedagogical  lectures  at  the  university ; 
and  we  can  only  wish  for  a  similar  work,  equally  as  good,  in  our  own 
times. 

One  design  of  the  "Institutiones"  however,  failed ;  Gesner  himself, 
that  is,  did  not  get  the  appointment  of  lecturer  upon  them  at  Jena ; 
for  he  was  shortly  afterward  invited  to  Weimar,  as  conrector  and 
librarian.  During  his  thirteen  years'  stay  in  this  place,  be  was  all  the 
time  increasing  the  universality  of  his  knowledge  by  the  most  com- 
prehensive studies,  a  work  in  which  his  place  as  librarian-  was  of  the 
greatest  service  to  him.  He  was  thus  well  fitted  to  be  afterward  of 
essential  service  to  one  of  the  greatest  European  libraries,  that  at 
Gottingen,  and  to  facilitate  its  first  youthful  progress.  From  Weimai 
he  went,  in  1728,  to  Ansbach,  as  rector  of  the  gymnasium  there,  and 
then  again,  in  1730,  he  became  rector  of  the  celebrated  Thomas 
School,  at  Leipzig.  This  he  found  in  a  very*low  condition,  both  in 
respect  to  studies  and  discipline. 

Jacob  Thomasius*  was  rector  of  this  school  from  1676  to  1684. 
At  the  latter  period,f  he  was  opposed  to  the  reading  of  the  ancient 
classics  in  the  school,  and  at  last  came  out  in  a  distinct  hostility 
against  them.  Accordingly  he  almost  entirely  banished  them  from 
the  school,  and  put  in  their  place  the  reading-books  and  chrestomath- 
ies  of  modern  Latinists ;  such  as  Muret,  Buchanan's  "Ptalterium? 
Schcenseus'  "Terentius  Christianus"  &c.  Johann  Heinrich  Ernesti, 
who  succeeded  Thomasius  and  was  rector  for  forty-five  years,  from 
1684  to  1729,  did  not  discontinue  this  practice.  When  Gesner  came 
into  Ernesti's  place,  and  found  that  scarcely  one  or  two  classics  were 
read  in  the  school,  he  suspected  the  wisdom  of  the  rule.  He  had 
previously  distinctly  defended  the  reading  of  the  classics,  excluding 
only  those  which  taught  openly  godlessness  and  sin.  On  this  point 
he  had  no  scruples  in  Leipzig ;  but  he  considered  whether  such 
scholars  as  commonly  learn  Latin,  only  to  understand  their  professional 

*  Father  of  the  celebrated  Christian  Thomasius. 

t "  The  Thomas  School,  at  Leipzig.     A  centennial,  by  G.  Stallbaum,  Ph.  D.,  and  rector  of 
the  school.    1839." 


JOHANN  MATTHIAS  GEStfER.  523 

text-books,  should  not  read  those  text- books  at  once ;  the  theological 
students  the  symbolic  books  and  Hutterus ;  the  jurists  the  "Institu- 
tiones"  &c.  But  in  a  man  of  so  thoroughly  classical  an  education, 
an  error  so  truly  unnatural  to  him*  could  prevail  only  for  a  moment, 
in  regard  to  the  nobler  studies  of  youth.  He  soon  bethought  him- 
self, and  introduced  anew  a  study  of  the  classics.  Gesner  at  the  same 
time  made  provision  for  a  suitable  pursuit  of  real  studies,  especially 
of  mathematics;  which  were  taught,  from  1731,  by  Johann  Heinrich 
Winkler,  well  known  as  a  natural  philosopher. 

The  Thomas  School  was  celebrated  for  its  long-established  music 
department,  which  was  at  one  time  under  the  management  of  the 
most  skillful  masters,  such  as  Sethus  Calvisius,  Hermann  Schein,  and 
Kiihnau.  The  most  distinguished  of  all  its  masters,  however,  was  that 
one  whom  Gesner  found  in  the  place  at  his  entrance  into  the  school ; 
namely,  the  immortal  cantor,  Johann  Sebastian  Bach,  for  whom  he 
entertained  a  great  respect,  f 

I  have  mentioned  that,  at  Gesner's  coming  to  Leipzig,  he  found  not 
only  the  classic  studies,  but  the  discipline,  of  the  Thomas  School,  in 
the  lowest  state.  There  was  among  the  pupils  an  universal  and  dis- 
graceful indolence.  They  had  one  habit  in  particular,  of  pretending 
to  be  sick,  in  order  to  get  the  better  diet  which  was  provided  for 
sickness,  and  to  have  vacations  for  months  together.  The  medicines 
which  were  given  them,  they  threw  away.  Thus  the  expenditures  for 
medicine  and  the  care  of  the  sick  increased,  until  it  might  have  been 
believed  that  the  institution  was  not  a  school,  but  a  hospital.  Gesner 
put  an  end  to  this  practice  in  this  way  :  When  the  scholar  told  him 
he  was  sick,  he  visited  him  at  once,  inquired  in  a  friendly  way  what 
he  wanted,  and  said :  "  It  does  not  yet  appear  clearly  what  the  dis- 
ease is ;  until  it  does,  you  must  eat  only  the  simplest  food,  and  stay 
in  bed."  A  watcher  was  then  appointed  for  the  sick  man,  to  see  that 
he  complied  strictly  with  this  direction.  By  far  the  greater  part  of 
them,  quite  restored  by  fasting  and  weariness,  recovered  in  one  or  two 
days  ;  and  over  the  few  who  were  really  sick,  and  who  were  obliged 
to  remain  so,  Gesner  exercised  fatherly  care. 

In  1733,  there  appeared  the  "Laws  of  the  Thomas  School?  drawn 
up  by  him,  which  related  mostly  to  the  discipline  of  the  scholars. 
"  It  is  incredible,"  says  Ernesti,  "  how  useful  Gesner  was  to  the  school ; 
not  merely  by  organizing  a  better  administration,  and  fixing  it  fast 
and  steadily  by  the  new  laws,  but  by  teaching  in  a  manner  then  new 

*  Later  educators  could  be  named,  to  whom  this  error  was  natural— and  is  no~v. 

t  In  a  note  upon  Quintilian,  1,  12,  3.  Gesner  says :  "  I  believe  the  greatest  admirer  of  antiq 
uity  would  confess  that  many  Orpheuses  and  twenty  Arirns  are  all  included  in  Bach  alone, 
and  in  any  one  else  like  him,  if  there  be  any  such." 


524  JOHANN  MATTHIAS  GESNER. 

to  us,  and  exceedingly  beautiful."*  In  the  next  year,  1734,  Gesner 
left  Leipzig,  having  received  an  invitation  to  the  new  university  at 
Gottingen.  He  was  there  professor  of  eloquence  and  poetry,  and 
also  librarian.  He  was  also  made  director  of  the  philological  semi- 
nary, and  inspector  of  all  the  Hanoverian  schools;  two  important 
pedagogical  offices,  for  which  the  experience  which  he  had  gathered 
in  His  three  rectorates  had  well  fitted  him.  The  views  which,  under 
the  influence  of  Buddeus,  he  had  advanced  in  Jena,  in  1715,  he  now, 
twenty-three  years  afterward,  in  1738,  introduced  in  the  seminary  of 
Gottingen.  This  was  intended  for  giving  to  young  theologians  a 
theoretical  and  practical  training  for  the  business  of  teaching.  For 
his  lectures  upon  the  whole  of  pedagogy,  he  took,  as  a  basis,  his 
"Institutiones  rei  Scholasticce"  Besides  their  philological  studies, 
the  pupils  of  the  seminary  studied  also  pure  and  mixed  mathematics, 
natural  sciences,  and  geography.  They  practiced  teaching  in  the  city 
school  of  Gottingen.  The  most  important  of  Gesner's  lectures  are  in 
his  "Isagoge  in  Eruditionem  Universalem  ;  "  a  scientific  encyclopedia. 
We  have  these  lectures  in  the  form  in  which  they  were  written  down 
by  a  learned  hearer,  Niclas.  When  Niclas  laid  his  manuscript  before 
Gesner,  the  latter  said  :  "I  recognize  myself  in  them  ;  print  them." 

In  1740,  a  German  society  was  formed  in  Gottingen,  of  which 
Gesner  was  chosen  president.  Afterward,  in  1751,  was  founded  the 
Gottingen  society  of  sciences ;  at  the  head  of  the  historical  and 
philological  section  of  which  Gesner  was  placed.  He  afterward 
became  president  of  the  society. 

Notwithstanding  the  many  offices  which  required  so  much  of  his 
activity,  he  wrote  works  extraordinary  in  number  and  value.  Two 
of  them  I  have  already  mentioned.  To  these  must  be  added  many 
excellent  editions  of  the  classics ;  as,  for  instance,  Livy,  Quintilian, 
Horace,  the  writers  on  agriculture,  &c.,  and  also  his  celebrated 
" Thesaurus. ,"f  Many  of  his  single  Lalin  treatises,  inscriptions,  ad- 
dresses, prefaces,  &c.,  have  been  published,  under  the  title  u€fesneri 
Opuscula  Minora?  besides  a  similar  collection  of  German  composi- 
tions, called  ^Gesner's  Minor  German  Works." 

In  the  "Isagoge"  and  in  these  collected  Latin  and  German  writings, 
is  to  be  found  a  treasure  of  pedagogical  experience  and  opinions; 
"  May  these  instructions,"  says  Gesner,  in  the  preface  to  his  German 
writings,  "  based  upon  an  experience  of  more  than  forty  years,  and 
the  often  repeated  consideration  of  them,  have  a  good  influence  upon 

*  Ernesti's  opinion  is  the  more  important,  as  he  was  Gesner's  successor  in  the  rectorate  of 
the  school 

t  Ernesti  calls  the  "'Thesaurus"  "a  very  great  and  most  laborious  and  erudite  work, 
Bufficient  alone  to  secure  the  immortality  and  perennial  glory  of  his  name." 


JOHANN  MATTHIAS  GESNER.  525 

practical  teaching."  The  teaching  and  learning  of  the  ancient  lan- 
guages continues  to  have  an  especial  attraction  for  him,  as  earlier, 
when  he  wrote  the  "Instilutiones"  In  this  department  his  views 
were  entirely  opposed  to  the  usual  ones,  especially  in  regard  to  the 
grammars  used  in  schools.  "These  were  originally/'  he  says,*  "in- 
tended for  facilitating  the  study  of  languages;  but,  latterly,  very 
learned  grammars  have  appeared,  which  are  as  unfit  for  teaching  the 
rudiments  of  grammar,  as  the  most  subtly  and  skillfully  made  lancet, 
for  cutting  bread."  "Children,"  he  says  further,  "should  not  be 
martyred  with  the  unintelligent  learning  by  rote  of  rules  and 
exceptions,  and  thus  be  made  to  lose  the  taste  for  study,  in  the  begin- 
ning, and  perhaps  forever."  Languages  were  made  before  grammar ; 
men  spoke  correctly  before  they  thought  of  the  art  of  speaking. 
Also,  he  says,  "  It  is  a  hundred  times  easier  to  learn  a  language  by 
use  and  practice,  without  the  grammar,  than  from  the  grammar,  with- 
out use  and  practice."  "  The  latter  is  absolutely  impossible."  In 
particular,  it  is  not  necessary  to  make  the  boys  learn  Latin  rules  for 
the  gender  of  words,  &c.;  it  is  better  for  them  to  learn  a  phrase  or  a 
sentence,  in  which  the  rule  appears.  For  our  knowledge  every  where 
proceeds,  not  from  general  abstract  rules,  but  from  single  examples. 

He  then  speaks  against  the  general  overvaluation  of  grammatical 
knowledge.  "It  is  among  the  most  common  faults  of  Latin  instruc- 
tion," he  says,  "  to  reprove  harshly,  to  punish  or  to  ridicule,  for  any 
fault  in  the  scholar's  grammar,  as  if  he  had  sinned  against  the  laws  of 
God  and  man."  f  "  Moreover,"  he  continues,  "  those  who  need  to 
understand  Latin,  in  order  that  they  may  be  enabled  to  read  books  in 
it,  are  very  seldom  in  a  position  to  need  a  grammatical  oracle ;  and 
even  there  would  be  twenty  or  thirty  to  one,  who  would  be  in  need 
of  the  ability  to  write,  and  particularly  to  write  in  an  accurate  man- 
ner. J  These  views  of  Gesner  were  so  entirely  opposite  to  those 
of  the  day,  that  he  was  attacked  on  account  of  them  from  many 
directions,  but  mostly  under  a  misunderstanding.  "  I  reject  gram- 
mar," he  replied  to  his  opponents,  "  only  for  youth,  as  hurting  them 
more  than  helping  them.  But,  for  grown  persons,  it  is  in  the  highest 
degree  necessary." 

Here  we  must  mention  Gesner's  valuable  preface  to  his  edition  of 
Livy,  in  which  he  speaks  of  the  two  different  methods  of  reading  the 

*  See  his  German  Works,  p.  256.  And  see  p.  296,  for  a  description  of  the  bad  methods  of 
teaching  language  which  were  usual  in  the  schools. 

t  In  like  manner  he  says  ("Institut.,"  81,)  "  It  would  have  been  better  to  speak  barbarously, 
and  think  piously,  than  to  express  an  evil  mind  even  in  the  most  elegant  words.  With  this 
sentiment,  Augustine  agrees  entirely.  See  his  "Confessions,"  1,  18. 

}  Gesner  discusses  the  question  for  what,  and  to  what  extent,  a  knowledge  of  Latin  is  neces- 
sary, in  the  *'Isaffoge,"  1,  114,  <kc. 


526  JOHANN  MATTHIAS  GESNER. 

classics  ;  the  rapid,  and  the  slow.*  Here,  likewise,  he  sets  himself  in 
opposition  to  the  usual  customs  of  the  schools.  He  admits,  it  is  true, 
that  it  is  a  good  method  to  read,  in  the  beginning,  some  book  of  a 
reasonable  size,  or  at  least  some  part  of  it,  very  thoroughly,  for  the 
sake  both  of  obtaining  certainty  of  knowledge,  and  also  so  as  to 
learn,  as  it  were  by  example,  what  is  a  thorough  understanding  of  the 
classics.  But  he  goes  on  to  declare  himself  most  distinctly  against  the 
entire  dominion  of  the  method  of  slow  reading  in  the  schools,  which 
has  become  degenerated,  because  in  the  course  of  the  explanation  of 
one  author,  the  most  heterogeneous  things  are  lugged  in.  Thus, 
pupils  sometimes  read  for  years  together  in  one  book  of  Cicero's 
Letters,  or  the  "De  Officiis?  divide  one  play  of  Terence,  or  one  book 
of  Caesar,  into  so  many  little  parts  that  even  an  extraordinary  memory 
can  not  retain  them  all. 

After  this  he  goes  on  to  describe  and  recommend  the  more  rapid 
method,  that  of  reading  in  course ;  in  which  the  scholar  endeavors, 
with  his  whole  soul  and  individual  attention,  to  fix  in  his  mind 
whatever  author  he  is  reading,  and  to  understand  him  only,  and 
enjoy  his  beauties.  He  relates  that,  when  he  has  read  Terence  in  this 
manner  to  his  scholars,  they  have  sat  with  open  mouths,  silent,  with 
eyes,  ears,  and  minds  occupied,  laughing  even,  and  thus  betraying 
their  pleasure  by  their  gestures.  ,But  when  he  read  the  Phoenissa? 
of  Euripides  in  the  slow  way,  with  the  same  scholars,  they  sat,  it  is 
true,  with  open  mouths,  but  it  was  because  they  were  silently  gaping 
or  sleeping. 

Gesner,  as  we  have  said,  was  among  the  first  who  undertook 
earnestly  to  bring  to  pass  the  adaptation  of  the  gymnasiums  not 
only  to  such  scholars  as  were  to  pursue  a  learned  occupation*  but  for 
those  who  were  not,  also ;  and  thus,  that  in  them  real  studies  should 
be  more  practiced. 

While  he  was  thus  laboring,  earnestly,  wisely,  and  practically,  for 
the  improvement  of  schools,  he  had  also  at  heart,  during  the  twenty- 
seven  years  of  his  professorship,  the  good  of  the  university.  This 
appears  in  the  academical  prospectuses,  which,  as  professor  of  elo- 
quence, it  was  his  business  to  write.  It  will  appear  from  them,  he 
says,  *4  How  strenuously  it  has  been  endeavored  to  keep  in  order 
the  youth  of  the  university,  who  have  a  good  title  to  a  noble  free- 
dom, by  means  not  having  the  shape  of  strict  laws,  which  belong  to 
the  common  unreasoning  crowd,  but  that  of  a  fatherly  and  friendly 

*  This  edition  of  Livy  appeared  in  Leipzig,  in  1735.  The  preface  is  reprinted  in  the  "Opws- 
CMta,"  7, 289. 

Ernesti  entirely  agrees  with  Gesner  on  the  point  in  question,  ana  says  that  he  followed  his- 
method  in  explaining  the  classics  in  the  Thomas  School. 


JOHANN  MATTHIAS  GESNER.  527 

address,  and  thus  to  preserve  them  from  the  dangers  into  which  so 
many  fall  by  a  misuse  of  freedom."  He  expresses  himself  in  a  clear 
and  noble  manner  in  " Considerations  upon  the  friends  of  students;" 
"  All  teachers  in  the  higher  institutions  of  learning  are,  by  their  sta- 
tion and  duty,  the  intended  and,  as  it  were,  the  born  friends  of  the 
students;"  and  it  is  their  duty  to  seek  the  good  of  the  students, 
without  regard  to  their  own  profit.  For  this  reason,  those  who  do 
not  conceal  the  faults  of  the  students,  must  expose  themselves  to  the 
danger  of  awakening  displeasure  by  their  admonitions.  He  prays 
God  "  to  keep  the  fathers  of  the  university  in  this,  the  only  right  state 
of  feeling  toward  those  intrusted  to  them,"  and  to  preserve  the 
university  free  from  "  harmful  studentsMViends,"  and  "  hypocrites." 

There  are  indications  in  the  "Isagoge?  of  the  frequency  and  plain- 
ness with  which  he  attacked  his  hearers  in  his  lectures.  He  there 
complains,  for  example,  that  while  the  sciences  have  increased,  the 
students  have  lost  in  industry.  When  he  studied  in  Jena,  lectures 
were  given  as  early  as  five  in  the  morning ;  while  later,  the  professor 
set  the  hour  at  seven,  and  even  then  got  scarcely  a  hearer.  "  For- 
merly," he  says,  "  the  students  listened  to  lectures  all  the  day,  now 
they  spend  two  hours  over  their  coffee;  while  the  friseur  is  coming, 
the  curling-tongs  are  heating,  and  the  hair  frizzling,  hours  pass  away. 
To  study  after  four  or  five  in  the  evening  is  thought  by  many  a 
degrading  requisition."  In  the  programme  for  the  summer  lectures 
for  1743,  Gesner  recommends  very  earnestly  to  the  students  a  per- 
severing attendance  upon  the  lectures.  The  more  skillful  the  teacher, 
he  says,  the  more  close  the  connection  of  lectures,  so  that  by  as  much 
as  the  latter  are  based  upon  the  former,  and  they  all  constitute  one 
whole,  so  much  the  more  injurious  is  frequent  absence  to  the  student. 
And  again,  he  advises  his  hearers  to  be  attentive  during  their  lec- 
tures, as  this  stimulates  and  increases  the  zeal  of  the  teacher.  "  If 
there  be  any  thing  pleasant  in  my  books,"  says  Martial,  "my  Bearers 
have  occasioned  it."  This  is  owing  to  the  happy  influence  of  men's 
minds  upon  each  other;  and  in  like  manner  a  bad  influence  is 
exerted.  "  One  gaper,"  he  continues,  "  makes  the  rest  gape.  Noth- 
ing is  more  wearisome  than  to  instruct,  when  most  of  the  hearers  are 
sleepy.  Quintilian  says, '  as  it  is  the  duty  of  the  teacher  to  teach,  so 
it  is  of  the  scholar  to  be  desirous  of  learning.' " 

We  have  seen  that  Gesner  sought  and  followed  new  methods  for 
schools ;  it  should  be  also  mentioned  that  he  opposed  an  academical 
custom ;  that  of  the  use  of  Latin  in  the  lectures.  Let  us  now  pass 
to  other  points  of  distinction  between  him  and  most  of  the  philolog- 
ical pedagogues  of  his  age. 


528  JOHANN  MATTHIAS  GESNER. 

Th<d  chief  of  them  is  this ;  that  he  repeatedly  recommended  real 
studies.  Studies  in  languages,  he  said,  should  never  be  disjoined 
from  those  in  things.  This  separation  of  things,  which  are  by  their 
nature  intimately  joined  together,  is  a  real  evil.  By  reason  of  it, 
youth  learn  so  many  names,  without  one  idea  of  the  things  which  are 
named.  For  the  purpose  of  elementary  instruction,  such  books 
should  be  used  as  will  furnish  also  real  knowledge.  He  liked,  ac- 
cordingly, the  works  of  Comenius,  especially  the  *"0rbis  Pictus." 
As  president  of  the  German  society  of  Gottingen,  a  place  which 
would  scarcely  have  been  offered  to  any  other  philologist  of  his 
times,  he  esteemed  those  schools  fortunate  whose  instructors,  by 
sympathy  with  that  society,  have  acquired  "  a  love  for  the  mother 
tongue,  neglected  in  so  many  ways,  and  the  ability  to  express 
themselves  well  in  it."  This  facility  is  to  be  attained,  not  by  rules, 
but  by  making  translations  from  the  masterpieces  of  the  ancient 
classics. 

Among  real  studies,  Gesner  gave  a  high  place  to  the  natural 
sciences,  in  which  such  great  advances  have  been  made  of  late  years. 
He  himself,  while  rector  in  the  Thomas  School,  attended  the  lectures 
of  Hausen,  upon  experimental  physics.  The  boys,  he  says,  ought 
certainly  to  study  drawing;  and  we  have  seen  how  high  a  value  he 
set  upon  mathematical  studies,  especially  astronomy.  "God,"  he 
says,  u  has  so  connected  them  with  the  heavens,  that  it  is  only  by  the 
observation  of  them  that  we  can  see  where  and  at  what  time  we  are 
living."  He  recognizes  geography  as  the  vestibule,  basis,  and  light 
of  history,  especially  of  that  of  the  mother  country. 

Gesner  thus  showed  himself  to  be  a  man  who  united,  with  the 
most  thorough  knowledge  and  love  of  antiquity,  a  correct  apprecia- 
tion of  real  studies;  and  who  sought  new  methods  of  teaching,  when 
he  was  convinced  of  the  faults  of  the  old.  No  one  can  imagine  that 
for  this  reason  he  is  to  be  classed  with  Basedow.  In  addition,  I  may 
here  give  one  extract  from  the  '"Isagoge?  which  shows  clearly  how 
he  differed  from  most  of  the  reformers  of  the  eighteenth  century  in 
his  most  fundamental  plans.  He  says:  "The  beginnings  of  all  sci- 
ences must  be  believed.*  This  is  a  very  important  rule,  especially 
at  the  present  day,  when  even  little  children  are,  from  an  early  age, 
instructed  by  their  teachers"  to  believe  nothing.  As  soon  as  they 
begin  to  show  one  spark  of  understanding,  and  wisdom,  they  are 
spoken  to  of  opinions.  And  since  we  are  by  nature  only  too  much 
inclined  to  see  every  thing  for  ourselves,  and  to  receive  nothing  by 
simple  belief,  but  to  wish  to  discover  the  truth  for  ourselves,  the  boys 

*  In  another  place  he  quotes  Aristotle's  remark,  that  "  it  is  necessary  to  believe  what  in 
learned." 


JOHANN  MATTHIAS  GESNER.  529 

too  soon  get  the  i4ea  that  that  only  is  true  which  we  understand 
from  our  natural  senses ;  and  this  has  the  evil  consequence  that  they 
are  willing  to  believe  nothing,  will  not  learn  what  is  necessary,  and 
are  unwilling  to  obey  their  teachers.  Man  can  not  by  himself  gain 
the  first  elements  of  learning ;  he  must  receive  them  from  others,  and 
what  they  teach  him  he  must  believe.  If  the  boy  should  begin  to 
dispute  about  why  one  letter  is  called  A  and  another  B,  and  especially 
if  he  demands  reasons  for  it,  he  could  ask  questions  for  years  without 
learning  any  thing;  and,  moreover,  it  would  not  be  possible  to  answer 
him.  Very  often  no  account  can  be  given  of  the  first  elements  of 
things.  For  instance,  let  a  pupil  ask,  why  are  such  and  such  things 
called  point,  line,  surface?  And  let  him  take  nothing  by  belief  until 
the  reason  of  it  is  given,  and  he  will  learn  nothing  to  eternity.  I 
know  this  by  experience.  I  have  often  seen,  in  good  families,  boys  so 
precocious  as  to  ask  questions  all  day.  But  the  German  proverb  was 
true  of  them — that  a  fool  can  ask  a  thousand  times  more  questions 
than  a  wise  man  can  answer.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  the  utter- 
ances of  the  teacher  are  to  be  considered  as  oracles,  from  whose 
sayings  there  is  to  be  no  variation ;  but  only  this-,  that  as  long  as  we 
are  pupils,  we  must  take  things  by  belief.  Afterward  only,  when 
our  understanding  is  ripened,  and  we  have  become  independent,  may 
we  prove  what  we  hare  learned." 

In  Gesner  we  have  thus  become  acquainted  with  a  man  distin- 
guished for  thorough  learning,  clear  understanding,  pedagogical  wis- 
dom, and  gifts  for  teaching;  and  unweariedly  active  and  conscientious 
in  his  official  duties.  Ernesti,  who  lived  in  close  connection  with  him 
for  many  years,  describes  him  as  exceedingly  religious,  resigned  to 
the  will  of  God,  and  thus  of  like  demeanor  both  in  good  and  evil 
days,  and  as  a  loving  father  and  friend.  After  a  long  and  active  life, 
his  end  drew  near.  When  the  physicians  announced  to  him  his  ap 
proaching  death,  he  answered :  u  What  is  to  be  settled  between  me 
and  God,  I  have  not  put  off  to  this  time."  He  departed  in  a  peace- 
ful and  Christian  manner,  August  3rd,  1761. 

34 


JOHANN  AUGUST  ERNESTI. 

[Tr»i  slated  from  the  German  of  Von  Raumer,  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education. , 


JOHANN  AUGUST  ERNESTI  was  born  in  1707,  at  Tennstadt,  a  small 
town  of  Thuringia,  where  his  father  was  pastor.  He  received  his 
first  instruction  in  the  school  of  Tennstadt,  and,  in  his  sixteenth  year, 
he  was  placed  in  the  princes'  school  of  Schulpforte.  Here  he  distin- 
guished himself  by  his  important  acquisitions,  especially  in  Greek. 

In  his  twentieth  year  he  entered  the  University  of  Wittemberg, 
where  Wolf's  philosophy  was  in  the  bight  of  fashion ;  and  after- 
ward went  to  Leipzig,  where  he  attended  the  lectures  of  Gottsched 
on  German  eloquence,  and  of  Hausen  upon  mathematics. 

When  twenty-three,  he  was,  upon  the  recommendation  of  Gesnert 
employed  as  private  tutor,  by  Counselor  of  Appeals  Stiglitz,  the  same 
to  whom  the  epistle  upon  the  study  of  the  ancients,  prefixed  to  his 
edition  of  Cicero,  is  addressed.  Stiglitz  was  superior  (antistes)  of  the 
Thomas  School;  it  was  by  his  influence  that  Gesner  had  been  ap- 
pointed rector,  and  it  was  he  also  who  procured  the  appointment  of 
Ernesti,  when  only  twenty-four,  as  conrector,  and  afterward,  at  tho 
departure  of  Gesner,  in  1734,  as  rector.  Ernesti,  at  the  same  time, 
read  lectures  at  the  university,  upon  polite  learning.  At  a  subsequent 
period,  he  gave  up  his  rectorship,  and  devoted  his  whole  time  to  the 
university,  giving  his  attention  especially  to  theology. 

He  died  in  1781,  at  Leipzig,  aged  seventy-four. 

From  Ernesti's  own  expressions,  he  woull  seem  to  have  taken 
Gesner  for  his  model  in  teaching.  The  latter  induced  him  to  publish,  in 
1734,  the  "Initia  Doctrince  Solidioris?  a  work  which  passed  through 
repeated  editions,  and  was  brought  into  use  as  a  school-book  in  various 
countries,  as  Saxony  and  Hanover,  for  instance.  In  this  book,  Ern- 
esti aimed  to  give  his  instructions  in  as  good  Latin  as  possible; 
although,  as  appears  by  comparing  the  earlier  and  later  editions,* 
he  continued  to  labor  for  the  improvement  of  its  style,  and  to  approach 
nearer  and  nearer  to  his  ideal  of  Ciceronian  Latin.  In  the  preface, 
he  relates  that,  as  a  preparatory  discipline  for  th  s  work,  he  read  the 
best  Latin  writers  of  the  golden  age,  and,  where  this  would  not  serve, 

*  The  very  first  period  of  the  book  will  serve  as  an  example.  In  (he  edition  of  1734,  it 
reads,  "Cum  ad  libettum  fiunc  scribendum  adjiceremus  animum^fa-  >  prtzvidebamus,fore 
ut  hoe  consilium  nostrum  in  mullas  multorum  reprehensiones  tncurreret."  Instead  of  facile 
prcevidebamus,  the  edition  of  1750  has  non  parum  su^-ictifwumr. 


JOHANN  AUGUST  ERNESTI.  53 1 

those  of  the  silver  age,  repeatedly  over.  Thus,  he  says,  he  believes 
that  he  has  succeeded  in  not  admitting  any  thing  into  his  book  which 
was  not  heard  in  ancient  Latium.*  Only  from  necessity  has  he  here 
and  there  used  an  unclassical  expression. 

From  this  saying  of  Nihil  veteri  Latio  inauditum,  it  might  natu- 
rally be  concluded  that  the  book  would  contain  nothing  which  had 
not  been  heard  in  ancient  Latium.  And  this  conclusion  would  be, 
for  the  greater  part  of  the  book,  correct.  It  treats,  first,  of  arith- 
metic and  geometry ;  then  come  the  elements  of  philosophy,  in  this 
order:  1st,  metaphysics,  psychology,  ontology,  natural  theology;  2nd, 
dialectics;  3rd,  natural  law,  and  ethics;  4th,  politics;  5th,  physics. 
In  conclusion,  come  the  elements  of  rhetoric.  This  table  of  contents 
reminds  us  of  the  cyclus  of  Melancthon's  text-books;  of  his  dialec 
tics,  rhetoric,  physics,  psychology,  and  ethics.  All  acquainted  with  the 
subject  will  readily  believe  that  Ernesti's  book  would  not  be  adapted  . 
to  our  present  gymnasiums.  The  mathematical  part  may  appear 
to  us  scanty;  but  when  we  consider  that,  by  the  Prussian  school 
ordinances  of  the  year  1735,  one  year  after  the  appearance  of  the 
"Initia"  no  knowledge  of  mathematics  whatever  was  required  of  those 
graduating  from  the  gymnasiums,  we  shall  retract  that  opinion. 

Philosophical  subjects  are  handled  at  length  in  about  four  hundred 
and  fifty  pages.  The  fact  that  Christianity  is  here  completely  ignored, 
while,  nevertheless,  so  many  things  must  come  up  which  have  been 
known  to  the  pupils  by  means  of  their  catechetical  studies,  must  be 
set  down  as  an  entire  error.  If,  according  -to  Picus  of  Mirandola, 
philosophy  seeks  truth,  theology  finds  it,  and  religion  possesses  it,  it 
could  not  but  be  strange,  to  such  as  had  possessed  it  from  an  early 
age,  to  be  set  to  searching  for  that  of  which  they  were  already  in 
possession.  It  would  be  quite  otherwise  if  the  manual  should  contain 
a  comparative  description  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  theology  by  the 
side  of  the  Christian,  although  gymnasium  pupils  are  not  old  enough 
even  for  such  a  treatise. 

It  is  quite  mysterious  how  Ernesti  should  have  inserted  in  his 
school-book  such  chapters  as  this :  De  conjugii  felicitate  consequenda, 
and  De  euro,  subnlis.  Of  this  latter  chapter  we  must  say  a  little 
more.  In  it  Ernesti  expresses  views  upon  education,  which  agree  in 
part  with  the  earlier  ones  of  Locke,  and  in  part  with  the  later  ones  of 
Rousseau.  He  discusses  procreation,  and  the  management  of  pregnant 
women;  urges  that  the  mother  should  herself  nurse  her  children,  and 
not  give  them  into  the  charge  of  untrustworthy  nurses ;  and  he 

*  Still,  Ernesti  by  no  means  belonged  to  those  philologists  who  read  the  ancients  only  with 
the  design  of  patching  together  a  Latin  style,  by  picking  scraps  out  of  them.  Against  that 
kind  of  reading  he  declared  himself  most  decidedly,  in  his  letter  to  Stiglitz. 


532  JOHANN  AUGUST  ERNESTI. 

refers  to  Gellius,  for  the  like  advice.  Mothers,  he  says  further,  must 
not  give  their  own  children  to  nurses,  but  must  themselves  educate 
them;  and,  if  they  do  this,  they  will  be  beloved  by  the  children.  If 
parents  command  or  forbid  any  thing,  they  should  give  the  reasons 
for  it;  for  otherwise  they  are  obeyed  unwillingly,  and  would  rather 
be  led  than  driven.  Parents  should  not  require  their  children  to  be 
free  from  faults,  and  should  not  be  alternately  forgiving  and  un- 
reasonably strict.  Instruction  should  be  such,  not  that  the  children 
shall  believe  blindly  in  any  thing,  but  only  in  what  is  given  them  as 
the  foundation  of  their  belief;  and  they  should  make  inquiries  for  the 
reasons  of  things.  Thus  they  will  be  kept  from  credulity,  supersti- 
tion, and  prejudices.  Care  should  also  be  taken,  not  to  fill  their 
memories,  like  those  of  parrots,  with  empty  or  unintelligible  words. 

Ernesti  recommends  care  in  the  choice  of  teachers,  and  in  deter- 
mining upon  the  future  occupation  of  the  children.  They  should 
early  be  taught  a  love  of  true  honor,  the  right  use  of  money,  and 
truthfulness. 

Such  pedagogical  rules  as  these  would  hardly  be  expected  from 
the  strict  philologist  of  the  old  school.  It  is  certain  that  the  profound, 
universally  learned  Gesner,  who  had  pursued  freely  so  many  lines 
of  investigation,  had  the  greatest  influence  upon  Ernesti  in  this  re- 
spect. What  I  have  given  from  the  writings  of  both  these  men,  will 
be  sufficient  to  show  the  reader  what  they  were,  and  that  although  in 
general  philologists  of  conservative  character,  yet  they  were  not  blind 
to  the  faults  of  antiquity,  and  sought  and  followed  new  ways;  and, 
therefore,  that  they  are  entitled  to  a  place  between  the  adherents  of 
the  old  pedagogy  and  the  new.  They  can  be  compared  only  to 
Trotzendorf  and  Sturm  on  the  one  side,  and  to  Locke  and  Rousseau 
on  the  other. 


JOHANN  GEORG  HAMANN. 

[Translated  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education,  from  the  German  of  Karl  von  Raumer.] 


JOHANN  GEORG  HAMANN  was  born  at  Konigsberg,  August  27, 
1730.  His  father  was  a  respectable  man,  and  "a  much  beloved 
practitioner,  who  preferred  the  family  name  of  an  Altstadt  surgeon, 
to  all  the  titles  of  honor,  then  so  cheap."  *  He  was  born  in  Lusa- 
tia,  and  his  wife,  Hamann's  mother,  in  Liibeck ;  they  had  another 
son,  younger  than  Johann  Georg.  Hamann  relates  that  both  his 
parents  were  "enemies  of  idleness,  and  friends  of  divine  and  human 
order." f  "They  were  not  satisfied,"  he  continues,  "with  the  mere 
form  of  their  duty  and  the  ceremonial  of  education,  which,  to  the 
shame  of  too  many  parents,  suffices  them  in  caring  for  their  children ; 
but  they  had  our  good  for  an  object,  and  did  as  much  for  it  as  their 
circumstances  and  knowledge  permitted.  Our  instructor  had  to  give 
account  to  them  of  our  industry  and  progress ;  and  our  home  was  a 
school,  under  the  strict  oversight,  and  with  the  example,  of  our 
parents.  Lying,  mischief,  and  stealing,  were  three  capital  offenses, 
which  were  not  to  be  pardoned.  We  were  rather  educated  at  a  pro- 
fuse expense,  than  parsimoniously.  But  it  is  good  economy  and 
management  in  this  matter  which  is  the  best  policy." 

Hamann  received  his  first  school  instruction  from  a  teacher  who 
tried  to  teach  him  Latin  without  grammar.^  From  a  second  teacher 
he  learned,  as  he  relates,  to  translate  a  Latin  author  into  German, 
without  understanding  either  the  language  or  the  meaning  of  his 
author.  "Thus,"  he  says,  "my  Latin  and  Greek  were  mere  collec- 
tions of  words ;  compositors'  work ;  conjuring  tricks ;  in  which  my 
memory  overworked  itself,  and  by  means  of  which  the  other  mental 
faculties  became  weakened,  proper  and  healthful  nourishment  being 
wanting."  By  means  of  drilling,  he  made  much  progress  in  arithme 
tic ;  but  such  a  knowledge  of  it  is  useless  to  children  who  "  are  made 
to  acquire  facility  in  it,  without  observation  or  understanding."  "It 
is,"  continues  Hamann,  "  as  it  is  in  music ;  where  not  the  fingers  only 
but  chiefly  the  ear  and  the  hearing,  must  be  taught  and  exercised. 
One  who  has  learned  one  piece,  or  a  hundred,  ever  so  fluently  and 
correctly,  without  a  feeling  of  the  harmony,  plays  like  a  dancing 

*  Hamann's  Works,  7,  76,  161.        tlb.,  1,  153.        Jib,  156,  Ac- 


534  JOHANN  GEORG  HAMANN. 

bear  in  comparison  even  with  the  most  miserable  fiddler,  who  knows 
how  to  express  his  own  ideas." 

Although  in  this  species  of  study  it  was  Hamann's  memory  which 
was  mostly  put  in  requisition,  he  still  complains  that  it  was  weakened 
by  it.  This  is  an  experience  well  worth  remembering ;  and  warns  us 
against  pushing  the  exercises  of  single  mental  faculties  to  the  point 
of  wearing  out.*  "An  edge  too  sharp  gets  notched." 

Hamann  makes  valuable  pedagogical  observations  upon  his  state- 
ment; for  the  reason  that  education  "is  so  important  a  work;"  and 
because  he  "  feels  in  his  heart  a  plain  call  from  God  to  feed  his 
lambs." 

"  An  intelligent  teacher,"  he  says,  "  must  enter  his  school  in  dependence  upon 
God  and  himself,  if  he  is  to  administer  his  office  wisely.  He  must  also  imitate 
God,  as  he  reveals  himself  in  nature  and  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  in  our  own 
souls,  through  them  both.  Almighty  God,  to  whom  nothing  costs  any  thing,  is  a 
most  economical  and  patient  God.  The  law  of  economy  of  time,  in  accordance 
with  which  he  waits  patiently  for  fruit  to  ripen,  should  be  our  pattern.  It  is  of 
importance,  not  what,  or  how  much,  children  or  men  know  ;  but  how  they  know 
it."  "  The  means  used  for  instructing  children  can  not  be  simple  enough.  But 
they  must,  besides  efficiency,  possess  the  qualities  of  manifold  and  fruitful  applica- 
bility and  practicability." 

"  Learning  foreign  languages  should  be  a  help  to  the  understanding  of  the 
mother  tongue;  and,  although  it  may  seem  to  be  a  mere  exercise  of  memory, 
they  should  be  made  a  preparation  and  training  of  all  powers  of  the  mind  for 
higher,  more  important,  more  difficult,  and  even  religious  subjects." 

Such  and  other  observations  were  made  by  Hamann,  at  the  age  of  eight  and 
twenty,  upon  the  education  which  he  had  received.  He  remarks,  in  concluding 
them,  "  Complete  accomplishment,  in  the  usual  acceptation  of  the  term,  consists  in 
remoteness  from  nature.  How  unnatural  have  fashions  and  customs  made  us,  and 
how  difficult  would  it  be  for  us  to  return  from  the  present  time  to  the  sim 
plicity  and  innocence  of  ancient  manners  ?  " 

Hamann  was  matriculated  at  Konigsberg,  in  his  sixteenth  year,  in 
1746.  He  very  soon,  however,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  connected 
the  occupations  of  the  teacher  with  those  of  the  student.  In  1752, 
he  became  tutor  in  the  family  of  a  Baroness  B.,  in  Livonia,  twelve 
miles  from  Riga.  He  describes  the  family. 

Besides  a  boy  nine  years  old,  who  looked  very  shy,  awkward,  and  effeminate, 
there  were  a  younger  sister,  and  an  orphan  girl,  whom  the  baroness  was  bring- 
ing up.  My  beginning  in  my  new  calling  was  difficult  enough.  I  had  to  man- 
age myself,  my  pupils,  and  an  uncouth,  coarse,  and  ignorant  mother.  I  harnessed 
myself  to  the  plough  like  a  spirited  horse  ;  with  great  zeal,  sincere  intentions,  lit- 
tle wisdom,  and  too  much  confidence  in  myself,  and  dependence  upon  human 
weaknesses,  in  consideration  of  the  good  which  I  was  doing  or  was  intending  to 
do.  We  are  naturally  inclined  to  overestimate  our  own  efforts,  to  expect  their 
efficiency  as  an  unavoidable  matter  of  course,  and  to  estimate  the  duties  of  others, 
and  expect  the  performance  of  them,  by  the  standard  of  our  own  opinions  and  pref- 
erences. The  husbandman  can  not,  from  his  careful  husbandry  alone,  promise 
himself  a  hundred  fold  return.  The  land,  the  weather,  the  character  of  the  seed, 
some  small  insect,  all  of  which  are  things  beyond  the  scope  of  his  powers,  have 
their  part  to  play ;  and,  above  all,  is  the  blessing  of  the  divine  oversight  and  gov- 
ernment. I  expected  that  my  labors  would  be  recognized  by  men  ;  admired  by 
them  ;  and  even  that  they  would  redound  to  their  shame.  Such  are  impure  de 

*  The  fact  reminds  us  of  the  unlimited  memorizing  of  the  schools  of  Jacotot  and  Ruthardt 


JOHANN  GEORG  HAMANN.  535 

sires ;  they  pervert  our  efforts,  and  bring  disgrace  upon  them.  I  wrote  two  let- 
ters to  the  baroness,  upon  the  education  of  her  son ;  which  were  intended  to 
awaken  her  conscience. 

One  of  these  letters  referred  to  has  been  preserved.  Its  contents 
are  as  follows : — 

As  I  am  no  longer  able  to  say  any  thing  which  makes  an  impression  upon  the 
baron,  I  feel  my  resources  exhausted,  and  am  in  despair  of  doing  him  any  good. 
I  iind  myself,  in  teaching  him  Latin,  under  the  daily  necessity  of  repeating  over 
again  what  I  said  on  the  first  day  of  my  instruction.  1  see  before  me  a  human 
body,  which  has  eyes  and  ears,  without  using  them  ;  of  whose  mind  we  may  well 
despair,  since  it  is  always  occupied  with  childish  and  silly  pursuits,  and  is  thus 
useless  for  the  slightest  serious  occupation.  I  shall  not  blame  your  grace,  if  you 
shall  think  this  statement  calumnious  and  false.  It  has  cost  me  enough  to  find 
out  its  truth  by  hourly  experience  ;  and  there  have  been  occasions  when  I  have 
lamented  the  future  fate  of  the  baron,  much  more  than  my  own  present  lot.  I 
have  no  desire  that  time  and  sad  experience  shall  prove  the  truth  of  my  expecta- 
tions regarding  him.  I  can  pay  attention  neither  to  arithmetic,  in  which  the 
baron  is  so  l.ttle  advanced  that  I  have  had  to  teach  him  to  write  and  name  the 
numerals,  nor  to  French  and  other  subordinate  studies  ;  for  the  greater  the  num- 
ber of  things  which  I  undertake  with  him,  the  more  inattentive  does  he  become. 
One  who  can  not  read  a  language  which  is  pronounced  according  to  the  sounds 
of  its  letters,  is  in  no  situation  to  learn  another  which  is  pronounced  by  rules, 
like  the  French.  I  therefore  take  upon  myself  the  freedom  of  requesting  of  your 
grace  some  assistance  in  my  work.  It  will  be  necessary  to  apply  some  compulsion 
to  the  baion,  since  he  has  not  the  good  sense,  or  the  natural  inclination,  of  his 
own  free  choice,  to  prefer  what  is  for  his  own  honor  and  happiness.  Conscientious 
parents  bear  in  mind  the  account  which  they  must  one  day  render  of  the  educa- 
tion of  their  children,  to  God  and  to  the  world.  These  young  creatures  have  hu- 
man souls  ;  and  we  are  not  at  liberty  to  change  them  into  dolls,  apes,  parrots,  or 
something  still  worse.  I  have  taken  occasion  to  set  before  your  grace  the  feel- 
ings and  views  of  a  reasonable  and  tender  mother,  for  the  reason  that  I  am  con- 
vinced of  the  profound  interest  which  you  feel  in  the  education  of  your  only  son. 
You  will  not  do  too  much  credit  to  your  tutor,  if  you  consider  him  a  man  who 
loves  his  duty  more  than  he  seeks  to  please. 

"  My  letter  was  not  understood,"  continues  Haraann  in  his  narra- 
tive, "and  I  had  poured  oil  upon  the  fire."  He  gives  a  fuller  account 
of  this  in  the  following  letter  to  his  father. 

"On  the  14th  of  this  month,  on  Friday,  when  the  baroness  fasts, 
I  received,  after  dinner,  the  following  autograph  letter  from  her,  by 
the  footman,  a  quarter  of  an  hour  after  the  young  baron  had  come 
down,  as  pale  as  a  corpse.  I  had  eaten  below. 

HRRR  HAMANN  :* — As  you  have  shown  yourself  altogether  unfit  for  the  in- 
struction of  children  of  condition,  and  as  the  low  letter  does  not  please  me,  in 
which  you  describe  my  son  in  so  vulgar  and  disgraceful  a  manner,  perhaps  you 
could  not  judge  of  him  otherwise  than  by  your  own  pattern.  I  see  in  you  only 
a  statue  hung  round  with  a  great  many  books,  which  by  no  means  constitutes  a 
good  tutor ;  and,  as  you  have  written  to  me  that  you  have  sold  your  freedom  and 
peace  of  mind  for  a  number  of  years  at  too  dear  a  rate,  I  will  neither  have  your 
supposed  skill  nor  your  time  paid  for  in  my  house  5  I  need  you  no  longer  about  my 
Children ;  make  ready  to  journey  hence  on  Monday. 

"The  young  baron  had  been  sent  for  up  stairs,  just  as  I  received  my 
letter  of  dismission.  The  baroness  was  bathing ;  and  I  did  not  know 

*  This  note  is,  in  the  German,  extremely  misspelled,  mispunctuated,  and  vulgar  in  choice 
*f  words.  These  characteristics  could  not  well  be  accurately  given  in  the  English.— (Trans.) 


536  JOHANN  GEORG  HAMANN. 

why  the  young  baron  did  not  come  down.  I  therefore  sent  word  to 
him  to  come.  He  came  to  me,  crying,  and  made  excuses  for  himself; 
he  had  repeatedly  asked  the  baroness  to  permit  him  to  come  down, 
but  she  had  forbidden  him  to  see  me  again.  He  fell  upon  my  neck, 
crying ,  and  his  affectionate  demeanor  affected  me.  I  made  the  best 
use  possible  of  my  quarter  of  an  hour  with  him  ;  and  explained  to 
him  all  the  sincerity  and  tenderness  which  I  had  used  in  teaching 
him.  He  embraced  me  closely,  with  tears.  The  baroness  was  told 
that  her  son  was  with  me.  She  sent  for  him  immediately,  and  forbid 
him  anew  to  see  me.  He  crept  secretly  through  the  garden  to  the 
window,  knocked,  and  wished  me  good  night,  with  a  sorrow  which  was 
evidently  sincere.  On  Saturday  he  wrote  me  two  letters  from  his 
imprisonment,  one  of  which  I  answered.  On  Monday  I  was  about 
departing,  and  sent  my  servant  to  the  baroness  to  request  permission 
to  take  leave.  He  brought  me  back  word  that  she  desired  to  be  ex- 
cused, being  occupied  ;  and  that  she  wished  me  all  manner  of  good. 
I  gave  a  nod  to  the  baron,  who  was  standing  in  one  of  the  rooms 
above ;  he  ran  up  to  me,  and  I  embraced  him.  After  I  had  taken 
my  seat  in  the  carriage,  he  came  to  me  again,  and  again  fell  upon 
my  neck." 

A  few  months  afterward,  Hamann  obtained  a  second  tutorship ;  in 
relation  to  which  he  says : — 

In  1753,  in  the  most  beautiful  season  of  the  year,  I  went  into  Corn-land,  to 
General  W.?  whose  wife  was  born  Countess  de  K.,  and  who  had  two  sons.  In 
this  place  I  was  the  successor  of  two  tutors,  who  had  been  employed  together ; 
of  whom  one  was  a  windbag  and  vulgar,  and  the  other  a  shallow -minded  fellow. 
I  found  the  two  boys  to  be  of  a  very  different  character  from  that  of  my  baron. 
They  needed  much  more  discipline,  watching,  and  keenness,  and  much  more  was 
to  be  hoped  from  them  ;  as  the  eldest  had  great  capacity,  although  I  was  never 
able  to  take  as  much  pleasure  in  his  natural  tendencies,  as  in  those  of  my  first 
pupil.  God  granted  me  many  favors  in  this  household,  both  from  parents  and 
children,  and,  indeed,  from  all  in  the  family.  I  presumed  too  much,  also,  upon 
my  position,  and  made  too  great  requisitions  in  return  for  my  services.  I  be- 
came restless,  impatient,  and  ill-tempered,  to  an  extreme  ;  and  had  much  difficul- 
ty in  staying  out  my  year,  at  the  end  of  which  I  went  back  to  Riga,  with  much 
melancholy,  ill-will,  anger,  and  some  disgrace. 

After  a  little  time,  he  undertook  the  same  appointment  again ;  but 
the  last  sickness  of  his  mother  called  him  back  to  Konigsberg,  in 
1756.*  From  that  city  he  went  to  Berlin,  Lubeck,  Amsterdam,  and 
finally  to  London,  where  he  remained  from  April  18th,  1757,  to  June 
27th,  1758,  as  correspondent  of  a  mercantile  house  at  Riga.  Here, 
by  means  of  a  foolish  and  dissipated  course  of  life,  he  fell  into  a 
miserable  and  needy  condition,  both  physical  and  mental.  In  these 

*  His  correspondence  with  his  two  pupils  and  their  subsequent  mr»  ,  G.  E.  Lindner,  are 
of  educational  value.  Hamann  himself  was,  however,  afterward  not  altogether  satisfied  with 
his  own  letters. 


JOHANN  GEORG  HAMANN.  537 

circumstances  he  applied  himself  to  the  reading  of  the  Bible,  and 
found  himself  wonderfully  attracted,  enlightened,  encouraged,  and 
even  converted,  by  it.  How  profound  its  influence  was  upon  him  is 
shown  by  the  deep  feeling  of  the  "Biblical  Observations  of  a  Chris- 
tian? which  he  wrote  in  London  at  that  time.  From  this  time  for- 
wird,  the  Holy  Scriptures  were,  to  him,  an  immovable  foundation, 
the  unconditional  highest  rule  of  his  thoughts  and  actions,  and  of  his 
whole  life.  "  God,"  he  said,  "has  made  me 'a  man  fortified  by  the 
Bible."  Toward  the  end  of  his  stay  in  London,  he  wrote  the  "  Re- 
flections upon  the  Course  of  my  Life  ;"  a  confession,  written  in  bit- 
ter earnest,  and  concealing  nothing.* 

In  1758,  Hamann's  brother  was  appointed  a  teacher  in  the  cathe- 
dral school  at  Riga.  Hamann  was  concerned,  and,  as  the  sequel 
showed,  with  good  reason,  about  his  "  indifference."  "  My  brother," 
he  wrote  to  his  father,  "  has  good  reason  to  recognize  his  inefficiency, 
like  Solomon  ;  to  see  in  himself  a  child,  who  knows  neither  his  com- 
ing in  nor  his  going  out;  and  to  ask  for  an  obedient  and  understand- 
ing heart,  that  he  may  be  able  to  feed  with  faithfulness,  and  govern 
with  industry,  the  flock  intrusted  to  him."  Subsequently,  he  repeat' 
edly  encouraged,  instructed,  warned,  and  reproved  his  brother.  When 
he  was  to  deliver  an  address  at  an  examination,  he  wrote  to  him  as 
follows :  "  When  it  becomes  your  duty  to  speak  at  the  examination, 
speak  so  that  the  children  can  understand  you;  and  have  more  re- 
gard for  the  impression  which  you  can  make  upon  them,  than  for  the 
approval  of  learned  and  witty  dilettanti.  You  c^l  your  .work  a  yoke. 
It  is  an  excellent  thing  for  a  man  to  bear  the  yoke  in  his  youth." 

At  another  time  he  admonished  him  to  perform,  conscientiously, 
the  duties  of  his  office  ;  and  adds :  "  You  are  determined  to  be  better 
than  other  people ;  and  will  not  use  the  summer  for  the  purpose  for 
which  it  was  given  to  men, — to  behold  and  enjoy  God's  friendliness 
to  them.  What  folly  to  write  that  so  doing  would  be  to  be  more  in- 
quisitive than  God  meant ;  especially  when  you  are  capable  of  under- 
standing and  applying  that  pleasure  !  In  this  way,  every  thing  in 
you  remains  dead  and  unfruitful."  Hamann's  admonitions  were, 
however,  little  regarded  by  his  brother. 

He  wrote  to  him  again :  "  You  will  not  make  use  of  what  men  put 
into  your  hand.  Your  scholars  will  always  imitate  you ;  they  will 

*From  this  work  much  of  the  above  account  is  taken.  It  resembles  Augustine's  "Con- 
fessions," in  grade  and  in  character  ;  and  is,  to  a  corresponding  degree,  fundamentally  dif- 
ferent from  Rousseau's  How  entirely  it  was  misunderstood  by  Hamann's  most  intimate 
friends,  is  shown  by  a  letter  from  Hamann  to  J.  G.  Lindner.  Eminent  later  writers,  who 
have  misj  idged  Hamann,  should  consider  what  he  says  to  Lindner:  "  My  •  Course  of  my 
Life '  can  not  be  read  hastily  and  superficially.  Herr  B.  must  live  longer,  and  have  different 
experiences,  from  his  previous  ones,  before  he  can  understand  large  portions  of  it." 


533  JOHANN  GEORG  HAMANTS. 

never  learn  correctly,  if  you  do  not  teach  them  correctly.  You  are  as 
silent  with  me  about  your  school  matters  as  if  they  were  state  secrets. 
If  you  were  well  aware  of  the  importance  of  your  station,  would  not 
you?  pleasure  in  it,  and  ideas  springing  from  it,  show  themselves  in  a 
hundred  different  ways, — in  questions,  remarks,  observations  ?"  Fur- 
ther on,  he  says :  "  If  it  is  painful  to  you  to  pass  your  time  in  teaching,  go 
to  your  class  as  a  scholar,  and  look  upon  your  young  people  as  so 
many  actual  collaboratores,  who  are  instructing  you ;  go  among  them 
with  a  multitude  of  questions,  and  you  will  feel  such  an  impatience 
of  curiosity  in  the  beginning  of  the  lesson,  and  will  carry  away  home 
with  you  such  a  multitude  of  scholar's  reflections,  as  if  you  were 
comparing  and  examining  the  teachings  of  a  whole  crowd  of  teach- 
ers at  once.  He  who  will  not  learn  from  the  children,  will  be  unin- 
telligent and  mistaken  in  their  conduct  to  them." 

Hamann  had  recommended  to  his  brother  a  Greek  grammar,  by 
Wagner.  His  brother  answered  that  "  it  was  otherwise  very  good, 
but  somewhat  too  short,  and  a  mere  skeleton."  To  this  Plamann  re- 
plies :  "A  skeleton  must  necessarily  be  dry  and  uncomely  to  the  eye, 
being  deprived  of  blood,  sinews,  and  muscles  ;  but  otherwise  it  would 
be  a  carcass.  The  spirit  of  the  teacher  must  clothe  and  inspire  these 
dry  bones.  Such  is  the  office,  in  instruction,  of  the  viva  vox  ;  which 
is  the  daughter  of  living  knowledge,  and  not  a  mere  vox  humana,  an 
organ-pipe.  Profound  views  are  not  easy.  They  must  be  worked 
for  and  created." 

All  Hamann's  ^monitions  were,  however,  in  vain;  in  1760  his 
brother  gave  up  his  place  as  teacher  in  Riga,  and  "  from  that  time  to 
1778  lived  at  Konigsberg,  in  empty  leisure  and  even  in  foolishness." 

From  1752  to  1787,  Hamann  lived  almost  entirely  at  Konigsberg. 
During  four  years,  1759-1763,  he  was  occupied  in  waiting  upon  his 
aged  and  sickly  father.  In  1767,  he  received  an  appointment  as  sec- 
retary and  translator  in  the  excise  department;  in  1777,  became  a 
warehouse  inspector;  and,  in  1787,  was  put  on  the  retired  list. 

From  his  marriage  (a  marriage  of  conscience,)  he  had  four  chil- 
dren;  one  son,  Johann  Michel,  born  in  1769,  and  three  daughters. 
His  children  were  the  occasion  of  a  new  pedagogical  epoch  for  him. 
Clear-minded  and  conscientious,  and  deceived  by  no  foolish  parental 
partialities,  he  was  often  made  unhappy  by  reflecting  upon  the  pros- 
pects of  his  children.  "  What  a  wonderfully  poor  specimen  I  am  of 
a  father,"  he  writes  to  Herder,  "  can  not  be  imagined.  A  real  hen, 
that  has  hatched  ducks'  eggs."  In  1776.  he  writes  quite  discouraged 
about  himself.  "My  three  children  have  cost  their  mother,  although 
she  is  a  pretty  tough  daughter  of  Adam,  and  myself,  much  real  sorrow. 


JOHANN  GEORG  HAMANN.  539 

Yesterday  my  eldest  daughter  fell  down  the  whole  flight  of  stairs. 
The  holy  angels  in  heaven  themselves  could  not  take  care  of  chil- 
dren ;  let  alone  educating  them.  God  be  praised,  she  was  not  in- 
jured. With  my  Hans  Michel  every  thing  goes  crab  fashion ;  the 
boy  is  forgetting  his  good  intentions  and  his  good  manners.  This  is 
my  greatest  trouble  ;  which  causes  me  anguish  and  gray  hairs ;  that 
I  myself  can  do  nothing  for  his  education,  and  can  devote  so  little 
means  to  it.  I  had,  one  Sunday,  the  horrid  idea  of  packing  him  off, 
neck  and  heels,  to  the  Pontifex  Maximus,  at  Dessau.*  That  heat 
soon  cooled ;  but  the  worm  is  still  gnawing  at  my  heart,  in  respect 
to  what  I  shall  do  with  the  boy.  I  have  little  enough  of  family  joys, 
though  they  are  the  only  heaven  upon  earth ;  but  family  sorrows  are, 
also,  a  real  hell ;  at  least  they  were  so  for  David  and  the  patriarchs. 
The  Spirit  of  God  and  the  Son  of  Man  are  the  only  schoolmasters 
for  such  things." 

Herder  encouraged  his  despairing  friend.  "  With  regard  to  the 
education  of  your  Hans  Michel,"  he  wrote,  "do  not  distress  your- 
self; nothing  will  be  gained  by  doing  so.  Have  yet  a  little  patience. 
I  have  just  come  back  from  seeing  the  Pontifex  Maximus,\n  Dessau; 
and  my  own  boy  is  growing  up.  But,  if  God  will,  he  shall  never  see 
him  nor  have  him.  His  whole  establishment  is  a  frightful  thing  to 
me  ;  a  hot-house,  or  rather  a  pen  full  of  human  geese.  My  brother- 
in-law,  the  forester,  who  was  here  lately,  was  telling  me  of  a  new 
method  to  raise  oaks  in  ten  years,  as  large  as  now  grow  in  fifty  or  a 
hundred.  By  cutting  off  the  tap-root  of  the  young  trees,  it  is  said, 
the  whole  strength  comes  up  above  ground  in  stem  and  fruit.  The  whole 
secret  of  Basedow's  plans,  I  believe,  is  such  a  one ;  and,  since  I  know 
him  personally,  I  would  not  give  him  a  calf  to  instruct,  much  less  a 
man.  In  short,  my  dear  fellow,  let  your  passion  pass  off  J  and  wait, 
as  a  husbandman  does,  for  the  good  fruits  of  the  earth."f 

But  Hamann's  solicitude  for  his  children  did  not  leave  him.  In 
1782,  six  years  afterward,  he  wrote,  by  way  of  consolation,  to  Reich- 
ardt,  who  had  lost  a  son  : — 

"  What  abundance  of  care,  vexation,  and  solicitude,  do  you  escape ! 
The  greater  the  love  of  a  father,  the  more  mortal  are  his  cares,  and 
t\fQ  more  infernal  his  sorrows.  The  higher  the  endowments  of  our 
children,  the  greater  the  danger  of  their  going  astray  and  being 

*  Basedow,  who  was,  in  1776,  at  the  culmination  of  his  fame. 

t  This  excellent  letter  of  Herder's  is  worth  comparing  with  the  great  hopes  which  Kant 
and  Oberlin  conceived  of  the  Philanthropinum.  Hamann  himself  said  of  it, "  Basedow'g 
Philanthropinum  is  a  most  remarkable  phenomenon.  His  laughable  Programme  to  Cosmo- 
politans yesterday  caused  me  much  interest  and  much  reflection.  A  revolution  of  mind, 
and  of  our  earth,  or,  at  least,  of  the  smallest  parts  of  it,  seems  to  be  in  fermentation." 


540  JOHANN  GEORG  HAMANN. 

ruined,  in  a  world  which  lies  in  sin ;  and  no  enemy  is  so  dangerous 
as  our  own  tenderness,  which  is  blind  in  more  than  one  sense;  our 
idle  vanity,  in  managing  them  as  if  they  were  creatures  of  our  own  ; 
and  our  foolish  assiduity  to  impress  upon  them  I  know  not  what  ideal 
of  our  own  likeness  and  name."* 

Hamann  saw  quite  clearly  where  the  faults  lay  in  his  education  of 
his  son.  His  own  peculiar  and  remarkable  gift  at  learning  languages 
and  at  reading  books,  led  him  astray  into  the  attempt  to  "  impress 
upon  his  son  an  ideal  of  his  own  likeness  and  name."  In  1780,  when 
the  boy  was  eleven  years  old,  he  read  Plato's  Phaedon  with  him  ; 
two  years  afterward,  the  ^Eneid,  the  Iliad,  the  Pentateuch,  in  the 
original,  and  the  New  Testament,  for  the  sixth  time ;  in  his  four- 
teenth year,  the  boy  learned  English,  French,  and  Polish,  and  read 
Pindar. 

In  1783,  at  the  urgent  entreaty  of  his  friend,  Privy  Councilor  Lind- 
ner, in  Mittau,  Hamann  consented  to  take  charge  of  his  son,  eight- 
een years  old. 

"  His  capacity,  or  want  of  it,  for  languages,"  he  wrote  to  his  fa- 
ther, u  I  have  not  examined,  nor  could  I  After  some  trials  of  his 
candor  and  discretion,  his  assurance  was  sufficient,  that  he  had,  as 
yet,  made  no  serious  attack  upon  the  learned  languages."  Afterward 
he  says  that  young  Lindner  is  to  study  drawing  and  mathematics, 
along  with  his  own  son.  He  is  to  study,  with  Hamaun,  Latin,  Greek, 
if  he  has  opportunity,  French,  English ;  and  four  other  languages, 
when  the  occasion  shall  serve.  After  this  a  retrogression  begins  to 
appear.  Hamaim  writes  to  his  father,  "  We  have  this  week  been  es- 
pecially at  work  upon  Latin,  and  next  to  that  with  French ;  in  which 
departments,  the  otherwise  strict  routine  of  his  training  seems  to  have 
been  departed  from.  In  regard  to  style,  as  much  care  will  be  taken 
with  reference  to  the  fundamental  principles  and  the  genius  of  his 
mother  tongue,  as  with  any  of  the  other  languages.  I  am  not  in  a 
condition  to  meddle  with  chrestomathies  or  school  exercises ;  for  all 
that  I  know  about  them  is  contained  in  this  one  line,  i  Scribendi  rec- 
te  sapere  est  et  principium  et  fons?  " 

An  uncle  took  the  young  man  to  a  masquerade,  and  he  found 
other  diversions.  Hamann  wrote  to  his  father  that  he  would  not 
take  away  his  son's  freedom,  for  that  with  his  own  children  he  used 
no  compulsion,  unless  necessary.  He  adds  :  u  Every  thing  depends 
upon  modifying  the  tendencies  of  their  characters,  by  imbuing  them 
with  fixed  principles ;  not  by  means  of  mere  exterior  formalities." 

*  Hamann  expresses  himself  in  a  more  quiet  manner,  in  a  letter  to  Jacob    m   1785.     He 
Bays:  " If  my  children  will  only  grow  up  and  prosper,  I  will  willingly  grow  old  and  die 
and  God  gives  me  a  full  share  of  pleasure." 


JOHANN  GEORG  HAMANN.  541 

In  the  same  letter  he  says :  "  Do  not  judge  of  your  son's  progress 
from  his  own  letters ;  and  if  you  have  occasion  to  base  any  conclu- 
sion upon  them,  I  beg  you  to  communicate  it  candidly  to  me.  A 
good  builder  does  his  underground  work  before  the  slightest  evidence 
of  it  comes  up  into  sight.  The  more  he  hastens  to  make  a  show 
with  the  visible  part  of  his  edifice,  the  less  sufficient  is  the  founda- 
tion of  it." 

"  I  know  no  other  mode  of  proceeding,"  he  continues,  "  than  that 
which  I  have  used  with  my  own  children,  whose  love  is  dearer  to  me 
than  my  paternal  authority,  and  whose  happiness  is  the  only  object 
which  their  parents  can  have  for  them." 

In  Hamann's  subsequent  letters,  his  hopes  for  the  youth  grow  fainter 
and  fainter.  Latin  is  the  principal  pursuit,  but  he  will  not  decline  and 
conjugate  handsomely.  "  Balls,  concerts,  the  theater,  are  his  element. 
Can  it  be  expected  of  a  young  man  that  he  will  at  once  give  up  the 
subjects  of  his  thoughts  and  wishes,  and  busy  himself  with  their  di- 
rect opposites  ?"  The  uncle  already  mentioned  paid  his  expenses  to 
the  theater,  and  had  "  to  be  managed  with  discretion." 

A  younger  sister  of  young  Lindner  had  taken  upon  herself  to 
write  to.  him  in  the  style  of  a  governess ;  a  proceeding  which  Ha- 
mann  sharply  reproved.  He  says:  "To  keep  what  is  good  within, 
and  to  show  out  what  is  bad, — to  appear  worse  than  we  really  are, 
and  to  be  really  better  than  we  appear, — I  hold  to  be  a  duty  and  an 
art."  Lindner  had  expressed  some  feelings  in  regard  to  the  tone  of 
his  son's  letters.  "  These  symptoms  of  frivolity,"  answered  Hamann, 
"  will  pass  off  of  themselves,  when  their  source  is  improved ;  and 
must  rather  be  encouraged  and  brought  out,  than  repressed." 

Thus  stood  the  educational  undertaking  until  Easter ;  but,  on  the 
Whitsun-Monday  following,  Hamann  wrote  to  Lindner:  "Neither 
requests  nor  inducements  shall  induce  me  to  keep  your  son  longer 
than  this  summer."  "  He  lacked,"  he  says, "  the  Whitsuntide  gift  of 
the  mind,  spontaneous  effort."  In  another  letter,  he  says  of  the 
youth :  "  Desires  after  fashion,  plays,  diversions  of  society,  and  the 
like  occupations,  have  deprived  him  of  all  taste  for  thoroughness  or 
science.  On  one  hand  he  has  no  good  impulses  of  his  own  ;  and,  on 
the  other,  he  has  a  precocious  power  of  observing  and  imitating  ordi- 
nary ways  and  methods  of  getting  along.  The  depth  of  quiet  water 
is  soon  sounded ;  and  I  must  hasten  to  the  end  of  my  experiment." 

He  had  thoughtfully  and  foreseeingly  at  first  promised  the  father 
to  make  an  experiment  only.  Why  it  succeeded  so  ill,  the  previous 
paragraphs  have  shown.  But  if  it  be  asked  whether  flamann  him- 
self was  not  in  part  to  blame,  it  must  be  confessed  that,  from  this 


542  JOHANN  GEORG  HAMANN. 

young  man,  who  was  deficient  both  in  natural  endowments  and  in 
good  will,  as  from  his  own  son,  he  demanded  far  too  much. 
While  he  was  not  yet  able  to  decline  and  conjugate  in  Latin, 
Hamann  read  with  him  the  epistles  of  Horace,  and  would  have  in- 
structed him  at  the  same  time  in  the  elements  of  French,  English, 
and  Greek  !  We  have  already  observed  upon  the  causes  which  could 
lead  so  clear-minded  a  man  into  such  an  error.  Comenius  says,  that 
a  teacher  either  must  not  be  too  intellectual,  or  he  must  have  learned 
patience.  In  this,  he  was  thinking  of  Cicero's  remark,  that  "  In  pro- 
portion as  a  man  is  of  a  quick  and  clear  mind,  just  so  much  the 
more  passionate  and  laborious  will  his  teaching  be ;  for  any  one,  who 
sees  that  learned  slowly  which  he  himself  learned  quickly,  is  annoyed 
at  it."  But  Comenius  adds,  that  such  a  teacher  should  consider ;  that 
his  office  is,  not  to  transform  minds,  but  to  inform  them  ;  that  nei- 
ther can  he  impart  to  the  scholar,  nor  can  the  latter  learn  by  him- 
self, what  has  not  been  vouchsafed  to  him  from  above.  These  sensible 
remarks  of  Cicero  and  Comenius  seem  entirely  applicable  to  Hamann.* 

We  have  thus  become  acquainted  with  this  distinguished  man  in 
the  most  various  pedagogical  relations ;  as  he  was  brought  up  by  his 
parents  and  teachers,  as  the  tutor  of  a  stranger's  children  ;  and,  lastly, 
as  the  instructor  of  his  own  son,  and  of  a  ward.  His  letters  to  his 
brother  have  exhibited  his  views  of  the  vocation  and  duties  of  a  school- 
teacher. 

Records  remain,  also,  of  Hamann's  views  on  the  education  of  his 
daughter.  "  In  this  single  respect,"  (that  of  the  education  of  chil- 
dren,) he  wrote,  "I  have  too  little  aid  from  my  honored  wife ;  being 
able  to  expect  from  her  nothing  more  than  good  will."  Thus  the 
very  basis  of  a  girl's  education  was,  of  course,  wanting ;  and,  accord- 
ingly, we  need  not  wonder  that,  in  the  year  1784,  Hamann  placed  his 
eldest  daughter  at  a  boarding-school.  "  If  she  has  the  good  quali- 
ties which  her  instructress  attributes  to  her,"  he  wrote,  "she  shall  not 
become  a  woman  of  society,  but  shall  fulfill  her  duties  as  a  sister  and 
daughter,  so  as  to  become  fit  for  a  good  wife  and  house-mother.  If 
she  has  talents  for  society  and  for  teaching,  her  parents  and  brothers 
and  sisters  have  the  best  right  to  the  enjoyment  of  them."  To  this 
same  oldest  daughter  he  wrote, in  1787  :  "Fear  God,  my  dear  child, 
and  do  not  forget  your  parents  and  brothers  and  sisters ;  just  as  I 
carry  you  all  in  my  feelings  and  in  my  heart.  Do  not  read  from 
overcuriosity,  but  moderately.  In  the  best  gardens  there  are  net- 
tles, with  which  one  may  get  stung.  Accustom  yourself,  dear  child, 

"  "  1  have  worked  like  a  horse,"  Hamann  writes,  "  until  Easter,  to  accomplish  my  object 
in  the  Latin, "(with  young  Lindner ;)  and  he  proceeds  to  give  an  excellent 'description  of 
Cicero's  "  laborious"  teaching;  which,  at  the  same  time,  shows  signs  of  the  ''passionate." 


JOHANN  GEORG  HAMANN.  543 

to  read  often  in  good  books,  rather  than  in  those  of  harmful  amuse- 
ment.'' In  a  subsequent  letter  he  says  :  "  I  am  rejoiced,  from  the  bot- 
tom of  my  soul,  at  your  eagerness  to  labor  in  educating  your  younger 
sister.  Be  helpful  also  to  your  good  old  mother,  and  make  her  life 
comfortable  by  taking  part  in  her  domestic  employments." 

He  seems,  therefore,  to  have  reached  the  end  which  he  sought  to 
attain,  by  means  of  the  boarding  institution. 

Besides  the  pedagogical  views  above  given,  which  were  the  natural 
outgrowth  of  Hamann's  relations  in  life,  there  occur  in  his  writings 
many  valuable  thoughts  upon  education  and  instruction ;  from  which 
we  here  add  a  few  : — 

1.  God  is  mighty  in  the  weak.     But  those  are  not  weak  who,  instead  of  seeing 
in  themselves  shepherds  of  living  lambs,  think  themselves  Pygmalions,  great 
sculptors,  whose  loving  hearts,  if  the  gods  will,  can  breathe  the  breath  of  life  into 
their  own  work. 

2.  It  is  true,  I  deny  roundly  that  there  Is  as  little  use  in  wrestling  and  battling 
about  in  the  world,  as  in  being  let  entirely  alone. 

3.  A  fund  of  misanthropy,  and  rigid  mental  habits,  can  not  succeed  in  a  teacher, 
especially  a  public  one.     An  enemy  to  men  and  a  friend  to  this  world,  both  are 
enemies  to  God 

4.  The  worth  of  a  human  soul,  whose  loss  or  harm  can  not  be  compensated  by 
gaining  the  whole  world, — how  little  is  the  worth  of  such  a  soul  understood  by 
the  delineator  of  Emile,  blind  as  the  son  of  the  prophets  (2d  Kings,  vi :  15-17.) 
Every  school  is  a  mountain  of  God,  like  Dothan,  full  of  horses  and  chariots  of 
fire,  round  about  Elisha.     Let  us  also  open  our  eyes  and  see,  lest  we  despise  some 
of  these  little  ones,  since  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  their  angels  in 
heaven  do  always  see  the  face  of  the  Father  in  heaven. 

5.  What  ignorance  is  that  of  the  worldly-wise,  who  dare  to  talk  about  educa- 
tion, without  the  very  beginning  of  wisdom,  fear,  and  divine  unction ! 

To  a  teacher  of  worldly  wisdom,  who  was  about  writing  a  Natural 
Philosophy  for  children,  Hamann  wrote : — 

6.  You  are,  in  truth,  a  master  in  Israel,  if  you  count  it  a  little  thing  to  transform 
yourself  into  a  little  child,  in  spite  of  your  learning.     Or  have  you  more  expecta- 
tions from  children,  having  found  your  grown-up  hearers  unable  to  keep  up  with 
you  in  endurance  and  celerity  of  thought  ?     For,  to  the  execution  of  your  scheme, 
a  great  knowledge  of  children  is  requisite  ;  which  can  not  be  acquired  either  in 
polite  society  nor  in  academical  life. 

The  blinded  heathen  had  a  reverence  for  children,  and  certainly  a  baptized  phi- 
losopher ought  to  know  that  something  more  is  requisite  in  writing  for  children 
than  the  wit  even  of  a  Fontelle,  and  an  amorous  style  of  composition.  What 
will  petrify  beautiful  minds,  and  inspire  rnind  into  beautiful  marble,  is  high  trea- 
son to  the  innocence  of  children. 

To  prepare  for  one's  self-praise  out  of  the  mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings,  to 
participate  in  such  a  desire  and  ambition,  is  no  vulgar  occupation ;  it  must  be 
commenced,  not  by  robbing  birds  of  many-colored  feathers,  but  with  the  volunta- 
ry putting  off  all  superiority  in  age  or  wisdom,  and  the  self-denial  of  all  vanity. 
A  philosophical  book  for  children  must  appear  as  simple,  foolish,  and  insipid,  as  a 
divine  book  for  men.  Examine  yourself,  whether  you  have  the  heart  to  be  the 
author  of  a  simple,  foolish,  insipid,  Natural  Philosophy.  If  you  have,  you  are  a 
philosopher  for  children. 

The  chief  law  of  methods  for  children  is  this  ;  to  let  one's  self  down  to  their 
weakness ;  to  become  their  servant,  where  one  would  naturally  choose  to  be  their 
master;  to  follow  them,  where  one  would  naturally  lead  them;  to  learn  their 
language  and  their  mind,  where  one  would  naturally  constrain  them  to  imitate 


544  JOHANN  GEORG  HAMANN. 

his  own.  This  practical  principle,  it  is,  however,  possible  neither  to  understand 
nor  to  act  fully  up  to,  unless  one  has  become  fully  absorbed  in  affection  for  chil- 
dren. 

7.  Without  the  law  of  complete  freedom,  man  would  be  fit  for  no  imitation, 
which  is  the  basis  of  all  education  and  receptivity  ;  for,  of  all  animals,  man  is  the 
greatest  pantomimist. 

8.  How  much  mental  quickening  have  I  enjoyed  in  the  Swiss  mason's  hut  of 
Leonard  and  Gertrude  !     How  skillfully,  in  this  affecting  drama,  is  the  proton  pseu- 
dos  of  the  apostles,  of  the  new  philosophy,  in  respect  to  legislation,  discovtTvd! 

In  the  hut  of  Leonard  and  Gertrude,  I  found  indications  of  a  stricter  philo- 
sophical and  political  system,  than  in  Raynal's  ten  volumes  of  East  and  West 
Indian  Tales. 

The  author  of  Leonard  and  Gertrude  adapted  his  style  entirely  to  the  tone  of 
national  feeling.  In  sp.te  of  this  fault,  as  acl-mirers  of  purity  and  lucidity  of  style 
must  rind  it,  it  undeniably  contains  passages  of  beauty,  strength,  and  power,  which 
one  can  not  become  tired  of  reading. 

9-.  I  Ih  nk  of  education  as  I  do  of  all  other  human  instrumentalities,  whose  suc- 
cess depends  wholly  upon  a  blessing  from  above ;  I  prefer  a  moderate  use  of  it  to 
a  forced  and  excessive  one.* 

To  Reichardt,  whose  son  was  dead,  Hamann  wrote  : — 

10.  The  giver  of  all  pleasure  is  also  the  God  of  all  consolation  ;  and  both  have 
their  source  on  high,  from  this  fatherly  and  motherly  heart.  Man  knows  not,  but 
God  only,  the  best  way  and  the  best  time.  The  best  of  all  educational  institutions 
for  our  whole  race  is  this  dear  death  ;  the  best  Philanthropinum  is  that  spiritual 
world,  full  of  innocent  and  perfect  souls,  that  high  institution  of  real  virtuosos, 
and  of  the  mothers  of  us  all. 

In  a  letter  to  Bucholtz,  who  had  also  lost  a  son,  he  wrote : — 

The  natural  disproportions  appearing  upon  the  census-lists  may  perhaps  have 
their  deepest  foundation  in  the  political  arithmetic  of  heaven  ;  which  is  obliged  to 
recruit  itself  from  these  innocent  elasses.f 

"  Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not,"  said  the 
founder  of  the  covenant  of  baptism,  the  living  God;  therefore  they  all  live  with 
him.  The  d*  ad  boy  lives,  not  only  in  the  feelings  and  hearts  of  those  who  have 
loved  him  and  seen  him,  but  his  life  on  high  will  act  like  a  magnet  on  us,  to  draw 
us  toward  the  place  and  condition  in  which  he  is ;  whither  he  has  gone  as  our  fore- 
runner, perhaps,  to  fulfill  the  duties  of  the  first-born  toward  his  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, as  a  protect  ng  spirit  a*'d  good  angel,  better  than  can  be  done  by  flesh  and 
blood.  Wh.ch  of  us  knows  for  what  the  Father  of  Spirits  may  destine  his  "animu- 
Za,  vagula,  blandula  ?"  And  are  not  his  dispensations  intend,  d  to  cultivate  in 
us  some  heavenly  characteristics  ;  to  wean  us  from  earthly  pleasures,  which  are 
only  transient  food,  and  do  not  endure  until  a  better  life ;  and  to  accustom  us  to 
higher  enjoyments  ? 

Having  thus  collected  some  of  Haraann's  scattered  thoughts  upon 
education,  to  facilitate  a  judgment  upon  them  collectively,  I  return  to 
his  usually  uniform  life.  The  society  of  eminent  men,  whom  he  met 
in  Konigsberg,  especially  Kant  and  Hippel,  and  a  correspondence  with 
others, — Herder,  F.  H.  Jacobi,  Moser,  Klopstock,  &c., — enlivened  and 
seasoned  his  simple  and  quiet  existence. 

*  Hamann's  views  are  of  great  importance,  upon  the  novelties  introduced  into  German  or- 
thography, by  Damm,  (1773,)  Klopstock,  and  Campe,  (1778.)  See  his  "  New  Apology  of  the 
Letter  H"  and  "  Two  Mites  added  to  the  latest  German  Literature." 

*Of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  he  says,  in  a  letter  to  Kraus,  "  Whose  citizens  are  gathered 
more  from  the  young,  than  from  philosophers,  noblemen,  the  powerful,  or  the  men  of  the 
world.  By  means  of  the  mortality  of  the  young,  it  seems,  also,  that  the  population  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  surpasses  that  of  earthly  realms  ;  and  with  good  reason." 


JOHANN  GEORG  HAMANN.  545 

A  variety  of  causes  brought  him  into  troubled  and  difficult  cir- 
cumstances, until,  in  the  end  of  the  year  1784,  Franz  Bucholtz,  lord 
of  Welbergen,  in  Westphalia,  by  a  very  liberal  donation,  freed  him 
entirelyfrom  all  want,  and  especially  from  all  concern  for  the  future  of 
his  children. 

At  Bucholtz's  invitation,  he  set  out,  June  21st,  1787,  with  his  son, 
for  Westphalia,  tarried  for  a  season  with  F.  H.  Jacobi,  at  Pemplefort, 
and  then  at  Welbergen  and  Munster,  with  Bucholtz.  While  here  he 
received  benefits  from  Prince  Furstenberg  and  Princess  Gallitzin. 
His  letters,  during  the  last  months  of  this  year  and  the  first  of  next, 
repeatedly  allude  to  his  death.  "  He  who  has  brought  me  so  far, 
with  so  many  signs  and  wonders,"  he  writes,  Nov.  14th,  1787,  "will 
also  bring  me  home  to  my  real  country,  with  peace  and  joy,  Kyrie 
Eleison  !  and  will  enable  rne  to  look  with  displeasure  upon  every 
heaven  and  elysium  on  the  earth."  And  again,  on  the  24th :  "  The 
nearer  the  night  of  my  life  approaches,  the  brighter  becomes  the 
morning  star  in  my  heart ;  not  through  the  letter  of  nature,  but 
through  the  spirit  of  the  scriptures,  to  which  I  owe  thanks  more  than 
to  the  former." 

March  23d,  1788  :  "  The  more  the  outer  man  decays,  the  more  the 
inner  grows.  The  older  and  more  helpless  I  become,  the  more  rest- 
ful, peaceful,  and  happy  I  am.  God  has  given  me  an  evening  of  rest, 
has  unyoked  me  from  the  labor  of  public  employment,  for  which  I 
am  as  little  fit  as  for  intercourse  with  the  world.  Although  it  gives 
me  a  foretaste  of  heaven  upon  earth,  yet  this  hidden  treasure  is  not  a 
reward  for  my  own  services  and  worth,  but  a  grace,  a  gift  from  a 
higher  hand,  which  I  am  bound  to  worship.  It  was  needful  for  me, 
to  purify  and  strengthen  me." 

On  the  21st  of  June,  1788,  he  softly  fell  asleep.  He  was  buried 
in  the  garden  of  the  Princess  Gallitzin.* 

"  It  was  not  the  fullness  and  grace  of  his  learning,  not  power  of 
understanding,  not  the  wealth  of  his  wit,  which  seems  to  me  to  have 
been  the  most  valuable  characteristic  of  this  man,  or  his  most  desir- 
able qualities  for  the  present  day  ;  but  his  straightforwardness,  open- 
ness, uprightness,  and  purity ;  his  freedom  from  vanity  and  pretense ; 
contented,  like  the  lily  of  the  valley,  unseen  to  give  out  the  fragrance 
of  his  wisdom,  and  living  entirely  in  the  spirit  of  the  elevated  senti- 
ment which  he  repeated  a  Kttle  before  his  death :  "  It  is  the  truth 
which  makes  us  free,  and  not  the  imitation  of  it."f 

*  Compare  Jacobi's  letter  to  Lavater  F.  H  Jacobi's  "Correspondence,"  1,  482.  The 
Princess  Gallitzin  intended  to  have  engraved  on  his  tombstone  the  text,  I  Corinthians,  i :  23-25. 

t  This  excellent  description  is  by  the  editor  of  Hamann's  Works,  at  the  end  of  the  preface 
to  Part  I. 


JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER. 

(Translated  from  the  German  of  Karl  von  Raumer,  for  this  Journal.] 


JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  VON  HERDER*  was  born,  August  25, 1744,  in 
Mohrungen,  a  small  town  of  East  Prussia,  where  his  father  filled  the 
offices  of  sexton  and  cantor.  He  was  a  conscientious  and  simple  man, 
and  his  wife  a  pious  and  intelligent  woman  ;  and  they  lived,  with  their 
children,!  a  quiet  and  Christian  life,  after  the  good  old-fashioned  way. 

Herder  received  his  school  instruction  from  Grimm,  the  strict  rector 
of  the  public  school  of  Mohrungen ;  a  man  for  whom  he  always  en- 
tertained a  great  respect ;  and  a  pious  minister  confirmed  him. 

In  1760,  Trescho,  the  deacon  of  Mohrungen,  took  Herder,  then 
sixteen  years  old,  into  his  house,  but  did  not  treat  him  in  a  friendly 
manner,  keeping  him  very  much  shut  up.  One  day,  when  Trescho 
had  sent  Herder  to  the  bookseller,  Kanter,  in  Konigsberg,  in  charge 
of  a  manuscript,  the  youth  left  with  it  a  poem  by  himself,  "To  Cy- 
rus," without  his  name.  Kanter  had  the  poem  printed  with  the  other 
manuscript;  this  was  in  1762,  when  Herder  was  seventeen  and  a 
half  years  old. 

The  surgeon  of  a  Russian  regiment,  in  winter-quarters  at  Mohrun- 
gen, became  acquainted  with  Herder,  became  quite  fond  of  him,  and 
took  him  with  him  to  Konigsberg,  to  study  surgery.  But  at  the  first 
dissection  which  he  witnessed,  he  fainted  away.  This  decided  him  to 
give  up  surgery,  and  on  August  9th,  1762,  he  was  matriculated  as  a  the- 
ological student,  after  an  examination  which  he  passed  with  great  credit. 

He  now  studied,  under  Kant,  logic,  metaphysics,  ethics,  and  mathe- 
matical and  physical  geography.  At  the  same  time  he  became  ac- 
quainted with  Hamaun.  They  first  met  at  the  confessional,  and  af- 
terward read  Shakspeare  together. 

Herder's  pecuniary  condition  was  at  this  time  very  pinching;  but 
it  was  improved  in  1763,  when,  in  his  nineteenth  year,  he  obtained  a 
situation  as  teacher  in  the  Frederic's  College,  which  he  filled  with 
great  conscientiousness.  **  I  have  to  thank  this  teaching,"  he  said  after- 

*  This  sketch  is  mostly  from  the  ''Recollections  of  the  Life  of  J.  G.  von  Herder,"  by  his 
vidow  ;  which  constitute,  in  Cotta's  edition  of  Herder's  Works,  the  21st,  22d,  and  23d  part* 
in  the  division  "  Philosophy  and  History." 

tOf  two  sons  and  three  daughters,  one  son  and  one  daughter  died  in  their  third  year. 


548  JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER. 

ward,  "for  the  development  of  many  ideas  and  their  clear  definition. 
Let  any  one,  who  desires  to  work  out  any  study  thoroughly,  teach  it." 

In  1764,  principally  by  Hamann's  influence,  Herder  became  assist- 
ant at  the  Cathedral  School,  in  Riga.  In  a  letter  to  Lindner,  rector 
of  the  school,  Hamaun  says  of  the  young  man,  only  twenty  years  of 
age,  that  he  has  "  a  respectable  quantity  of  historical,  philosophical, 
and  aesthetic  knowledge,  and  a  great  desire  to  cultivate  the  most 
promising  field  possible ;  and  with  a  more  than  moderate  experience 
in  school  management." 

Three  years  afterward,  in  1767,  Herder  received,  in  addition  to  his 
place  in  the  school,  an  appointment  as  preacher.  His  teaching,  in  Riga, 
as  in  Konigsberg,  was  exceedingly  approved  of.  "  His  method  of  in- 
struction," writes  pastor  Bergtnann,  one  of  his  pupils,  "  was  so  excel- 
lent, and  his  intercourse  with  his  scholars  so  pleasant,  that  they  attended 
no  lesson  with  more  pleasure  than  those  which  were  given  by  him." 

In  Riga  he  published,  in  1767,  his  first  work  of  importance,  his 
"Fragments  of  German  Literature"  and,  in  1768  and  1769,  his 
"Critical  Forests"  In  the  Fragments,  among  other  things,  are  some 
very  correct  and  profound  views  on  the  undervaluation  of  the  mother 
tongue,  and  the  overvaluation  of  the  Latin,  which  then  gave  tone 
and  color  to  the  schools.  He  also  strives  against  the  prevailing  apish 
imitation  in  Latin  style.  Thought  and  expression,  he  says,  must  go 
together ;  it  is  so  in  the  native  language ;  and  it  is  only  in  that  that 
a  man  can  write  with  originality.  These  works  drew  upon  him, 
especially  from  Klotz,  who  has  b§en  immortalized  by  Lessing,  the 
most  violent  attacks  and  insults,  which  annoyed  him  so  much,*  that, 
in  the  year  1769,  he  asked  a  dismission  from  his  place,  and  took  a 
journey  to  France  with  a  friend.  The  purpose  of  this  journey  was 
"  an  acquaintance  with  the  best  institutions  of  education  and  learning 
in  France,  Holland,  England,  and  Germany,  and,  at  his  return  to  Riga, 
the  erection  of  an  educational  institution."! 

On  the  voyage  from  Riga  to  Nantes,  and  in  France,  Herder  kept  a 
very  interesting  diary ,J  in  which  all  the  elements  of  his  subsequent 
university  may  be  seen  fermenting  together  with  youthful  wildness. 
"All  his  various  characteristics  were  heaving  together  in  Titanic  hope."§ 

*Hamann  sharply  reproved  Herder  for  his  ''autorial  susceptibility." 

tPhilos.  and  Hist  works,  20, 107. 

I  This  diary  is  in  Cotta's  edition  of  Herder's  Works;  not  entire,  however,  but  "with  the 
omission  of  some  portions  whose  ideas  are  more  fully  presented  in  other  parts  of  his 
works. "(!)  It  is,  however,  given  in  full  in  "Picture  of  von  Herder's  Life,"  (TO.  Herder's 
Lebensbild.) 

§  Gervinus.  "Later  History  of  National  Poetic  Literature"  1.  468,  485.  Gervinus  also  says, 
"Except  Gothe's  '-Juvenile  Letters."  we  have  nothing  which  expresses,  so  well  as  this  diary, 
the  Titanomachy  of  this  period,  its  Promethean  attack  upon  heaven." 


JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER.  5^9 

In  this  diary  he  refers  to  a  book  which  he  thought  of  publishing, 
"for  human  and  Christian  training."  "It  would  begin,"  he  says, 
"with  the  knowledge  of  self;  of  the  wise  cultivation  of  body  and 
soul ;  would  explain  the  design  and  indispensableness  of  each  mem- 
ber to  body  and  soul,  and  the  manifoldness  which  exists  among  them ; 
and  would  then  give  rules  and  directions  for  all  the  development  of 
body  and  soul,  of  which  they  are  capable.  To  this  point,  Rousseau 
is  a  great  teacher.  But  there  follows  a  second  part,  relative  to  so- 
ciety ;  where  Rousseau  is  quite  unable  to  teach."  He  then  goes  on 
to  set  forth  the  contents  of  his  intended  work,  and  mentions  the  vari- 
ous topics  of  Christianity  which  it  was  to  discuss. 

In  the  course  of  the  diary,  he  mentions  his  pedagogical  ideal.  He 
proposes  to  "  change  Rousseau's  human  savage,  Emile,  into  a  national 
Livonian  child."  "O,  ye  Locke  and  Rousseau  I"  he  cries  out,  "and 
Clarke,  and  Francke,  and  Hecker,  and  Ehler,  and  Biisching!  I  desire 
to  rival  you ;  I  will  read  you,  examine  you,  nationalize  you." 

After  this,  Herder  gives  the  complete  plan  of  a  school ;  from  which 
it  appears  how  powerful  an  influence  Rousseau  exercised  upon  him. 
Thus,  he  opposes  the  tyranny  of  the  Latin ;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
most  strenuously  advocates  real  studies.  "My  method,"  he  says, 
"makes  practical  minds,  because  it  teaches  words ;  or  rather,  inversely, 
it  teaches  things."  "  No  school  is  good,  where  nothing  is  learned  but 
Latin.  I  have  tried  to  drive  it  away,  by  opening  three  completely 
independent  real  classes,  in  which  the  pupils  study  for  humanity,  and 
for  their  whole  life."  "  There  will  be  an  everlasting  contest  between 
the  Latin  and  the  real  schools.  The  latter  will  always  teach  too  little 
Latin  for  an  Ernesti,  and  the  former  too  little  knowledge  of  facts  for 
the  rest  of  the  world." 

Grammar,  on  this  plan,  should  be  taught,  not  in  the  Latin,  but  in 
the  native  language. 

"  Grammar,"  he  says  elsewhere,  "  must  be  learned  from  the  lan- 
guage, and  not  the  language  from  the  grammar ;  style  from  speak- 
ing, and  not  speaking  from  an  artificially  formed  style." 

"After  the  mother  tongue,"  again,  "  the  French  should  follow,  as  it 
is  the  most  universal  and  indispensable  in  Europe,  and,  according  to 
our  modes  of  thought,  the  most  finished,  and  the  most  complete  in 
beauty  of  style  and  tasteful  expression.  *  *  *  It  is  the  easiest 
and  most  uniform,  by  means  of  which  to  obtain  a  foretaste  of  philo- 
sophical grammar ;  the  most  orderly  for  matters  of  arithmetic,  the 
understanding,  and  argument.  Our  state  of  society,  also,  requires 
that  it  should  come  immediately  after  our  own  language,  before  any 
other,  even  before  Latin.  I  would  even  rather  have  men  of  learning 
know  French  than  Latin." 


550  JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER. 

These  extracts  show  how  thoroughly  realistic  were  Herder's  views 
at  that  time,  even  in  respect  to  languages.  He  expressed  them  in  a 
condensed  form  as  follows : — "  It  should  be  a  principal  aim  to  give 
the  boy  living  ideas  of  every  thing  which  he  sees,  says,  or  enjoys ;  in 
order  to  give  him  a  tangible  place  in  a  world  of  his  own.  *  *  * 
He  will  never  wish  to  have  been  born  in  another  world,  as  his  head 
will  not  have  been  disordered  by  any  other,  and  his  first  horizon  would 
be  his  own."  And  he  suddenly  exclaims,  "  Oh,  if  I  had  myself  ever 
taught  through  such  a  course,  and  still  more,  had  I  myself  studied 
through  it,  and  done  so  in  the  beginning,  and  had  been  educated  in 
that  manner !  But  as  it  is,  nothing  is  left  for  me  but  a  second  edu- 
cation. I  will  study  French,  to  learn  to  appreciate  their  Buffons  and 
Nollets;  and,  above  all,  to  investigate  art,  and  nature,  and  human  prog- 
ress, and  to  become  fully  acquainted  with  them,  .  .  .  and  to 
Jearn  to  know  the  real  sources  of  books,  so  that  when  I  possess  them 
I  may  train  myself  according  to  them." 

The  genial  young  man  of  five  and  twenty,  had  all  at  once  become 
aware  of  his  condition  of  half  learning.  Trained  up  among  books, 
the  world  of  books  appeared  to  him  one  of  antitypes,  and  he  was 
resolved  to  seek  the  original  types  answering  to  them, — and  to  seek 
them  in  France !  In  this  state  of  reaction  he  overvalued  what  he 
lacked,  and  much  undervalued  what  he  possessed.  But  however 
strong  was  the  French  influence  upon  Herder  at  this  time,  it  operated 
rather  upon  the  exterior  than  upon  the  center  of  his  mind.  Un- 
touched by  the  shallow  deism  of  France,  he  recommended,  most 
earnestly,  in  his  school  plan,  Luther's  Catechism.  "  This,"  he  says, 
"must  be  thoroughly  learned  by  heart,  and  be  remembered  ever 
after." 

If  this  French  influence  had  penetrated  Herder  deeply,  his  eyes 
would  not  so  soon  have  been  opened  to  the  French  and  their  language, 
as  the  sequel  of  his  diary  and  his  letters  show  that  they  were.  He 
writes  to  Hamann,  "  I  am  yet  at  Nantes,  where  I  live  in  a  small  but 
familiar  circle,  and  am  making  myself  acquainted  with  the  French 
language,  manners,  and  modes  of  thinking.  I  do  not  learn  to  like 
them,  however ;  •  for  the  nearer  I  see  them,  the  less  I  like  them."  And 
in  a  letter  from  Paris  he  says,  u  France  can  not  completely  satisfy ; 
and  I  am  heartily  weary  of  it." 

Rousseau  himself  must  have  appeared  to  him  in  an  entirely  differ- 
ent light,  after  his  more  complete  acquaintance  with  the  French.* 
"  With  Rousseau,"  he  says,  in  his  diary,  "  one  must  use  every  where 

*  He  says :  "  One  can  not  understand  any  French  writer  unless  he  understands  the  French 

nation." 


JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER.  551 

paradoxes  which  corrupt  and  deceive  him ;  which  make  old  things 
appear  new  to  him,  little  great,  true  false,  and  false  true.  No  plain 
statement  will  suffice  for  him ;  all  must  be  new,  striking,  wonderful. 
Thus  what  is  beautiful  is  carried  too  far ;  truths  are  made  too  uni- 
versal, and  thus  to  cease  being  true.  His  sophistries  must  be  de- 
tected ;  and  we  have  to  force  ourselves  back  into  our  own  world. 
But  who  can  do  this?  Can  every  ordinary  reader?  Would  not  the 
labor  be  often  greater  than  the  gain  to  be  made  by  it?  And  is  not 
Rousseau  thus  unpractical,  or  harmful,  by  reason  of  this  intellectual 
quality,  in  spite  of  his  greatness  ?"  And  in  another  place  he  says,* 
"  Voltaire  is  vain  and  impudent  about  himself,  Rousseau  proud  and 
haughty ;  but  both  of  them  sought  nothing  so  much  as  to  distinguish 
themselves.  The  former  always  assumed  that  he  had  done  it,  and 
in  controversy  depended  entirely  on  wit ;  the  latter,  upon  intolerable 
and  unheard  of  novelties  and  paradoxes.  However  strongly  Rous- 
seau may  contend  against  the  philosophers,  it  is  still  evident  that  he* 
is  not  at  all  concerned  for  the  justness,  goodness,  reason,  or  useful- 
ness of  his  views,  but  for  what  is  vast,  extraordinary,  new,  or  strik- 
ing. Wherever  he  can,  he  is  a  sophist  and  a  mere  advocate ;  and, 
indeed,  here  is  the  reason  that  the  French  have  so  few  philosophers, 
politicists,  or  historians ;  because  these  three  classes  of  writers  must 
deal  with  the  truth  only.  But  what  is  there  which  would  not  give 
Voltaire  occasion  for  an  attack,  or  Rousseau  for  a  novelty  ?  " 

How  cool  and  correct  is  this  opinion  of  Herder,  in  his  twenty-fifth 
year ;  and  how  soon  had  he  recovered  from  his  earlier  overestima- 
tion  of  Rousseau !  We  shall  be  still  more  convinced  of  this  when 
we  see  how  efii^ntly  he  combated  the  evils  of  the  Gallomania,  and 
the  extreme  views  of  the  Philanthropinists. 

Tired  of  France,  he  left  Paris  in  the  beginning  of  1770,  and  went 
into  Holland  to  Eutin,  and  thence,  as  tutor  to  one  of  the  princes  of 
Holstein,  to  Strasburg,  where  he  became  acquainted  with  Gothe,  five 
years  his  junior.  Here  he  was  appointed  a  consistorial  councilor  at 
Biickeburg,  where  he  resided  from  1771  to  1776.  Having,  while 
here,  read  Rousseau's  "JEmile"  again,  in  1771,  he  remarks  upon  it: 
"  We  must  not  praise  it,  but  imitate  it."  Still,  he  expresses  himself, 
five  years  later,  in  an  extract,  given  in  our  sketch  of  Hamann,  of  a 
letter  to  the  latter,  entirely  displeased  with  Basedow's  Philanthro- 
pinum,  which  was  modeled  entirely  after  Rousseau.  He  afterward 
expressed  deliberate  and  profound  views  of  the  same  kind,  in  several 

*What  we  have  said  indicates  that  Herder  first  wrote  these  opinions  of  Rousseau  in 
Prance.  He  reached  Nantes.  July  Rth,  1769;  and  in  the  following  October  he  wrote  to  Hart- 
knoch,  that  he  had  yet  some  writing  to  do  in  his  diary,  "with  which  I  have,"  he  adds,  "  been 
in  arrears  all  the  time  on  shipboard,  and  am  so  still." 


552  JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER. 

addresses  on  educational  subjects,  with  relation  to  the  much  praised 
new  educational  methods  of  the  day;  and  contends  against  the 
"  shallow  and  easy  methods  in  usum  Delphinorum  of  the  present 
age."  And  he  says,  "He  who  pretends  that  there  is  light,  or  intel- 
ligibility, where  there  is  none,  is  a  juggler,  and  not  a  teacher."  And 
he  contends  against  those  who  advocate  "  a  Leibnitzian  and  New- 
tonian philosophy  for  children,"  and  who  pretend  that  languages  can 
be  learned  "without  memory,  pains,  or  grammar." 

In  another  address,  he  remarks  that  "instead  of  the  good  old 
word  'school,'  a  fashion  has  been  introduced  of  using  Tiew  and  more 
showy  terms,  such  as  '  Educational  Institution,'  and  '  Philanthropi- 
num ;'  and  that  much  is  said  and  much  praise  is  heard  of  *  genius/ 
*  original  genius,*  which  does  every  thing  for  itself,  and  has  no  need 
of  any  other  instructor;  and  of  wonderful  self-development  by  one's 
own  powers."  "  Such  empty  commendations  of  innate  natural  pow- 
*ers  "  have  become  in  the  highest  degree  harmful  to  youth ;  and  "  na- 
ture, so  called,"  has  been  operative  to  the  destruction  of  regulated, 
strict,  and  well-considered  art."  If  the  older  schools  were  correct  in 
principle,  he  says,  "  No  one  who  knows  what  is  a  well-founded  pub- 
lic temple  of  science,  and  what  is  good  education,  would  become  an 
advocate  of  one  of  these  shrines  of  Diana,  with  which  men  do  so 
many  idolatries  under  green  trees,  with  the  fashionable  methods  of 
the  day.  Many  of  these  playthings  have  already  fully  displayed 
their  emptiness." 

It  is  pleasant  to  see  how  the  overflowing  genius  of  the  youth  de- 
veloped into  the  prudence  of  the  man.  This  is  shown  in  respect  to 
the  excessive  praise  of  the  French,  which  we  have  already  mentioned  ; 
and  with  which  no  German  reader,  and  no  one  who  understands 
French  and  its  relations  with  other  languages,  especially  Latin,  can 
fail  to  be  displeased. 

This  displeasure  will,  however,  be  fully  appeased  upon  reading,  in 
Herder's  "Letters  for  the  Advancement  of  Humanity"  written  about 
a  quarter  of  a  century  after  the  "School  Plan"*  his  remarkable  at- 
tack upon  the  "  Gallomania,  or  imitation  of  the  French."  In  this  he 
says : — 

"  This  has  inflicted  upon  us  a  much  deeper  wound. 

"  Since  language  is  the  organ  of  our  mental  faculties,  and  the  chief 
means  of  our  training  and  education,  we  can  not  be  well  taught 

*  The  ''School  Plan  "  appeared  in  1769;  the  "Letters  "  between  1793  and  1797.  Herder's 
later  satisfaction  (1801,)  at  the  spread  and  improvement  of  the  French  language,  by  means  of 
the  French  Academy,  and  at  its  influence  upon  the  other  European  languages,  German  es 
pecially,  seems  to  have  originated  in  his  dislike  to  the  "  obscure  German  metaphysics,  which 
scarcely  understood  itself,"  and  to  the  '-confused  ideas  and  tangled  periods"  of  its  style 
Gervinus  compares  this  praise  with  Gothe's  compliments  to  Voltaire's  purity  of  style. 


JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER.  553 

otherwise  than  in  our  native  language.  What  is  called  a  French 
education  (a  term  actually  in  use,)  in  Germany,  must  of  necessity 
pervert  and  injure  German  manners.  This  truth  seems  to  me  as  clear 
as  the  sun  at  noon. 

"  By  whom  and  for  whom  was  French  constructed  ?  By  French- 
men, and  for  them.  It  expresses  ideas  and  relations  which  occur  in 
their  world ;  in  the  course  of  their  life ;  and  expresses  them  as  they 
are  presented  to  the  speakers  by  their  local  circumstances  at  the  mo- 
ment, and  by  their  mental  peculiarities  at  the  moment.  Without 
this  area,  the  words  must  be  half  understood,  or  not  at  all,  ill  applied, 
or,  where  the  subjects  are  wanting,  altogether  inapplicable,  and  thus 
uselessly  learned.  Since  fashion  rules  in  no  language  as  despotically 
as  in  French ;  since  no  other  language  is  so  entirely  a  reflection  of 
variableness,  and  of  a  changeable  succession  of  shades  of  manners, 
significations,  and  relations ;  since  no  other  language  equals  it  in  ex- 
pressing delicate  gradations  of  meaning,  and  in  plays  upon  a  color- 
piano  of  brilliant  meteors  and  refractions  of  light ;  with  these  quali- 
ties, what  can  it  be  for  the  education  of  Germans,  in  their  peculiar 
circumstances  ?  Nothing, — or  a  will-o'-the-wisp.  It  leaves  the  mind 
empty  of  ideas,  or  gives  it,  in  place  of  the  truths  and  actualities  of 
our  own  country,  false  expressions,  erroneous  terms,  unnatural  repre- 
sentations, and  affectedness.  Wrenched  out  of  its  proper  place,  such 
results  must  of  necessity  follow,  if  it  were  a  language  of  angels. 
Neither  is  it  going  too  far  to  say  that,  in  those  classes  of  our  own  na- 
tion, where  it  has  been  the  vehicle  of  education,  and  still  more  where 
it  has  constituted  the  whole  of  education,  it  has  distorted  the  under- 
standing, laid  waste  hearts,  and, — worst  of  all, — left  the  mind  emptied 
of  such  qualities  as  are  most  essential  to  the  enjoyment  of  pleasure 
in  our  race,  in  our  circumstances,  in  our  calling ;  and  are  these  not 
the  sweetest  of  pleasures  ? 

"And  yet,  the  whole  value  of  a  man,  his  usefulness  in  society,  his 
happiness  as  a  man  and  a  citizen,  depend  upon  this ;  that  he  under- 
stand thoroughly  and  clearly,  and  from  his  youth  up,  the  world  in 
which  he  lives,  his  employments  and  relations,  and  their  means  and 
purposes ;  that  on  these  subjects  he  gain  secure  possession  of  ideas, 
sound  in  the  strictest  sense,  and  sincere  and  cheerful  views ;  and  that  he 
train  himself  in  them,  unperverted,  immovably,  without  any  unnatural 
or  false  ideal  in  his  mind,  and  without  any  squinting  toward  foreign 
manners  and  relations.  One  who  has  not  attained  to  this,  will  find 
his  ways  of  thinking  distorted,  and  his  heart  uninterested  in  the  situa- 
tion in  which  he  is  placed ;  or,  as  it  might  better  be  represented,  his 
heart  will  have  been  stolen  from  him  in  his  youth,  for  his  whole  life, 
by  a  courtezan. 


554  JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER. 

"  What  can  be  more  valuable  than  a  real  world  of  real  hearts  and 
minds, — than  a  condition  in  which  we  know  our  own  thoughts  and 
feelings  in  their  truest  form,  and  express  them  to  others  in  the  truest 
and  most  natural  way ;  in  which  others  communicate  to  us  in  return 
their  own  thoughts  and  feelings ;  in  short,  where  every  bird  sings  as 
nature  taught  it  to  sing?  If  this  light  is  extinguished,  this  flame 
quenched,  this  primeval  bond  between  souls  broken  or  weakened,  then, 
instead  of  all  this,  nothing  would  be  to  be  heard,  but  mere  memorized, 
foreign,  poverty-stricken  phrases.  What  misery  is  that  of  everlasting 
superficiality  and  falsehood,  and  heart  and  soul  dried  up,  hard  and 
cold!" 

In  1776,  Herder  left  Biickeburg,  having,  by  Gothe's  influence,  been 
appointed  councilor  of  the  high  consistory  at  Weimar,  where,  twenty- 
five  years  later,  he  became  president  of  that  body. 

Next  to  the  duties  of  his  ecclesiastical  office,  the  improvement  of 
the  schools  lay  nearest  his  heart.  In  1783,  he  drew  up  a  new  plan 
for  the  schools,  and  secured  an  increase  of  wages  for  the  teachers.  A 
teachers'  seminary  was  founded,  by  his  influence,  in  1787.  In  the 
lower  schools  he  endeavored  to  introduce  the  best  and  practical  parts 
of  the  Pestalozzian  method  of  instruction.  He  gave  the  clergy  "the 
privilege  of  a  thorough  oversight  of  the  country  schools." 

Herder  refused  to  have  his  plan  for  the  schools  printed  ;  "  as,"  he 
said,  "  most  such  undertakings,  if  begun  publicly,  end  miserably.  For, 
in  this  matter,  every  thing  depends  upon  practice,  upon  vigorous 
methods,  and  experiment.  A  faulty  plan  may  be  drawn  up  in  half 
an  hour ;  but  it  becomes  a  fetter  in  which  a  succeeding  century  walks 
lame." 

His  idea  was,  that  "  the  lower  classes  of  real  schools  should  train 
useful  citizens,  and  that  the  upper  ones  should  form  a  scientific  gym- 
nasium for  those  intending  to  study." 

He  offered  to  give  his  assistance  in  establishing  his  scheme  of  or- 
ganization; saying,  "In  my  nineteenth  year  I  began  teaching  in  the 
highest  class  of  an  academical  institution,  and  from  that  time  to  this 
I  have  never  been  free  from  the  responsibilities  of  a  teacher,  or  else 
of  a  school  officer.  Foreign  countries,  even  Catholic  ones,  have  con- 
sulted me  in  relation  to  their  school  organizations ;  and,  without  de- 
parting from  the  greatest  modesty,  I  believe  myself  entitled  to  assert 
that  I  understand  the  subject." 

Herder  manifested,  in  every  way,  knowledge  of  schools,  and  skill 
in  their  management.  In  particular,  he  possessed,  when  of  mature 
years,  both  the  greatest  respect  for  established  institutions  of  value, 
and  the  readiest  recognition  of  valuable  novelties.  He  was  consistent 


JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER.  555 

In  upholding  the  former,  and  in  opposing  raw  and  presumptuous  re- 
formers ;  but  his  conservatism  did  not  make  him  blind  to  such  im- 
provements of  value  as  now  and  then  came  up. 

In  a  man  of  Herder's  poetical  and  simple  character,  these  sound 
and  moderate  views  on  education  are  truly  wonderful.  They  are 
clearly  expressed,  among  other  places,  in  his  plan  for  the  teachers1 
seminary  above  mentioned.  In  this  he  says,  "  It  is  the  single  purpose 
of  a  teachers'  seminary,  to  furnish  to  such  young  persons  as  devote 
themselves  to  educational  pursuits,  by  instruction  and  proper  practice, 
in  whatever  is  necessary  or  truly  useful  for  their  future  vocation,  with- 
out ostentation,  or  any  of  the  pedagogical  fantasies  of  the  day ;  for 
the  greatest  skill  as  a  teacher  is  to  be  acquired  only  by  method  and 
practice." 

Herder  was  also  interested  in  favor  of  a  theological  seminary.  In 
respect  to  it,  he  considered  that  "  the  first  seeds  of  such  institutions 
must  be  sowed  in  silence ;  for  that,  as  old  records  show,  what  is  be- 
gun with  a  great  noise,  commonly  comes  to  an  end  very  quietly." 
The  same  wise  humility  appears  again  here ;  which  knows  that  the 
blessing  comes  from  above,  but  that  presumption  is  fatal  to  grace. 

In  his  opinion  respecting  a  theological  seminary,  he  says :  "  What 
the  clinic  does  for  physicians,  and  the  formuiarium  practicum  for 
jurists,  must  be  done  for  theologians  by  a  seminary  for  those  intend- 
ing to  be  clergymen ;  an  institution,  for  the  establishment  of  which 
our  universities  seem,  under  present  circumstances,  to  be,  for  many 
reasons,  unfit.  Learned  and  experienced  clergymen  only  are  the 
proper  men  to  do  it." 

He  advised  young  clergymen,  as  Luther  had  done,  to  endeavor  to 
obtain  practice  in  teaching,  especially  public  teaching.  "  I  consider 
it,"  he  said,  "  as  a  piece  of  good  fortune,  that  in  my  youth  I  was  un- 
der the  necessity  of  teaching.  I  know  that  what  I  learned  by  it  I 
could  with  difficulty  have  obtained,  if  at  all,  even  by  eternal  reading 
and  hearing.  Ministers  who  have  been  good  school  teachers,  if  they 
have  not  remained  in  the  business  too  long,  are  very  soon  distinguish- 
able for  orderliness,  science,  and  real  practical  knowledge." 

He  wrote  also  a  very  instructive  "Plan  for  the  employment  of  three 
academical  years,  for  a  young  theologian"  In  this,  he  advised  such 
a  young  man  not  to  enter  the  university  too  early ;  and  recommends 
him  to  study  geography  and  natural  history.  "  The  knowledge  of 
our  place  of  abode,"  he  says,  "  of  its  creatures  and  formation,  is  indis- 
pensable to  him  whom  God  intends  to  preach."  He  advises  students 
to  practice  taking  notes  during  their  studies ;  as  being  a  means  of 
"better  distinguishing  and  digesting  their  thoughts."  He  warns 


556  JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER. 

them  against  being  hypercritical  in  reading  the  Biole.  "  The  New 
Testament,"  he  says,  "should  be  read  in  a  religious,  simple,  and  plain 
meaning,  as  the  Apostles  wrote  it,  and  the  first  Christians  read  it." 

"The  students  ought  not  to  pursue  refinements  too  far  in  their 
studies ;  should  read  rather  good  books  than  bad  ones ;  and  should 
not  attempt  to  explain  every  thing,  to  the  last  iota ;  but  should  rest 
contented  with  the  general  internal  consistency,  purity,  power,  and 
beauty  of  the  word  of  God  in  itself." 

This  plan  of  study  for  a  young  theologian  is  annexed  to  the  ^Let- 
ters to  Theophron,"  which  are  addressed  to  a  young  man  who  has 
completed  his  academical  studies  in  theology.  The  author  praises 
Theophron's  affection  for  his  teachers,  and  his  freedom  from  foolish  pride 
and  silly  arrogance.  He,  however,  proceeds  to  find  fault  with  him, 
"because  his  mode  of  reading  the  Bible  is  perverted  and  profane; 
because  he  can  not  drop  the  critical  spirit ;  and  the  word  of  God  be- 
comes, under  his  critical  process,  like  a  squeezed  lemon."  And  he 
adds:  "Obtain  for  yourself  a  heart  inclined  to  overcome  all  obliqui- 
ties of  judgment,  to  level  hill  and  valley,  and  again  to  attain  to  that 
right-mindedness  which  was  a  happiness  of  your  youth,  and  without 
which  we  can  never  be  happy." 

Herder's  "Report  upon  the  education  of  young  clergymen  at  the 
university?*  is  of  great  value  in  relation  to  theological  studies.  The 
occasion  which  called  out  this  report  was  a  most  lamentable  one. 
Numbers  of  young  theologians,  at  the  close  of  their  academical  term, 
were  found  utterly  unfit  for  the  ministry.  The  question  was  asked, 
whether  it  was  not  going  to  be  necessary  to  educate  those  preparing* 
for  the  ministry,  in  schools  set  apart  for  them.  Herder  opposed  this 
plan,  and,  together  wiih  a  full  exposition  of  the  existing  evil,  advised 
how  it  could  be  remedied,  without  laying  aside  the  received  course  of 
study. 

He  begins  by  seeking  the  source  of  the  difficulty,  not  in  the  de- 
partment of  theology,  but  in  that  of  philosophy;  which  is  especially 
to  blame  for  perverting  the  minds  of  the  students  beforehand,  and 
thus  unfitting  them  for  their  subsequent  theological  studies.  This  is 
the  worse,  as  "  the  young  people  come  too  young  and  immature  to 
the  university;"  immature  in  understanding,  judgment,  and  charac- 
ter, and  thus  given  over  to  every  intellectual  and  moral  temptation. 
Herder's  principal  remedy  is,  to  lengthen  the  school  course  one  year, 
and  to  establish  a  "select  class"  in  each  gymnasium,  "in  which  the 
youths  may  learn  to  conduct  themselves  as  academical  students." 

*  Drawn  up  from  the  only  two,  unfortunately,  which  remain,  of  the  reports  on  similar  sub- 
jects, which  the  author  wrote  during  the  last  six  years  of  nis  life. 


JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER.  557 

"  In  this  way  the  prolongation  of  their  stay  in  the  school  would  not 
become  a  hardship  to  them,  and  their  entrance  into  the  university 
will  not  turn  their  heads."  On  this  plan,  academical  lectures  would 
be  avoided  on  subjects  which  can  be  thoroughly  learned  only  in 
schools ;  as  these  would  be  attended  to  in  this  select  class. 

In  conclusion,  we  will  glance  at  the  excellent  addresses  which  Her- 
der delivered  while  Ephorus  of  the  Weimar  Gymnasium,  mostly  at 
examinations. 

In  two  of  these,  he  advocates  strict  order  and  discipline  in  schools, 
though  the  period  was  one  of  the  greatest  laxity  of  morals.  If  such 
discipline  is  wanting,  if  the  teacher  is  not  entirely  master  in  his  class, 
and  possessed  of  entire  control  of  his  scholars,  his  occupation  be- 
comes an  internal  torture,  such  as  that  of  Sisyphus  and  the  Danaides. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  teacher  should  not  forget  the  rule,  Maxi- 
ma reverentia  puero  debetur.  In  a  third  address,  he  discusses  methods 
of  study ;  and  adds,  that  in  some  departments  (e.  g.,  in  natural  histo- 
ry,) these  methods  have  been  improved  as  the  studies  have  advanced. 
He  then  proceeds  to  oppose  the  feeble  and  enfeebling  newly-discov- 
ered methods  for  easing  study. 

One  address  is  upon  written  school  exercises.  Among  others,  he 
earnestly  recommends  translations  from  the  classics,  as  accurate  as 
possible  without  unpleasant  closeness ;  and  assiduous  reading,  in 
which  the  pupil  must  be  assisted  by  the  teacher.  "Very  eminent 
men,"  he  says,  "  ha.ve  educated  themselves  without  a  teacher,  but  it 
would  be  unfortunate  for  any  one  to  undertake  to  gain  all  his  acquire- 
ments without  a  teacher;  and  the  consequence  would  often  be  that 
he  would  be  distinguished  only  for  mental  deformity."  "A  good 
school  is  a  community  of  bees,  who  fly  about  and  gather  honey ;  an 
indolent  one,  a  collection  of  beasts  of  burden,  who  go  just  where  they 
are  driven,  and  do  not,  all  their  lives,  take  possession  even  of  what  is 
laid  upon  them." 

In  the  address  on  schools  as  physical  gymnasia,  he  discusses  the 
development  of  innate  faculties  by  practice.  As  included  in  this,  he 
mentions  exercises  in  bodily  accomplishments  and  susceptibilities. 
All  such  exercises,  he  says,  must  be  steadily  followed,  and  inter- 
changed with  each  other ;  and  a  noble  emulation,  the  "  good  Eris " 
of  Hesiod,  must  preside  over  them.  In  regard  to  such  exercises,  the 
schools  are  far  better  situated  than  the  universities,  which  undervalue 
all  exercise. 

Two  addresses  consider  what  place  the  fine  arts  should  occupy  in 
the  schools.  "  Woe  to  a  time,"  says  Herder,  "  which  calls  that  beau- 
tiful which  is  easy ;  and  that  agreeable  which  is  attained  with  facility." 


558  JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER. 

The  ancients  knew  nothing  of  the  "fine"  arts,  as  opposed  to  the  pro- 
found or  the  useful. 

The  Latin  terras  " literce humaniores"  "studio. humanitatis"  happily 
expressed  the  correct  idea  of  the  fine  arts.  To  the  ancients  the  terra 
"  beautiful "  was  "  an  actual  part  of  a  clear,  accurate,  intelligible,  ex- 
pressive proposition ;  not  a  mere  verbal  finery."  "All  sciences  lose 
their  best  part  when  the  beautiful, — that  is,  that  quality  by  which 
they  develop  humanity, — is  taken  away  from  them ;  and  that  this  is  a 
quality  which  each  of  them,  after  its  kind,  can  have  and  should  have, 
that  no  science  should  be  barbarian  or  inhuman,  that  even  the  most 
abstract  pursuits  have  their  attraction,  their  beauty," — these  are  prop- 
ositions which  follow  of  themselves. 

"On  the  use  of  schools."  This  is  directed  against  pseudo-philan- 
thropic reformers  who  contemn  all  tradition,  which,  meanwhile,  is 
handed  down  to  us  principally  by  means  of  the  schools.  "The  whole 
human  race  is  certainly  one  school,  continued  on  through  all  centuries  ; 
and  a  new-born  child,  suddenly  removed  from  this  school,  broken  out 
from  this  chain  of  instruction,  and  set  upon  a  desert  island,  would  be, 
with  all  his  natural  faculties,  a  miserable  beast,  even  ten  times  more 
miserable  than  the  beasts." 

"  The  spirit  of  our  age  tends  more  to  destroy  than  to  build.  To 
fell  a  tree  costs  only  a  few  strokes ;  but  to  make  it  grow  up,  requires 
years,  or  centuries." 

Herder  then  turns  to  ignorant  teachers.  "  It  is  an  established  fact, 
that  an  ignorant  or  visionary  man  can  teach  nothing  correctly  ;  that  one 
who  desires  to  teach,  must  himself  have  learned ;  that  is,  must  have 
acquired  clear  and  correct  ideas,  and  a  lucid,  easy,  and  practicable 
method.  This  is  the  reason  why  all  half-learned  men  are  so  strenuous 
against  true  modes  of  instruction.  I  believe  we  should  all  agree  that 
the  arguments  of  such  persons  would  be  very  suspicious.  *  * 
The  older  we  grow,  or  at  least  the  more  mature  our  judgment  becomes, 
the  better  does  he  see  that  no  measures  should  be  kept  with  such 
geniuses,  with  their  peculiar  enthusiasms,  with  their  eloquence  upon 
subjects  of  which  they  are  ignorant,  with  their  activity  in  occupa- 
tions which  they  do  not  understand;  and,  for  my  part,  I  experience 
a  horror  when  I  hear,  read,  or  see  the  preaching,  or  orations,  or  op- 
erations of  these  geniuses.  What  we  learn  it  is,  that  we  understand."* 

Every  thing  which  Herder  says  here  seems  perfectly  clear  of  itself. 
And  yet  Jacotot,  whose  system  has,  at  a  later  date,  gained  so  much 
reputation,  says  that  his  "  universal  instruction  appeals  to  no  one  who 
does. not  feel  himself  competent  to  teach  his  son  what  he  does  not 

*In  his  obituary  address  upon  Heinze,  the  late  rector  at  Weimar,  Herder  praised  him  as 
"  a  master  who  would  not  teach  at  all  what  he  only  half  understood." 


v 

»B 


JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER.  559 

himself  understand.  *  *  *  He  appeals  to  his  own  experience ; 
since  he  taught  Dutch  and  Russian  without  understanding  them,  and 
music,  of  which  he  never  knew  any  thing."  * 

"  School,"  says  Herder  further,  "  is  a  place  in  which  we  learn  a 
science,  a  language,  an  art,  or  a  trade,  thoroughly  and  by  rules ;  where 
we  practice  those  rules,  and  make  ourselves  familiar  with  them ; 
where  our  faults  are  explained  to  us  from  their  bottom,  and  remedied 
in  the  easiest  way  possible.  *  *  *  Thus  it  appears  of  itself  that 
a  teacher  must  understand  the  subject  which  he  teaches ;  and  that 
accordingly  I  can  learn  it  from  him,  and  can  do  so  much  more  easily 
than  from  myself,  who  know  nothing  of  it."  "  It  is  certainly  a  rec- 
ommendation of  a  man  to  say  '  he  is  educated  ; '  but  a  rips-raps,  who 
has  no  training  in  any  school,  lacks  steadiness  and  precision  in  his  work." 

The  same  address  contains  striking  remarks  upon  the  heuristic  or 
inventive  method,  which  had  been  pushed  to  the  extremest  caricature, 
especially  by  Jacotot.  Herder  ridicules  the  undertaking  to  find  out, 
for  one's  self,  sciences,  rules,  arts,  which  the  mind  is  to  bring  out  for 
us, — or  which  the  wind  is  to  blow  to  us."  It  is  more  than  we  are 
able  to  do,  to  learn  the  necessary  studies  in  the  slowest  manner. 

"On  the  introduction  of  improvements  in  schools,  1786."  In  this  ad- 
dress he  complains  that  the  public  take  little  interest  in  the  schools,  and 
regard  them  so  little.  He  opposes  the  idea  that,  even  in  the  gymnasium, 
reference  should  be  had  to  the  future  social  destiny  of  the  scholar;  and 
contends  that  a  general  mental  development  should  rather  be  sought. 

"  On  the  preference  of  public  or  private  schools,  1 790."  Herder  makes 
no  defense  of  the  ''pure  good  Latin  schools."  In  practice,  he  was  in- 
strumental in  removing  the  objection  that  the  scholars  were  ranked  every 
where  by  their  standing  in  Latin,  and  that  other  studies  were  pursued 
merely  as  subordinate  ;  for  he  was  prominent  in  the  introduction  of  the 
new  arrangement,  according  to  which  the  pupils  received  a  name  and 
rank  from  their  proficiency  in  Latin,  but  were  set  higher  or  lower  in  each 
other  section,  according  to  their  proficiency  in  that.  Thus  the  scholars 
of  a  particular  Latin  class  might  have  different  places  at  different  lessons. 

Although,  in  some  of  his  addresses,  Herder  appears  as  a  firm  parti- 
san of  established  good  measures,  and  as  decidedly  conservative,  still, 
in  that  last  quoted,  he  recommends,  with  equal  earnestness,  an  innova- 
tion, that  is  the  uniting  of  the  class  system  and  the  classification  by 
studies.  Latin,  as  anciently  established,  is,  it  is  true,  to  hold  the  first 
rank  in  the  schools ;  but  other  studies  are  made  to  assume  a  rank  and 
importance  of  their  own  ;  and  are  to  appear  to  the  scholars,  no  longer 
as  unimportant  adjuncts  to  the  Latin,  but  as  independent  pursuits,  re- 
quiring earnest  study. 

Jacotot's  "Universal  Instruction,"  exolained  by  Dr  Hoffman,  p.  22. 


560  JOHANN  GOTTFRIED  HERDER. 

In  several  other  addresses,  as  in  his  youth,  Herder  is  an  advocate 
of  realism  in  the  schools ;  of  an  enlightened  realism  however,  not  of 
one  which  can  only  stimulate  pride.  In  an  address,  in  1798,  "On  the 
progress  of  a  school  in  the  course  of  time"  he  says  that  he  would  not 
comply  with  the  demands  of  the  times  in  what  is  extravagant,  but  so 
far  as  they  are  true  and  useful.  He  had  learned,  to  full  conviction, 
that  the  times  very  correctly  required  of  scholars,  training  in  under- 
standing, speaking  and  writing  their  native  language,  in  natural 
science,  mathematics,  and  geography.  His  address  "On  the  agreeable- 
ness^  usefulness,  and  necessity  of  Geography?  is  full  of  love  of  the 
study.  He  says  that  "  he  pursued  it  with  the  extremest  pleasure  in 
the  best  years  of  his  life,  and  taught  it  to  others  with  as  much  pleas- 
ure." He  considers  geography,  in  connection  with  natural  history,  as 
the  basis  of  general  history.  The  fresh  enthusiasm  which  charac- 
terizes this  address  is  the  same  which  appears  in  his  "Ideas  upon  the 
History  of  Humanity"  the  first  part  of  which  was  published  in 
1784,  the  year  of  the  delivery  of  this  address. 

In  a  second  address,  "On  true  progress  in  schools?  he  expresses 
himself  strongly  against  "  old,  empty,  dry  customs."  "  Every  teach- 
er," he  says,  "  must  have  his  own  customs,  must  himself  have  fash- 
ioned them,  and  that  intelligently,  or  he  will  accomplish  nothing." 
This  is  most  strongly  opposed  to  the  antiquated  custom  which  pre- 
scribed that  men  must  move  only  in  the  footsteps  of  their  predecessors. 

The  address  "On  the  genius  of  a  school"  is  very  able,  and  very 
characteristic  of  Herder.  This  genius  is,  in  his  view,  "a  personification 
of  the  purity  and  nobility  of  human  nature ;"  a  personification  of  hu- 
manity. A  comparison  is  very  interesting,  of  this  address  with  an- 
other, entitled  "Schools  as  the  laboratories  of  God's  spirit,  the  Holy 
Ghost"  What  are  the  relations  between  the  "genius  of  a  school," 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  its  operations  ? 

I  shall  concluded  here,  referring  the  reader  to  Herder's  works.  It 
was  not  my  design  to  give  an  exhaustive  account  of  him,  but  only 
such  an  one  as  might  instruct  the  teachers  of  our  times ;  who,  in  their 
overestimate  of  the  present  day,  may  easily  undervalue  the  profound, 
truthful,  and  fruitful  views  of  preceding  great  men. 

We  have  sketched  Herder's  life  until  he  came  to  Weimar,  in  1776. 
We  have  seen  how  deeply  he  was  interested  in  schools,  seminaries, 
and  the  education  of  ministers  and  teachers ;  and  how  he  labored  for 
them,  in  thought  and  in  action.  In  this  course  of  active  exertion  he 
persevered  steadily  and  hopefully,  although  it  often  appeared  as  if  his 
labor  was  vain,  until  his  death,  which  took  place  December  18th, 
1803,  at  the  age  of  fifty-nine  years  four  months. 


FRIEDRICH  AUGUST  WOLF. 

[Translated  for  the  American  Journal  of  Education,  from  the  German  of  Karl  von  Raumer.] 


FRIEDRICH  AUGUST  "WOLF  was  born  in  1759,  at  Hainrode, 
a  village  not  far  from  Nordhausen ;  where  his  father  was  school- 
master and  organist.  Before  the  boy  could  well  speak  or  walk,  his 
father  tried  to  teach  him  Latin  and  German.  At  two  years  old,  long 
before  he  could  read  or  write,  he  knew  many  Latin  words.  From  his 
mother,  he  inherited  a  pleasant  expression,  and  a  love  of  music. 

In  1765,  his  father  removed  to  Nordhausen.  His  son,  at  the  age 
of  six,  entered  the  third  class  of  the  gymnasium  there,  and,  in  his 
eleventh  year,  was  placed  in  the  first.  Fabricius  was  rector  at  first, 
and  was  followed  by  liake,  a  very  able  man,  who  had  much  influence 
upon  Wolf,  but,  unfortunately,  died  after  a  rectorate  of  only  nine 
months,  in  1771.  Under  his  successor,  Alberti,  the  gymnasium 
declined.  Wolf,  at  fifteen,  detected  this  man's  ignorance  in  a  lesson ; 
and,  at  a  public  examination,  showed  that  he  had  dictated  difficult 
questions  and  answers  to  the  scholars,  in  order  to  a  good  appearance 
before  the  spectators.  After  this,  Wolf  attended  the  gymnasium  but 
little,  but  studied  the  classics  by  himself  with  great  zeal ;  bejng 
bountifully  furnished  with  books  by  two  preachers  and  a  physician 
in  Nordhausen,  and  especially  by  Collaborator  Leopold  in  Ilefeld. 
He  also  learned,  under  music- director  Frankenstein,  as  much  of  Eng- 
lish, French,  Italian,  and  Spanish,  as  his  instructor  knew  himself. 

In  his  sixteenth  year,  his  father  placed  him  with  Schroeter,  the 
well-known  organist  at  Nordhausen.  Although  the  young  man  had 
studied  the  organ  and  clavier  with  eagerness,  he  had  no  wish  to 
devote  himself  entirely  to  music.  For  this  reason,  Schroeter  tormented 
him  with  mathematical  demonstrations.  "  I  never  liked  these,"  he 
said,  "  for  I  observed  that  the  better  mathematician  a  man  was,  so 
much  the  more  unfit  was  he  for  the  best  of  other  studies." 

In  1777,  he  entered  the  University  of  Gottingen,  where,  contrary 
to  all  usage,  he  matriculated  as  student  in  philology.  Heyne  re- 
marked as  much  to  him,  to  which  he  answered,  "There  are,  at  most, 
four  or  six  good  professorships  of  philology  in  the  German  universi- 
ties ;  and  one  of  these  I  propose  to  obtain."  He  was  not  close  in 
attendance  on  the  lectures ;  but  most  zealously  pursued  his  own 
36 


562  FRIEDRICH  AUGUST  WOLF. 

studies,  with  the  help  of  the  library.  He  did  not  even  enter  Hejne's 
philological  seminary ;  but  read  lectures,  himself,  to  sixteen  hearers, 
on  Xenophon  and  Demosthenes. 

On  Heyne's  recommendation,  he  was,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  ap- 
pointed, in  1779,  collaborater  in  the  Psedagogium  at  Ilefeld;  and, 
two  years  afterward,  was  unanimously  chosen  rector  at  Osterode, 
after  having  read  a  brilliant  probationary  dissertation  on  an  ode  of 
Horace,  and  two  chapters  of  Thucydides.* 

In  1779,  Fredric  II.  of  Prussia,  by  a  cabinet  order  to  his  minis- 
ter, Zedlitz,  gave  an  impulse  to  the  study  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
classics,  which  occasioned  the  publication  of  new  editions  of  them. 
Wolf  was  thus  induced  to  publish,  in  1782,  Plato's  "Symposium;" 
and  the  reputation  of  this  book  was  the  occasion  of  the  invitationf 
which  he  received  to  fill  Trapp's  place,  at  Halle,  whither  he  went,  in 
1783. 

Wolf's  appointment  specifies  that  he  shall  "act  as  professor  of 
philosophy,  and  in  particular  of  pedagogy,  according  to  his  official 
duty ;  shall  yearly  deliver  an  instructive  free  course  of  public  lectures 
upon  the  art  of  education;  in  regard  to  the  pedagogical  instruc- 
tion within  the  Teachers'  Seminary,  he  must  spend  as  much  time 
as  possible  in  the  practical  direction  of  it;  and,  to  this  end,  must 
often  instruct  in  the  boarding-school,  in  the  presence  of  the  seminary 
pupils ;  and  must  himself  have  the  oversight  of  the  boarding-school." 

Trapp  seems  to  have  received  nearly  the  same  instructions  from  the 
minister ;  but  there  was  as  much  difference  between  his  conceited 
operations  under  them  and  the  remarkable  efficiency  of  Wolf's,  that 
there  was  between  his  superficiality  and  the  thorough  learning  and 
genius  of  Wolf. 

Not,  however,  that  Wolf  found  affairs  to  his  mind  at  his  entrance 

*  While  at  Osterode  he  married,  and  had  one  son  and  three  daughters.  The  son  died 
early,  and  he  was  divorced  in  1802. 

t  The  Prussian  minister,  von  Zedlitz,  was  an  enthusiastic  believer  in  Basedow's  pedagogical 
views  and  undertakings.  This  fact  was  the  reason  of  his  inviting  Trapp,  the  teacher  at  the 
Philanthropinum  at  Dessau,  to  Halle  :  and  of  his  establishing  there  a  professorship  of  peda- 
gogy, expressly  for  him.  The  new  professor  was  (at  the  same  time,)  placed  in  charge  of  an 
educational  institution,  in  which  boys  were  taught,  and  teachers  were  trained  also. 

Trapp  was  a  thorough  follower  of  Basedow,  as  his  "Attempt  at  a  System  of  Pedagogy  " 
shows.  This  book  contains  a  conceited,  shallow,  and  narrow  course  of  reasoning  upon 
religion,  philosophy,  and  learning;  an  exaltation  of  what  is  vulgar,  and  a  vulgar  contempt  for 
what  is  noble.  For  example, "  the  learning  of  foreign  languages  is  one  of  the  greatest  evils  which 
afflict  the  schools,  ^specially  in  Germany;  and  which  hinder  the  progress  of  men  to  perfection 
and  happiness."  "  It  is  inquired,  how  many  languages,  and  what,  should  the  teacher  learn  t 
Would  to  God  that  he  was  expected  to  learn  none  but  his  own  !  If  education  were  placed 
upon  the  best  possible  footing,  both  Latin  and  French  would  be  banished  from  Germany." 

In  1783,  Trapp  resigned  his  appointment,  to  take  charge  of  an  educational  institution  at 
Hamburg ;  and  the  official  successor  of  this  ignorant  opponent  of  classical  studies,  was  the 
greatest  philologist  of  his  age,  F.  A.  Wolf. 


FR1EDRICH  AUGUST  WOLF.  563 

upon  the  professorship  at  Halle.  The  reverse  was  the  case.  So  low 
a  spirit  prevailed  among  the  students,  that  they  desired  nothing  more 
than  to  be  trained  for  the  course  of  life  which  they  intended  to  pur- 
sue. They  usually  reduced  the  required  three  years  of  the  academical 
course  to  two;  so  that  they  had  time  only  for  the  most  indispensable 
collegiate  studies.*  Thus  it  occurred  that  Wolf  found  no  encourage- 
ment at  all  for  his  philological  lectures.  He  was  quite  discouraged 
from  lecturing  on  logic  and  metaphysics,  when  encouraging  letters 
reached  him  from  Biester  and  Zedlitz.  The  latter  said  that  Wolf 
must  "help  to  remove  the  one  reproach  under  which  Halle  had  labored ; 
that  no  philologists  had  been  trained  there."  And,  he  continued, 
"The  public  will  soon  do  me  the  justice  to  confess  that  I,  also,  have 
done  what  I  could  to  this  end,  since  I  have  employed  for  the  pur- 
pose a  man  of  knowledge,  learning,  taste,  and  zeal ;  and,  as  far  as 
was  in  my  power,  have  rewarded  him.  This  confession  to  my  honor, 
I  am  certain  you  will  wring  from  the  public." 

A  liking  for  liberal  studies  gradually  grew  up  among  the  students. 
The  philological  seminary,  established  by  Wolf's  means,  in  1787, 
was  chiefly  instrumental  to  this  end.  Up  to  this  time,  teachers  had 
usually  been  chosen  from  among  the  theological  students.  Wolf  en- 
deavored, on  the  contrary,  to  build  up  a  class  of  teachers  distinct  from 
the  preachers ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  oppose  the  contempt  for 
classical  studies  which  had  been  promoted  by  the  philanthropists ;  in 
his  own  words,  "  to  raise  up  again  the  steadily  failing  taste  for  thor- 
ough classical  learning."  The  seminarists  not  only  received  theoreti- 
cal training,  but  had  the  opportunity  for  practice  in  teaching.  The 
boarding-school  was,  throughout,  organized  like  that  at  Gottingen. 

Wolf's  address  to  the  seminarists,  at  the  opening  of  his  philological 
seminary,  is  worthy  of  attention.  He  says  that  he  has  always  labored 
for  the  good  of  the  pupils,  without  any  ulterior  views.  "If,"  he  con- 
tinued, "  I  had  had  the  usual  collateral  views,  I  should  invariably  have 
directed  my  instructions  rather  to  the  ears  than  to  the  understanding. 
I  am,  however,  conscious  that  I  have  never  aimed  to  attract  a  multi- 
tude of  hearers,  but  only  to  dispense  thorough  knowledge ;  that  is,  to 
have  hearers,  though  few,  well-trained  and  desirous  of  learning. 
This  makes  my  pleasure  the  greater,  to  see  that  a  love  of  classical 
learning  is  actually  increasing  in  our  university.  Four  years  ago,  I 
should  have  been  much  perplexed  to  find  twelve  members  of  such  an 
institution  as  this ;  while  I  have  now  had  the  true  pleasure  of  being 

"  *  Life  of  Wolf,  by  Korte,  1,  122.  Wolf  repeatedly  describes  students  of  this  kind.  For 
instance.  "  Such  are  fortunate  if  they  find  a  teacher  who  will  chew  every  thing  for  them  ;  " 
*nd,  in  another  place,  "  Be  convinced  that  no  one  ever  taught  usefully,  who  had  not  before- 
Band  learned  well  at  school." 


564  FRIEDRICH  AUGUST  WOLF. 

able  to  select  the  present  large  number  of  industrious  members  trom 
a  still  greater  one  of  candidates." 

Wolf  might  well  say  that  he  was  free  from  "  the  usual  collateral 
views."  A  man  who  would  give  up  the  rector's  salary  of  seven  hun- 
dred thalers,  at  Osterode,  and  decline  the  invitation  to  Gera,  where 
one  thousand  thalers  was  promised  him,  and  would  accept,  instead, 
the  professorship  at  Halle,  with  its  income  of  three  hundred  thalers, 
must,  truly,  have  been  governed  by  some  nobler  motive  than  that 
of  gaining  money.  He  sought  honorable  success,  as  a  teacher ;  and 
was  no  fool  with  tinkling  bells,  to  direct  his  instructions  rather  to  the 
ears  than  to  the  minds  of  his  hearers.  He  had  too  much  capacity, 
genius,  and  learning,  to  be  capable  of  such  arts ;  a  wealthy  man  does 
not  practice  counterfeiting. 

With  every  year,  his  success,  and  the  number  of  his  hearers,  in- 
creased. Among  these,  the  writer  of  this  account  had  the  good  for- 
tune to  be  one.  At  the  first  of  Wolf's  lectures,  which  he  attended 
in  1798,  the  room  was  crowded ;  and  the  same  was  the  case,  in  1803 
and  1804,  with  all  the  lectures  which  he  attended. 

If  Wolf,  at  his  entrance  upon  his  professorship  at  Halle,  was  forced 
to  make  bitter  complaints  of  the  vulgar  mercenariness  of  the  stu- 
dents, which  looked  no  further  than  to  the  procurement  of  means  to 
earn  their  bread,  his  subsequent  view  of  his  numerous  audience,  of 
whom  but  a  small  part  were  philologistst,  was  sufficient  to  convince 
him  that  he  had  conquered  in  the  contest  with  this  ignoble  feeling, 
and  that  a  noble  aspiration  after  truly  universal  acquirements  was 
awakened  among  the  students.  How  well  he  understood  how  to 
stimulate  this  zeal,  those  who  never  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  his 
pupils  can  learn,  from  the  ma'ny  academical  programmes  which  he 
has  collected  in  his  miscellaneous  works.  In  the  first,  he  starts  from 
Seneca's  proposition,  "  He  who  is  every  where  is  nowhere,"  and  utters 
a  warning  against  studying,  superficially,  too  many  subjects,  without 
becoming  thoroughly  acquainted  with  any  of  them.  In  the  second, 
he  discusses  the  contrast  between  the  ancient  Greek  method  of  in- 
structing by  dialogue,  and  the  present  one  of  lecturing  from  the  chair. 
In  order  that  the  students  might,  to  some  extent,  enjoy  the  advant- 
ages of  the  ancient  method,  examinations  and  disputations  were 
established.  "Do  not 'be  afraid  of  these  names,"  he  adds;  "these 
exercises  will  be  of  great  service  to  you,  not  only  by  developing  your 
facility  in  language,  but  your  opinions.  In  a  third,  Wolf  graphically 
portrays  a  good  teacher.  Above  all  things,  he  must  teach  what  is 
true,  and  do  it  thoroughly.  There  must,  however,  be  a  second  quali- 
fication. "You  will  perhaps,  my  fellow  laborers,"  he  continues,  "  think 


FRIEDRICH  AUGUST  WOLF.  -^ 

what  this  is.  I  have  not  so  low  an  opinion  of  your  intelligence  as  to 
believe  that  you  will  imagine  that  it  is  sweet  words,  action,  or  lively 
gesticulation.  Such  meretricious  attractions  are  for  the  theater,  not 
for  the  place  of  instruction ;  for  speeches  intended  to  excite  the  pas- 
sions of  the  multitude,  not  for  a  learned  discourse  intended  to  teach 
youths  wisdom.  Some  action  is,  nevertheless,  appropriate  even  to 
such  a  discourse ;  but  moderate  and  uniform.  *  *  *  This  second 
requisite  is  not  so  much  an  outward  means  of  adding  to  the  excellence 
of  the  discourse,  as  something  bound  closely  up  with  the  instruction 
itself.  I  mean  a  mode  of  teaching  appropriate  to  each  subject, 
which  shall  display  it  in  an  order  which  shall  bring  all  its  parts  dis- 
tinctly out ;  shall  put  each  in  the  right  place ;  and  in  intelligible,  pure, 
clear,  appropriate,  and,  where  proper,  witty  language ;  such  as  belongs 
to  educated  men."*  Every  discourse  should  also  be  suited  to  the  in- 
tellectual capacities  of  its  hearers  ;  and,  as  some  of  these  are  strong, 
and  some  are  weak,  the  teacher  may,  perhaps,  adopt  a  mean,  in  style, 
as  for  a  class  between  these  two.  Having  said  so  much  of  the  requi- 
sites of  teachers,  he  proceeds  to  consider  what  should  be  demanded 
of  the  hearers.  "  Of  you,  fellow -laborers,"  he  says,  "  on  the  other 
hand,  it  will  be  required  that  you  bring  to  your  new  instruction 
(moral)  ears  which  have  been  well-trained  in  school  to  the  apprehen- 
sion of  that  medium  style  of  instruction,  which  is,  however,  such  as 
is  appropriate  to  the  university."  In  a  fourth  programme,  Wolf  de- 
fends the  custom  of  lecturing  from  the  chair ;  which  must  be  an  art ; 
and  must  vary  much  with  the  qualities  of  its  subjects  and  hearers. 
The  more  learned  the  professor,  the  more  valuable  will  be  his  teach- 
ing ;  and  the  more  will  educated  hearers  give  consideration  to  what 
he  says,  and  the  manner  in  which  he  says  it.  The  most  learned  men 
have  proceeded  from  the  schools  of  those  who  merely  read  from 
manuscript  sheets ;  while  others,  in  spite  of  their  beautiful  delivery, 
have  been  but  little  esteemed  among  intelligent  and  learned  people. 

I  would  gladly  give  fuller  accounts  of  these  programmes;  but  these 
extracts  will  exemplify  the  free,  clear,  and  vivid  style  in  which  Wolf 
addressed  the  students.  Some  of  his  academical  writings  discuss 
false  readings,  which  have  occasioned  teachers  useless  exertions.  He 
usually  cites  earlier  explanations ;  shows  them  to  be  distorted  and 
faulty ;  and  then,  in  some  remarkably  simple  way,  loosens  the  knot. 
Even  to  read  these  philological  programmes  enables  one  to  imagine 
Wolf's  oral  interpretation  of  the  classics  must  have  enchained  his 
audience. 

*  He  says,  in  another  programme,  "  The  language  of  lectures  should  be  familiar,  changing 
as  subjects  vary,  but  nowhere  like  a  book." 

No.  16.— [VOL.  VI.,  No.  1.—]  15. 


566  FRIEDRICH  AUGUST  WOLF. 

Although,  during  the  first  ten  years  of  his  labors  at  Halle,  his 
efforts,  both  oral  and  written,  had  been  confined  within  a  narrow 
sphere,  he  began  about  the  year  1795  to  have  a  European  reputation. 
In  this  year  appeared  his  "Prolegomena  to  Homer  ;  "  a  small  work, 
but  which  gained  a  reputation  unprecedented  in  philology,  although 
the  greatest  minds  were  at  variance  even  with  themselves  as  to  its 
conclusions.  These  were,  that  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  are  not  by  the 
same  author,  but  that  each  of  them  consists  of  various  separate  rhap- 
sodies, by  different  rhapsodists ;  and  that  these  were  put  in  connec- 
tion with  each  other  by  the  diaskeamts  of  the  time  of  the  PisistratidaB, 
and  by  later  critics. 

There  was  no  disagreement  in  the  opinion  that  Wolf  had  pursued 
his  undertaking  with  the  greatest  acuteness,  and  with  eminent  learn- 
ing, whatever  differences  may  have  existed  as  to  his  conclusions. 
Wilhelm  von  Humboldt,  G.  Hermann,  the  two  Schlegels,  and  other 
celebrated  men,  supported  him.  Ruhnken  wrote  to  him,  **  I  have  read 
your  Prolegomena  more  than  once,  enchained  both  by  the  wealth  of 
your  distinguished  learning  and  by  the  acuteness  of  your  historical 
criticism.  In  regard  to  your  argument  against  the  antiquity  of  writ- 
ing, it  is  with  me  as  it  was  with  him  who  read  Plato's  PhaBdon. 
While  I  am  reading  the  book,  I  agree  with  you;  but  when  I  lay  the 
book  down,  the  whole  demonstration  escapes  with  it."  And  Bois- 
sonade  pronounced  a  similar  opinion. 

Voss  was  opposed  to  Wolf's  views,  as  was  Schiller,  very  strongly. 
Wieland  said,  also  arguing  against  him,  "  The  Wolfian  method  of 
criticism  is  very  flattering  to  us  poor  backward  votaries  of  epic  poetry  ; 
for,  according  to  it,  the  ancient  singer  loses,  all  at  once,  his  divine 
splendor,  and  becomes  as  one  of  us."  A  naive  simplicity,  which 
reverses  the  sentiment  of  John  the  Baptist,  and  makes  it  read  "  I 
must  increase,  and  he  must  decrease." 

Gothe's  earlier  views  seem  to  have  agreed  entirely  with  Wieland's, 
but  to  arise  from  a  nobler  motive.  I  refer  to  the  well  known  verses : 

"  First,  to  the  health  of  the  man  who  at  last  has  relieved  us  of  Homer, 
Boldly,  and  thus  he  summons  us  to  a  higher  career. 
For  who  will  contend  with  the  gods,  or  who  with  one  of  them  even  ? 
But  to  be  one,  though  the  last,  of  the  Homeridse,  is  grand." 

Gothe  afterward,  however,  wrote,  referring  to  his  earlier  opinion, 
that  he  was  "  more  than  ever  convinced  of  the  unity  and  indivisibility 
of  the  Iliad." 

Such  an  excitement  was  stirred  up  among  great  intellects  by  the 
Prolegomena.  They  have  also  brought  up  some  very  important 
questions. 


FRIEDRICH  AUGUST  WOLF.  567 

With  this  work  began  a  democratic  strife  against  the  aristocracy  of 
the  intellectual  world.  Homeridae  or  Homer,  is  a  question  often  dis- 
cussed, in  the  course  of  it,  in  reference  to  the  greatest  works  of  antiq- 
uity. 

Herder's  "  Voices  of  the  Nations?  and  "  Views  of  Poetry?  had 
testified,  as  Gothe  remarks,  "  that  poetry  is  a  gift  to  the  world  and  to 
nations,  and  not  the  private  inheritance  of  a  few  refined  and  educated 
men." 

And  Wolf  says  "  Every  poetical  age  consists  of  one  generation  and 
one  man.  Each  such  age  is  but  one  mind,  one  soul.  And  they  dif- 
fer only  by  the  difference  of  their  circumstances." 

Who  will  not  rejoice  that  poetry,  instead  of  being  the  prerogative 
of  a  few  highly-gifted  men,  while  all  others  are  deprived  of  it,  is  a 
gift  to  the  people?  And  above  the  multitude  of  the  poets  stand 
Sophocles,  Dante,  Shakspeare,  Camoens  (Cervantes?)  and  Gothe, 
like  lofty  palms  and  cedars  above  the  underbrush.  But  does  not 
Homer  rank  with  them  ?  Or  are  the  Homeridse  princes  among  the 
poets  of  the  nations  ? 

A  second  respect  in  which  Prolegomena  constitute  an  epoch  is,  the 
boldness  with  which  Wolf  attacked  the  belief  of  a  thousand  years, 
that  one  man,  Homer,  wrote  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey ;  with  which 
he  termed  this  belief  an  error,  in  spite  of  Plato  and  Aristotle.  By 
this  he  inaugurated  a  style  of  criticism,  which  no  longer  recognized 
authority,  but  took  pleasure  in  boldly  summoning  all  before  its  bar, 
even  the  holiest.  Especially  did  Wolf  exert  this  influence  upon  bib- 
lical criticism.*  "Holy  or  profane  writers,"  he  says,  "are  all  one  to 
me.  Secondary  considerations  do  not  make  me  timid,  and  I  am  not 
inclined  to  affect  timidity.  The  demonstration,  which  will  not  be 
long  delayed,  that  the  Pentateuch  is  made  up  of  dissimilar  portions 
belonging  to  different  ages,  and  dates  back  not  further  than  to  a  period 
a  little  after  Solomon— such  a  demonstration  I  should  put  forth  without 
any  horror." 

Yet  Wolf  complimented  himself  as  "having  preserved  himself 
equally  free  from  credulity  and  doubt  ;f  and  combated  the  error  that 
the  higher  criticism  could  only  destroy. 

*  K'drte's  "I#e,"  1  319;  and  same,  1.  28  ;  where  KBrte  says  that,  even  while  a  scholar,  Wolf 
had  arrived  at  the  remarkable  conclusion  that,  through  the  ignorance  of  his  teachers,  he  had 
learned  every  thing  falsely  and  pervertedly.  "He  had  even  begun  to  distrust  his  father.  *  ' 
In  short,  he  thought  it  not  impossible  that,  so  far  as  historical  truth  was  concerned,  a  set  of 
idle  tales  had  been  made  up  and  lold  the  scholars."  His  weak  rector,  whose  ignorance  and 
falsehood  he  had  discovered,  caused  him  these  doubts ;  which  were  a  remarkable  premonition 
of  the  skepticism  and  criticism  of  his  later  years. 

t  KSrte,  2,  223 :  where  it  is  stated  that  the  aged  Wieland  also  rejoiced  at  the  Prolegomena, 
for  the  reason  that  the  turn  of  the  Bible  would  ''come  after  that  of  this  idol." 


568  FRIEDRICH  AUGUST  WOLF. 

In  Wolf's  lecture-room  stood  only  one  bust,  that  of  Lessing ;  and, 
among  his  colleagues,  his  connection  was  closest  with  Semler.  We 
can  readily  see  what  drew  him  to  these  two  men ;  and  directly 
he  promoted  the  objects  which  the  former  had  led  in  seeking. 

Wolf's  attacks  upon  authorities  which  it  had  been  supposed  could 
not  even  be  attempted,  naturally  had  a  great  influence  upon  his  hear- 
ers. Although  mature  age  easily  inclines  to  take  part  for  what  is 
established,  and  is  displeased  at  any  thing  unusual  and  new,  and 
which  is  strongly  opposed  to  what  is  ancient ;  yet  the  young  are,  on 
the  other  hand,  delighted  to  %hake  off  all  obligation  and  authority, 
and  to  set  themselves  up  above  their  predecessors.  There  was,  how- 
ever, one  thing  which  damped  the  sometimes  excessive  vigor  of  Wolf's 
scholars.  The  strange  attacks  which  he  made,  without  any  notice, 
were  not  made  merely  for  pleasure  ;  this  would  have  stimulated  youth- 
ful minds  to  similar  attacks ;  but  they  were  the  results  of  the  great 
and  comprehensive  labors  of  a  man  of  genius.  Thus,  in  this  respect, 
Wolf  awed  his  pupils,  and  made  them  modest ;  and  yet  he  strength- 
ened them  to  persevering  activity,  thorough  searches  for  truth,  and 
emphatic  contempt  for  pretension. 

It  is  well  known  what  distinguished  scholars  came  from  Wolf's  tui- 
tion. The  ablest  of  them  have  repeatedly  acknowledged  their  obli- 
gations to  him.  Bockh,  for  instance,  dedicated  his  first  work  to  him, 
and  expressed  to  him  heartfelt  thanks.  Wolf,  he  says,  introduced 
him  to  a  new  scientific  life;  and  was  to  him,  in  advice  and  admoni- 
tion, a  second  father.  Bekker  has  expressed  the  same  heartfelt  grati- 
tude to  Wolf,  as  has  Heindorf,  among  his  earlier  pupils  ;  and  this 
feeling  was  entertained,  not  only  by  such  distinguished  philologists  as 
came  from  his  school,  but  by  all  the  great  number  who  had  listened 
to  him  with  a  lively  interest,  and  whom  he  had  assisted  by  friendly 
advice,  giving  them  access  to  books,  or  otherwise. 

His  efforts  were,  however,  by  no  means  restricted  to  the  universities, 
but  extended  also  to  the  gymnasia.  He  had,  indeed,  taught  in  two 
of  them.  While  rector  at  Osterode,  he  seems  to  have  accomplished, 
in  his  short  official  career  of  two  years,  an  incredible  amount  of  good 
in  the  revival  of  the  institution.  The  service,  however,  was  far  more 
extensive  and  important,  which  he  did  by  educating  in  his  seminary 
a  great  number  of  excellent  gymnasium  teachers.  It  was  for  these  that 
he  delivered  the  lectures  on  pedagogy,  which  have  already  been  men- 
tioned, which  were  especially  enjoined  upon  him,  and  which  were  af- 
terward printed.  Director  Fohlisch,  of  Wertheim,  a  worthy  pupil 
of  Wolf,  first  published  them,  and  Korte  afterward  issued  them 
again  ;  adding  many  reports,  letters,  and  fragments  left  by  Wolf,  of  a 


FRIEDRICH  AUGUST  WOLF. 


569 


pedagogical  character.*  Before  giving  extracts  of  these  books,  I  must 
remark  that  many  of  Wolf's  opinions  appear  to  contradict  each  other, 
although  upon  a  close  examination  this  variance  disappears.  Espe- 
cially must  care  be  taken,  in  reading  him,  to  observe  whether  he  is 
peaking  of  his  own  ideal,  of  a  philologist  for  example,  or  whether 
he  is  only  referring,  with  a  sort  of  despairing  resignation,  to  what  is 
possible,  or  is  actually  accomplished,  under  existing  circumstances. 
These  ideals  are  found,  as  is  natural,  more  frequently  in  his  earlier 
writings ;  and  the  resignation  in  the  later  ones.  I  proceed  to  give 
an  example.  "  Although,"  says  Wolf,  in  a  letter,  "  I  so  willingly 
conceived  the  hope  that  the  study  of  the  ancient  languages  could  be 
begun  with  the  Greek,  and  I  thus  had  entertained  a  dream  of  a  lofty 
elevation  of  the  German  national  education,  yet  I  have  long  ago 
awaked  out  of  it,  so  far  as  regards  our  public  schools.  The  whole 
tendency  of  our  modern  popular  education  works  against  it."  Still 
more  striking  is  what  he  says  in  an  educational  report  of  the  year 
1811  :  "All  those  might  be  excluded  from  the  study  of  Greek,  and 
still  more  from  that  of  Hebrew,  in  whom  is  stirred  up  no  especial 
pleasure  in  studying  languages.!  Learning  Greek  should  be  made 
a  reward  for  distinguished  industry  in  other  studies,  Latin  particularly  ? 
rather  than  a  matter  of  constraint  or  wearisome  recommend- 
ations." 

A  second  instance  of  apparent  contradiction,  is  found  in  Wolf's 
views  on  writing  and  speaking  Latin ;  to  which  we  shall  hereafter 
refer,  in  discussing  instruction  in  Latin. 

The  educational  report  of  1811,  above  mentioned,  is  an  extended 
revision  of  one  which  Wolfe  had  previously,  in  1803,  presented  to 
the  philosophical  faculty  of  Halle.  Its  subject  is,  "Fixation  of  Limits 
between  Schools,  Universities,  and  Institutions  for  Practical  Instruc- 
tion" Respecting  the  last  named.  Wolf  remarks  that  men  of  busi- 
ness must  be  trained  in  business ;  but,  he  adds,  every  means  should  be 
used  to  prevent  "  any  one  from  entering  into  practical  occupations, 
without  a  thorough  knowledge  of  those  subjects,  upon  an  application 
of  which  such  occupations  depend  ;  since  the  contrary  would  cause 
the  introduction  of  a  mere  routine,  wholly  unintelligent,  at  d,  although 
perhaps  useful  in  some  cases,  on  the  whole  entirely  uncertain." 

And  again  :  "  Education  must  begin  to  be  scientific  in  the  univers- 
ities; in  the  schools  it  must  be  preparatory,  elementary,  and  for 
general  training."  "  Yet,  in  modern  times,  scientific  instruction  has 

*  F.  A.  Wolf's  "Consilia  Scholastica,  upon  education,  schools,  and  universities.    Cot 
ected  from  his  literary  remains,  by  W.  Korte.    Quedlinburg  &  Leipzig.    Becker.     1835." 
t  Wolf  here  excepts  those  intending  to  study  theology. 


570  FR1EDRICH  AUGUST  WOLF. 

been  introduced  into  the  schools,  to  the  no  small  injury  of  youth. 
*  *  *  The  daily  increasing  superficiality  and  multitude  of  studies 
in  the  schools  should  be  opposed  by  all  possible  means.  In  schools, 
set  lessons  in  Greek  and  Roman  literature,  the  theory  of  the  fine  arts, 
and  the  like,  are  altogether  superfluous  and  harmful.  *  *  *  It 
would  be  much  better  for  the  scholar  to  know  nothing  at  all  of  such 
subjects,  than  to  suppose  himself  master  of  them,  and  to  be  capable  of 
deceiving  even  intelligent  people  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  by  means 
of  possessing  a  few  insignificant,  unseasonable  preliminary  ideas. 
Whatever  pertains  to  the  memory  and  the  imagination,  is  the  province 
of  the  school ;  while  the  university  deals  with  what  concerns  the 
higher  intellectual  powers.  The  pupil  should  bring  to  the  university 
only  knowledge,  and  practiced  skill  in  study.  And  since  the  transi 
tion  to  the  scientific  methods  of  study,  proper  to  the  university,  can 
not  be  made  at  one  leap,  the  higher  classes  of  the  schools  should 
gradually  assimilate  to  it ;  without,  however,  anticipating  it,  either  in 
subject-matter  or  form." 

What  a  clear  view  is  this  of  the  constitution  and  relations  of  the 
school  and  the  university !  how  lucid  the  insight  into  the  natural 
course  of  education  for  the  young!  how  wise  is  Wolf's  advice,  and 
how  well  calculated  to  cure  the  evils  which,  since  he  wrote,  have  so  fear- 
fully increased !  It  is  not  only  the  scholars,  however,  who  desire  to 
anticipate  the  university,  and  play  the  student,  in  the  gymnasium ; 
but  there  are  as  many  teachers  who  would  much  rather  deliver  to 
their  pupils  brilliant  lectures  from  the  chair,  sometimes  upon  subjects 
wholly  without  the  province  of  the  school,  than  moderately  and  un- 
derstandingly  to  train  them  in  the  indispensable  knowledge  and  skill 
in  study,  for  which  the  scholar's  capacity  is  suited.  This  is  the  orig- 
inating cause  of  a  certain  decrepit  indifference  and  insusceptibility  in 
many  students.  Unseasonable  luxuries  destroy  the  sound  appetite 
which  a  healthy  stomach  feels  at  meal-time. 

Wolf  formed  very  just  opinions  on  all  school-plans,  even  his  own, 
in  respect  to  practicability  and  detail.  To  a  rector,  to  whom  he  sent 
some  plans,  he  wrote  :  "I  hope  that  you  and  your  young  assistants 
will  understand  these  plans — which  are  not  sent  as  patterns — in  the 
spirit  in  which  I  drew  them  up  ;  and  make  all  the  use  of  them  which 
you  can  and  will.  For  in  every  other  occupation,  and  in  the  school  as 
well,  every  thing  depends  on  those  two  auxiliary  verbs.  Without  them, 
complaints  are  useless ;  and  it  is  a  most  unworthy  destruction  of  sta- 
tionery, to  undertake  to  operate  among  your  subordinates  with  paper 
stimulants  and  ordinances." 

Wolf's  opinions  were  valuable,  moreover,  not  only  within  the  sphere 


FRIEDRICH  AUGUST  WOLF. 


571 


of  his  own  profession,  but  on  many  subjects  which  would  have  been 
supposed  far  out  of  his  line.  But  could  any  subject  be  reckoned  out 
of  the  sphere  of  so  great  a  genius,  so  classically  learned,  and  so 
experienced  ? 

We  may  properly  quote  such  portions  of  his  "Consilia"  as  display 
his  clear  views  and  judicious  tact,  in  opposing  some  pedagogical 
absurdities.  "  Children  do  nothing  well,  but  what  they  do  willingly. 
Hence  it  follows,  that  all  their  studies  should  be  so  managed  as  to 
be  pursued  willingly.  And  it  is  still  better  to  contrive  that  they  shall 
willingly  do  whatever  they  must  do." 

"  Poetry  promotes  good  education  more  than  any  thing  else ;  and,  in 
respect  to  it,  no  distinction  in  the  rank  of  the  scholars  must  be  ob- 
served. Up  to  the  seventh  or  eighth  year,  poetry  should  be  the  chief 
occupation.  For  during  this  period  its  influence  is  most  valuable, 
and  likewise  the  higher  beauties  of  prose  are  not  felt.  The  same  is 
true  of  a  whole  nation  ;  the  transition  to  prose  is  very  difficult." 

(Study  of  language.)  "  The  feelings  must  go  first;  and,  when  they 
are  excited,  ideas  follow.  And  this  feeling  must,  in  the  end,  be  con- 
stituted a  rule.''  ;t  Up  to  the  fourteenth  year,  forms  must  be  kept 
quite  out  of  sight.  The  reasoning  faculties  should  at  first  not  be  put 
into  requisition  at  all ;  reasoning  weakens  the  memory."  "  Exam- 
ples should  always  go  with — even  before — principles  and  rules.  The 
ooy  must  first  learn  to  feel  what  is  witty  or  acute,  and  to  imitate  it ; 
and,  at  a  later  period  only  (scarcely  while  in  school,)  what  is  the  real 
essence  of  such  things." 

"  In  pedagogy,  scientific  study  should  be  distinguished  from  artis- 
tic; that  is,  the  distinction  should  be  maintained  between  the  teacher 
and  the  artist." 

"  The  ancients  reasoned  less,  and  did  more.  Therefore  it  is  that 
they  were  more  acute,  and  had  less  need  of  a  text-book  in  their  hands." 

"  Only  an  extraordinary  love  for  the  employment,  for  the  young, 
and  a  desire  based  upon  a  true  and  profound  religious  feeling,  to  labor 
for  the  next  generation,  can  make  endurable  the  inexpressible  labori- 
ousness  of  the  teacher's  vocation.  The  teacher  ought  not  to  reckon 
upon  payment,  scarcely  upon  appreciation." 

(From  "General  Instructions  to  a  Learned  Educator  in  Ger- 
many.") "  Have  some  love  for  all  the  studies  which  you  pursue,  and 
for  the  youths  intrusted  to  your  care ;  but,  if  the  two  objects  come 
into  competition,  love  the  latter  most."  "  Always  be  well ;  and  un- 
derstand how  to  go  hungry  patiently,  when  necessary."  "  Require 
no  respect  from  men,  and  no  gratitude ;  and  do  not  value  the  appro- 
bation of  those  who  misjudge  you." 


5*72  FRIEDRICH  AUGUST  WOLF. 

"  It  is  better  often  to  repeat  expressions  once  well-chosen,  and  to 
impress  them  thoroughly  upon  the  memory,  than  to  select  others  at 
random ;  which  often  causes  the  precise  point  in  question  to  be  lost 
sight  of.  Only,  the  questions  used  in  the  repetition  of  what  is  already 
learned,  must  be  varied  many  ways."* 

"  Every  scientifically  capable  man  is  naturally  fitted  for  some  one 
particular  science,  in  pursuing  which,  he  insensibly  considers  the 
others  along  with  it ;  but  as  a  strict  examination  passes  upon  each  of 
them,  many  students  distress  themselves,  merely  for  the  examina- 
tion, with  matters  useless  to  them,  and  thereby  waste  much  time, 
which  they  could  better  employ  in  their  own  pursuit." 

Wolf  repeatedly  expresses  himself  against  the  foolishness  usual 
at  examinations,  and  in  formal  opinions  and  testimonies  of  all  kinds. 
"These  opinions,"  he  says,  "are  commonly  nothing  but  a  specious 
wishy-washy  of  modish  expressions ;  mere  exercises  in  style,  by  the 
teachers,  in  which  the  poor  men  torment  themselves  to  say  the  same 
thing  a  hundred  different  ways  every  year  and  every  day."  Wolf 
declares  that  he,  himself,  never  made  the  acquirements  demanded  of 
graduates  before  they  can  receive  the  mark  "  absolutely  skilled  ; "  and 
he  does  not  believe  he  could  find  a  full  dozen  of  such  "absolutely 
skilled"  men  in  Berlin.  And,  notwithstanding  these  requirements 
from  the  scholars,  he  complains  that,  "  every  five  years,  young  people 
come  to  the  university  with  less  training,  although  it  may  be  rich 
with  various  disorderly  knowledge — in  a  kind  of  splendid  misery." 

He  speaks  again,  with  earnestness,  against  unmeasured  praise  or 
blame  at  the  graduating  school-examinations.  "The  well-prepared," 
he  says,  "will  grow  lazy,  too  see  their  superiority  so  proclaimed;  and 
the  ill-prepared  receive  a  frightful  brand.  Many  a  one  has  taken 
more  pains  for  his  "immaturus"  than  another  for  his  certificate  of 
maturity ;  while  his  natural  endowments  receive  no  acknowledgment ; 
which  gives  young  people  false  ideas  of  human  worth." 

I  must,  though  unwillingly,  stop  here,  and  refer  the  reader  to  the 
"Consilia  Scholastica"  itself. 

I  shall  add  a  few  remarks  upon  the  later  years  of  Wolf's  life. 
Unfortunately,  they  contain  little  that  is  pleasant.  The  unhappy 
battle  of  Jena  was  the  fatal  crisis  of  his  life.  On  the  17th  of  Octo- 
ber, 1806,  the  French  took  Halle.  Napoleon,  enraged  with  the 
university,  dissolved  it.  Gothe  wrote  to  Wolf  an  encouraging  letter, 
and  advised  him  to  substitute  written  teaching  for  oral ;  to  write  books. 

In  the  next  year,  1807,  he  went  to  Berlin,  and  did  not  return  to 
Halle,  even  when  the  university  was  re-established  there.  Thus 

*  Compare  Luther's  preface  to  the  smaller  catechism. 


FRIEDRICH  AUGUST  WOLF.  573 

ended  the  period  of  his  distinguished  academical  efficiency.  In  Ber- 
lin, he  met  with  much  kindness.  His  old  friend,  Wilhelm  von 
Humboldt,  especially,  in  his  influential  place  as  minister,  made  every 
effort  to  place  Wolf  in  circumstances  where  he  could  exercise  his 
brilliant  gifts.  But  it  was  as  if  his  life  was  forever  thrown  out  of  its 
course.  A  restless  and  discontented  impulse  had  taken  possession 
of  him ;  no  employment  suited  him.  He  insulted,  in  various  ways, 
the  friends  who  had  always  valued  him  so  highly ;  and  even  his  most 
grateful  scholars ;  and  thus  arose  most  unpleasant  collisions,  and 
literary  feuds.  Although  he  published  many  things  of  value,  yet 
most  of  them  were  the  results  of  his  previous  labors  ;*  although,  to 
this  statement,  his  excellent  translation  of  the  "Clouds"  of  Aristo- 
phanes is  an  exception. 

The  strongest  part  of  Wolf's  existence  and  efficiency,  his  great 
talent  for  teaching,  was  paralyzed.  In  Berlin,  perhaps  by  his  owr. 
fault,  he  found  few  hearers ;  which  deeply  mortified  him,  by  the 
comparison  with  the  successful  and  enthusiastic  efforts  of  his  earlier 
years.  He  described  himself  as  "  never  desiring  to  be  an  author,  but 
only  to  teach ; "  "  who  had  long  been  accustomed  to  the  charm  of 
watching  the  visible  growth  of  his  thoughts  before  attentive  hearers ; 
and  in  the  quiet  reaction  upon  himself,  which  daily  and  hourly  sup 
plies  to  his  mind  an  intellectual  stimulus  which  the  seat  before  the 
empty  walls,  and  the  senseless  paper,  as  easily  quench." 

From  Berlin,  Wolf  made  various  journeys.  In  1816,  he  visited 
once  more  the  residences  of  his  youth — Hainrode,  Nordhausen,  and 
Gottingen.  On  his  sixty-fifth  birthday,  in  1823,  he  began  an  auto- 
biography. It  commences  with  these  words :  "  Here,  great  Being 
who  rulest  the  world,  and  controlest  the  fate  even  of  the  most  insig- 
nificant, I  turn  to  thee,  with  sincere  thanks  for  the  many  unmistak- 
able tokens  of  thy  grace,  by  which  my  life  has  been  made  happy, 
honorable,  and  useful.  Oh,  how  unworthy  do  I  feel  myself  of  thy 
goodness ! "  And,  further  on,  "  I  feel  my  mental  powers  still  vivid 
enough,  but  my  body  will  no  longer  keep  up  with  them.  I  am  so 
weary  of  living." 

On  the  14th  of  April,  1824,  already  sick,  he  set  out  on  his  last 
journey.  He  went,  by  Strasburg  and  Lyons,  in  the  heat  of  June 
and  July,  without  allowing  himself  any  rest,  to  Marseilles,  where  he 
arrived,  exceedingly  weary,  on  the  16th  of  July,  and  died  on  the 
8th  of  August. 

*  Including  his  "  View  of  the  Science  of  Antiquity,"  in  the  first  volume  of  the  "•Museum 
of  the  Sciences  of  Antiquity,"  which  he  published  in  1807  and  1808,  together  with  Buttmann. 
This  was  made  up  from  his  previously  often-repeated  lectures  on  the  "  Encyclopedia  and 
Methodology  of  the  Studies  of  the  Ancients." 


CHRISTIAN  GOTTLOB  HEYNE. 


MEMOIR. 

CHRISTIAN  GOTTLOB  HEYNE  was  born  at  Chemnitz,  in  Upper 
Saxony,  in  1729,  the  eldest  of  a  poor  weaver's  family,  poor  almost 
to  the  verge  of  starvation.  The  story  of  his  struggles  with  poverty, 
and  other  difficulties  to  obtain  an  education,  as  told  by  himself,  is 
painfully  interesting. 

It  was  in  the  extreme  penury  that  I  was  born  and  brought  up.  The  earliest 
companion  of  my  childhood  was  "Want;  and  my  first  impressions  came  from 
the  tears  of  my  mother,  who  had  not  bread  for  her  children.  How  often  have 
I  seen  her  on  Saturday-nights  wringing  her  hands  and  weeping,  when  she  had 
come  back  with  what  the  hard  toil,  nay  often  the  sleepless  nights,  of  her  hus- 
band had  produced,  and  could  find  none  to  buy  it !  Sometimes  a  fresh  attempt 
was  made  through  me  or  my  sister:  I  had  to  return  to  the  purchasers  with  the 
same  piece  of  ware,  to  see  whether  we  could  not  possibly  get  rid  of  it.  In  that 
quarter  there  is  a  class  of  so-called  merchants,  who,  however,  are  in  fact  noth- 
ing more  than  forestallers,  that  buy  up  the  linen  made  by  the  poorer  people  at 
the  lowest  price,  and  endeavor  to  sell  it  in  other  districts  at  the  highest.  Often 
have  I  seen  one  or  other  of  these  petty  tyrants,  with  all  the  pride  of  a  satrap, 
throw  back  the  piece  of  goods  offered  him,  or  imperiously  cut  off  some  trifle 
from  the  price  and  wages  required  for  it.  Necessity  constrained  the  poorer  to 
sell  the  sweat  of  his  brow  at  a  groschen  or  two  less,  and  again  to  make  good 
the  deficit  by  starving.  It  was  the  view  of  such  things  that  awakened  the  first 
sparks  of  indignation  in  my  young  heart.  The  show  of  pomp  and  plenty 
among  these  purse-proud  people,  who  fed  themselves  on  the  extorted  crumbs 
of  so  many  hundreds,  far  from  dazzling  me  into  respect  or  fear,  filled  me  with 
rage  against  them.  The  first  time  I  heard  of  tyrannicide  at  school,  there  rose 
vividly  before  me  the  project  to  become  a  Brutus  on  all  those  oppressors  of  the 
poor,  who  had  so  often  cast  my  father  and  mother  into  straits :  and  here,  for 
the  first  time,  was  an  instance  of  a  truth  which  I  have  since  had  frequent 
occasion  to  observe,  that  if  the  unhappy  man,  armed  with  feeling  of  his  wrongs 
and  a  certain  strengtli  of  soul,  does  not  risk  the  utmost  and  become  an  open 
criminal,  it  is  merely  the  beneficent  result  of  those  circumstances  in  which 
Providence  has  placed  him,  thereby  fettering  his  activity,  and  guarding  him 
from  such  destructive  attempts.  That  the  oppressing  part  of  mankind  should 
be  secured  against  the  oppressed  was.  in  the  plan  of  inscrutable  Wisdom,  a 
most  important  element  of  the  present  system  of  things. 

My  good  parents  did  what  they  could,  and  sent  me  to  a  child's-school  in  the 
suburbs.  I  obtained  the  praise  of  learning  very  fast,  and  being  very  fond  of  it. 
My  schoolmaster  had  two  sons,  lately  returned  from  Leipzic;  a  couple  of 


CHRISTIAN  GOTTLOB  HEYNE.  575 

depraved  fellows,  who  took  all  pains  to  lead  me  astray;  and,  as  I  resisted, 
kept  me  for  a  long  time,  by  threats  and  mistreatment  of  all  sorts,  extremely 
miserable.  So  early  as  my  tenth  year,  to  raise  the  money  for  my  school  wages, 
I  had  given  lessons  to  a  neighbor's  child,  a  little  girl,  in  reading  and  writing. 
As  the  common  school-course  could  take  me  no  farther,  the  point  now  was  to 
get  a  private  hour  and  proceed  into  Latin.  But  for  that  purpose  a  guier  groschen 
weekly  was  required ;  this  my  parents  had  not  to  give.  Many  a  day  I  carried 
this  grief  about  with  me :  however,  I  had  a  godfather,  who  was  in  easy  circum- 
stances, a  baker,  and  my  mother's  half-brother.  One  Saturday  I  was  sent  to 
this  man  to  fetch  a  loaf.  With  wet  eyes  I  entered  his  house,  and  chanced  to 
find  my  godfather  himself  there.  Being  questioned  why  I  was  crying,  I  tried 
to  answer,  but  a  whole  stream  of  tears  broke  loose,  and  scarcely  could  I  make 
the  cause  of  my  sorrow  intelligible.  My  magnanimous  godfather  offered  to  pay 
the  weekly  groschen  out  of  his  own  pocket;  and  ouly  this  condition  was 
imposed  on  me,  that  I  should  come  to  him  every  Sunday,  and  repeat  what  part 
of  the  Gospel  I  had  learned  by  heart.  This  latter  arrangement  had  one  good 
effect  for  me, — it  exercised  my  memory,  and  I  learned  to  recite  without 
bashful  ness. 

Drunk  with  joy,  I  started  off  with  my  loaf;  tossing  it  up  time  after  time 
into  the  air,  and  barefoot  as  I  was,  I  capered  aloft  after  it.  But  hereupon  my 
loaf  fell  into  a  puddle.  This  misfortune  again  brought  me  a  little  to  reason. 
My  mother  heartily  rejoiced  at  the  good  news;  my  father  was  less  content. 
Thus  passed  a  couple  of  years;  and  my  schoolmaster  intimated,  what  I  myseif 
had  long  known,  that  I  could  not  learn  more  from  him. 

My  father  could  not  but  be  anxious  to  have  a  grown-up  son  for  an  assistant 
in  his  labor,  and  looked  upon  my  repugnance  to  it  with  great  dislike.  I  again 
longed  to  get  into  the  grammar-school  of  the  town ;  but  for  this  all  means  were 
wanting.  Where  was  a  gulden  of  quarterly  fees,  where  were  books  and  a  blue 
cloak  to  be  come  at?  How  wistfully  my  look  often  hung  on  the  walls  of  the 
school  when  I  passed  it ! 

A  clergyman  of  the  suburbs  was  my  second  godfather;  his  name  was 
Sebastian  Seydel ;  my  schoolmaster,  who  likewise  belonged  to  his  congregation, 
had  told  him  of  me.  I  was  sent  for,  and  after  a  short  examination,  he  promised 
me  that  I  should  go  to  the  town-school ;  he  himself  would  bear  the  charges. 
Who  can  express  my  happiness,  as  I  then  felt  it !  I  was  dispatched  to  the  first 
teacher ;  examined,  and  placed  with  approbation  in  the  second  class.  Weakly 
from  the  first,  pressed  down  with  sorrow  and  want,  without  any  cheerful  enjoy- 
ment of  childhood  or  youth,  I  was  still  of  very  small  stature ;  my  class-fellows 
judged  by  externals,  and  had  a  very  slight  opinion  of  me.  Scarcely,  by  various 
proofs  of  diligence  and  by  the  praises  I  received,  could  I  get  so  far  that  they 
tolerated  my  being  put  beside  them. 

And  certainly  my  diligence  was  not  a  little  hampered  !  Of  his  promise,  the 
clergyman,  indeed,  kept  so  much,  that  he  paid  my  quarterly  fees,  provided  me 
with  a  coarse  cloak,  and  gave  me  some  useless  volumes  that  were  lying  on  his 
shelves;  but  to  furnish  me  with  school-books  he  could  not  resolve.  I  thus 
found  myself  under  the  necessity  of  borrowing  a  class-fellow's  books,  and  daily 
copying  a  part  of  them  before  the  lesson.  On  the  other  hand,  the  honest  man 
would  have  some  hand  himself  in  my  instruction,  and  gave  me  from  time  to 
time  some  hours  in  Latin.  In  his  youth  he  had  learned  to  make  Latin  verses ; 


•r>76  CHRISTIAN  GOTTLOB  HAYNE. 

scarcely  was  Erasmus  de  Civilitate  Morum  got  over,  when  I  too  must  take  to 
verse-making;  all  this  before  I  had  read  any  authors,  or  could  possibly  possess 
any  store  of  words.  The  man  was  withal  passionate  and  rigorous ;  in  every 
point  repulsive ;  with  a  moderate  income  he  was  accused  of  avarice ;  he  had 
the  stiffness  and  self-will  of  an  old  bachelor,  and  at  the  same  time  the  vanity 
of  aiming  to  be  a  good  Latinist,  and,  what  was  more,  a  Latin  verse-maker,  and 
consequently  a  literary  clergyman.  These  qualities  of  his  all  contributed  to 
overload  my  youth,  and  nip  away  in  the  bud  every  enjoyment  of  its  pleasures. 

There  chanced  to  be  a  school-examination  held,  at  which  the  Superintendent, 
as  chief  school-inspector,  was  present.  This  man,  Dr.  Theodore  Kruger,  a 
theologian  of  some  learning  for  his  time,  all  at  once  interrupted  the  rector,  who 
was  teaching  ex  cathedra,  and  put  the  question :  Who  among  the  scholars  could 
tell  him  what  might  be  made  per  anagramma  from  the  word  Austria  ?  This 
whim  had  arisen  from  the  circumstance  that  the  first  Silesian  war  was  just  be- 
gun; and  some  such  anagram,  reckoned  very  happy,  had  appeared  in  a 
newspaper.  No  one  of  us  knew  so  much  as  what  an  anagram  was ;  even  the 
rector  looked  quite  perplexed.  As  none  answered,  the  latter  began  to  give  us 
a  description  of  anagrams  in  general.  I  set  myself  to  work,  and  sprang  forth 
with  my  discovery :  Vastari !  This  was  something  different  from  the  news- 
paper one :  so  much  the  greater  was  our  Superintendent's  admiration ;  and  the 
more,  as  the  successful  aspirant  was  a  little  boy,  on  the  lowest  bench  of  the 
secunda.  He  growled  out  his  applause  to  me ;  but  at  the  same  time  set  the 
whole  school  about  my  ears,  as  he  stoutly  upbraided  them  with  being  beaten  by 
an  infimus. 

Enough  :  this  pedantic  adventure  gave  the  first  impulse  to  the  development 
of  my  powers.  I  began  to  take  some  credit  to  myself,  and  in  spite  of  all  the 
oppression  and  contempt  in  which  I  had  languished,  to  resolve  on  struggling 
forward.  This  first  struggle  was  in  truth  ineffectual  enough ;  was  soon  regard- 
ed as  a  piece  of  pride  and  conceitedness ;  it  brought  on  me  a  thousand 
humiliations  and  disquietudes ;  at  times  it  might  degenerate  on  my  part  into 
defiance.  Nevertheless,  it  kept  me  at  the  stretch  of  my  diligence,  ill-guided  as 
it  was,  and  withdrew  me  from  the  company  of  my  class-fellows,  among  whom, 
as  among  children  of  low  birth  and  bad  nature  could  not  fail  to  be  the  case,  the 
utmost  coarseness  and  boorishness  of  every  sort  prevailed.  The  plan  of  these 
schools  does  not  include  any  general  inspection,  but  limits  itself  to  mere  intel- 
lectual instruction. 

Upwards,  however,  I  still  strove.  A  feeling  of  honor,  a  wish  for  some- 
thing better,  an  effort  to  work  myself  out  of  this  abasement,  incessantly 
attended  me;  but  without  direction  as  it  was,  it  led  me  rather  to  sullenness, 
misanthropy  and  clownishness. 

At  length  a  place  opened  for  me,  where  some  training  in  these  points  lay 
within  my  reach.  One  of  our  senators  took  his  mother-in-law  home  to  live 
with  him ;  she  had  still  two  children  with  her,  a  sou  and  a  daughter,  both  about 
my  own  age.  For  the  son  private  lessons  were  wanted ;  and  happily  I  was 
chosen  for  the  purpose. 

As  these  private  lessons  brought  me  in  a  gulden  monthly,  I  now  began  to 
defend  myself  a  little  against  the  grumbling  of  my  parents.  Hitherto  I  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  doing  work  occasionally,  that  I  might  not  be  told  how  I 
was  eating  their  bread  for  nothing;  clothes,  and  oil  for  my  lamp,  I  had  earned 


CHRISTIAN  GOTTLOB  HEYNE. 


'.77 


by  teaching  in  the  house :  these  tilings  I  could  not  relinquish ;  and  thus  my 
condition  was  in  some  degree  improved.  On  the  other  hand,  I  had  now  oppor- 
tunity of  seeing  persons  of  better  education.  I  gained  the  good  will  of  the 
family ;  so  that  besides  the  lesson-hours,  I  generally  lived  there.  Such  society 
afforded  me  some  culture,  extended  my  conceptions  and  opinions,  and  also 
polished  a  little  the  rudeness  of  my  exterior.' 

Hard  fortune  followed  him  to  tlie  University.  He  was  left  on 
the  road  with  two  yuldem,  and  arrived  at  Leipsic  to  study  such 
things  as  were  accessible  to  him  without  fee.  His  second  god- 
father, Sebastian  Seydel,  from  time  to  time  sent  him  a  small  pit- 
tance with  sour  admonitions,  but  many  days  together  he  had  no 
regular  meal,  and  oftentimes  not  three  half-pence  for  a  loaf  at  mid- 
day. "  One  good  heart  alone  I  found,  and  that  in  the  servant  girl 
of  the  house  where  I  lodged.  She  laid  out  money  for  my  necessi- 
ties, seeing  me  in  such  pitiful  want.  What  sustained  me  was  not 
ambition — not  any  youthful  dream  of  one  day  taking  my  place 
among  the  learned.  My  chief  strength  lay  in  my  determination  to 
rise  from  this  degradation,  and  to  know  the  worst  which  was  before 
me."  Even  with  an  offer  of  a  tutorship  which  would  take  him 
away  from  the  university,  he  still  determined  to  pursue  his  object 
at  Leipsic.  By  dint  of  excessive  endeavors  he  got  admittance  to 
Ernesti's  lectures,  and  there  first  learned  what  interpretation  of  the 
classics  meant,  and  what  was  better,  by  his  attention,  gained  the 
good  will  of  the  professor,  who  got  him  occasional  employment  as 
private  tutor,  or  as  clerk  for  some  of  the  professors.  Drawn  to 
Dresden  in  1752,  by  the  expectation  of  some  appointment  from  Count 
Briihl,  whose  favorable  attention  had  been  attracted  by  a  long  Latin 
Epicedium,  prepared  in  the  sorrow  of  his  heart  for  the  preacher  of 
the  French  chapel,  who  had  befriended  him  in  some  bitter  strait, 
and  which  was  printed  by  the  family  of  the  deceased — he  experi- 
enced two  years  more  of  hard  study,  unremunerative  labor  in 
translations  for  the  booksellers,  sharing  a  garret  with  another 
student  not  quite  so  poor,  and  sleeping  on  the  floor,  with  folios  for 
his  pillow. 

In  the  autumn  of  1753  he  obtained  the  post  of  under  clerk  in 
the  Briihl  library,  with  a  salary  of  one  hundred  thaler s  ($70),  and 
here  at  last  he  entered  on  the  career,  in  which,  after  a  protracted 
apprenticeship,  he  achieved  reputation,  peace,  and  competence.  In 
1754  he  prepared  an  edition  of  Tibullus,  which  was  printed  the 
next  year ;  and  in  1756  appeared  the  first  edition  of  his  Enchiridion  of 
Epictetus.  But  in  1757  the  Briihl  library,  with  its  70,000  volumes, 
was  destroyed  by  the  Prussian  army  in  its  assaults  on  Dresden,  and 
Heyne  was  glad  to  accept  a  tutorship  in  the  family  of  Herr  von 


578  CHRISTIAN  GOTTLOB  HEYNE. 

Schonberg.  Here  he  gained  by  his  intercourse  with  refined  people, 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Theresa  Weiss,  his  future  wife,  and  re- 
sided a  year  with  his  pupil  at  Wittenberg  University,  studying  in 
his  own  behoof,  philosophy  and  German  history.  But  this  oppor- 
tunity was  all  extinguished  by  the  operations  of  the  war,  which 
reduced  the  University  buildings  to  rubbish,  the  family  of  his  pupil 
to  great  distress,  and  drove  him  back  to  Dresden,  out  of  which,  in 
the  terrible  vicissitudes  of  war,  he  was  again  driven  by  Prussian 
cannon,  which  catastrophe  he  describes  as  follows  : 

The  Prussians  advanced  meanwhile,  and  on  the  18th  of  July  (1760)  the  bom- 
bardment of  Dresden  began.  Several  nights  I  passed,  in  company  with  others, 
in  a  tavern,  and  the  days  in  my  room ;  so  that  I  could  hear  the  balls  from  the 
battery,  as  they  flew  through  the  streets,  whizzing  past  my  windows.  An 
indifference  to  danger  and  to  life  took  such  possession  of  me,  that  on  the  last 
morning  of  the  siege,  I  went  early  to  bed,  and,  amid  the  frightfullest  crashing 
of  bombs  and  grenades,  fell  fast  asleep  of  fatigue,  and  lay  sound  till  midday. 
On  awaking,  I  huddled-on  my  clothes,  and  ran  down  stairs,  but  found  the  whole 
house  deserted.  I  had  returned  to  my  room,  considering  what  I  was  to  do, 
whither,  at  all  events,  I  was  to  take  rny  chest,  when,  with  a  tremendous  crash, 
a  bomb  came  down  in  the  court  of  the  house ;  did  not,  indeed,  set  fire  to  it, 
but  on  all  sides  shattered  every  thing  to  pieces.  The  thought,  that  where  one 
bomb  fell,  more  would  soon  follow,  gave  me  wings ;  I  darted  down  stairs,  found 
the  house-door  locked,  ran  to  and  fro ;  at  last  got  entrance  into  one  of  the 
under-rooms,  and  sprang  through  the  window  into  the  street. 

Empty  as  the  street  where  I  lived  had  been,  I  found  the  principal  thorough- 
fares crowded  with  fugitives.  Amidst  the  whistling  of  balls,  I  ran  along  the 
Schlossgasse  towards  the  Elbe-Bridge,  and  so  forward  to  the  Neustadt,  out  of 
which  the  Prussians  had  now  been  forced  to  retreat.  Glad  that  I  had  leave  to 
rest  any  where,  I  passed  one  part  of  the  night  on  the  floor  of  an  empty  house ; 
the  other,  witnessing  the  frightful  light  of  flying  bombs,  and  a  burning  city. 

At  break  of  day,  a  little  postern  was  opened  by  the  Austrian  guard,  to  let 
the  fugitives  get  out  of  the  walls.  The  captain,  in  his  insolence,  called  the 
people  Lutheran  dogs,  and  with  the  nickname  gave  each  of  us  a  stroke  as  we 
passed  through  the  gate. 

A  better  day  dawned  at  last;  on  the  recommendation  of  the 
best  classical  scholar  in  the  Netherlands,  Prof.  Rheuken,  of 
Leyden  (who  had  been  invited  to  fill  the  place),  he  was  appointed 
to  the  chair  in  Gottingen,  made  vacant  by  the  death  of  Gessner. 
Here  on  an  official  income  of  800  thalers  (increased  in  the  course 
of  time  to  1,200),  he  labored  for  fifty  years,  lecturing  from  two  to 
three  times  a  day  in  his  own  subjects,  conducting  three  times  a 
week  a  Seminarium  (out  of  which  issued  135  professors),  acting  as 
chief  librarian,  making  frequent  contributions  to  the  Royal  Society 
of  Science,  editing  the  Gazette  of  Learning,  and  bringing  out  from 
year  to  year  elaborate  editions  of  Virgil  (six  editions  from  1767  to 
1803),  Pliny  (two  1790,  1811),  Pindar  (1774,  1797,  1789),  Homer 
in  eight  volumes,  in  1862,  and  an  abridged  edition  in  two  volumes 
in  1804,  besides  carrying  on  an  extensive  correspondence  with 
scholars  in  all  parts  of  Europe.  He  died  in  1812,  full  of  years 
(83),  and  crowned  with  all  a  scholar's  honors. 


FREDERICK  II.  AND  HIS  SCHOOL  REFORMS. 


EDUCATION.* 

FREDERICK  THE  SECOND  of  the  name,  King  of  Prussia,  and  dis- 
tinguished as  the  Great,  was  born  in  the  palace  in  Berlin,  Jan.  24, 
1712 — the  son  of  Frederick  I.  and  the  Princess  Sophia-Dorothea, 
daughter  of  George  I.  of  Great  Britain.  To  the  diverse  elements 
in  his  domestic  training  and  education  may  be  traced  the  distin- 
guishing features  of  his  character  and  career.  The  earliest  agency 
in  his  primal  education — the  influence  which  surrounded  his  early 
childhood  was  mainly  French,  in  consequence  of  his  governess  for 
the  first  seven  years  of  his  life  being  the  Madame  de  Roucoulles, 
'  the  Edict  of  Nantes,'  French  lady,  who,  five-and-twenty  years  before, 
as  Madame  de  Montbail,  had  taken  similar  charge  of  Friedrich 
Wilhelm.  And  her  ways  and  methods  must  have  been  conciliatory 
and  quasi  maternal,  for  both  her  royal  pupils  entertained  and  ex- 
pressed in  various  ways  a  grateful  and  honest  affection  for  her  and 
hers.  Under  this  daily  teaching  and  influence,  his  manners,  early 
religious  notions  and  speech,  became  French,  after  the  type  of  his 
governess.  Mingling  or  contracting  with  the  working  of  this 
French  element,  was  the  rough  German  element  of  his  father's  stern 
speech,  economies,  and  authority,  and  of  the  military  talk,  inven- 
tions, and  movements  generally  of  the  Field  Marshal,  Prince 
Duhan,  and  other  Prussian  soldiers  and  ministers  about  the  King. 
At  the  age  of  seven  the  young  Crown-Prince  was  taken  out  of 
the  hands  and  influences  of  governesses  and  women,  and  placed 
under  the  tutors  and  sub-tutors  of  sterner  stuff,  tried  and  found 
faithful  to  the  King  in  the  famous  Stralsund  siege. 

Duhan  de  Jaudun,  the  young  French  gentleman  who  had  escaped  from  gram- 
mar lessons  to  the  trenches,  he  is  the  practical  teacher.  Lieulenant-General 
Graf  Fink  von  Finkenstein,  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  von  Kalkstein,  they  are 
Head  Tutor  (Oberhofmeister)  and  Sub-Tutor;  military  men  both,  who  had  been 
in  many  wars  besides  Stralsund.  By  these  three  he  was  assiduously  educated, 
subordinate  schoolmasters  working  under  them  when  needful  in  such  branches 
as  the  paternal  judgment  would  admit,  the  paternal  object  and  theirs  being  to 
infuse  useful  knowledge,  reject  useless,  and  wind  up  the  whole  into  a  military 
finish.  These  appointments,  made  at  different  precise  dates,  took  effect,  all  of 
them,  in  the  year  1719. 

*  Carlyle's  History  of  Frederick  //.—Abridged. 


580  FREDERICK  II.  AND  HIS  SCHOOL  REFORMS. 

Duhan,  independently  of  his  experience  in  the  trenches,  appears  to  have 
been  an  accomplished,  ingenious,  and  conscientious  man,  who  did  credit  to 
Friedrich  Wilhelm's  judgment,  and  to  whom  Friedrich  professed  himself  much 
indebted  in  after  life.  Their  progress  in  some  of  the  technical  branches,  as  we 
shall  perceive,  was  indisputably  unsatisfactory ;  but  the  mind  of  the  boy  seems 
to  have  been  opened  by  this  Duhan  to  a  lively,  and,  in  some  sort,  genial  percep- 
tion of  things  round  him  ;  of  the  strange,  confusedly  opulent  Universe  he  had 
got  into;  and  of  the  noble  and  supreme  function  which  Intelligence  holds 
there,  supreme  in  Art  as  in  Nature,  beyond  all  other  functions  whatsoever. 
Duhan  was  now  turned  of  thirty :  a  cheerful,  amiable  Frenchman ;  poor,  though 
of  good  birth  and  acquirements ;  originally  from  Champagne.  Friedrich  loved 
him  very  much,  always  considered  him  his  spiritual  father,  and  to  the  end  of 
Duhan's  life,  twenty  years  hence,  was  eager  to  do  him  any  good  in  his  power; 
anxious  always  to  repair  for  poor  Duhan  the  great  sorrows  he  came  to  on  his 
account,  as  we  shall  see. 

Of  Graf  Fink  von  Finkenstein,  who  has  had  military  experiences  of  all 
kinds  and  all  degrees,  from  marching  as  prisioner  into  France,  '  wounded  and 
without  his  hat,'  to  fighting  at  Malplaquet,  at  Blenheim,  even  at  Steenkirk,  as 
well  as  Stralsund — who  is  now  in  his  sixtieth  year,  and  seems  to  have  been  a 
gentleman  of  rather  high,  solemn  manners,  and,  indeed,  of  undeniable  perfec- 
tions— of  this  supreme  Count  Fink  we  learn  almost  nothing  farther  in  the 
Books  except  that  his  little  pupil  did  not  dislike  him  either:  the  little  pupil 
took  not  unkindly  to  Fink,  welcoming  any  benignant  human  ray  across  these 
lofty  gravities  of  the  Oberhofmdster ;  went  often  to  his  house  in  Berlin,  and 
made  acquaintance  with  two  young  Finks  about  his  own  age  whom  he  found 
there,  and  who  became  important  to  him,  especially  the  younger  of  them,  in  the 
course  of  the  future.  This  Pupil,  it  may  be  said,  is  creditably  known  for  his 
attachment  to  his  teachers  and  others,  an  attached  and  attaching  little  boy. 

Of  Kalkstein,  a  rational,  experienced,  and  earnest  kind  of  man.  though  as 
yet  but  young,  it  is  certain  also  that  the  little  Fritz  loved  him ;  and  futhermore, 
that  the  Great  Friedrich  was  grateful  to  him,  and  had  a  high  esteem  of  his  in- 
tegrity and  sense.  'My  master,  Kalkstein,'  used  to  be  his  designation  of  him 
when  the  name  chanced  to  be  mentioned  in  after  times.  They  continued  to- 
gether, with  various  passages  of  mutual  history,  for  forty  years  afterward,  till 
Kalkstein's  death. 

How  these  Fink-Kalkstein  functionaries  proceeded  in  the  great 
task  they  had  got — very  great  task  had  they  known  what  pupil 
had  fallen  to  them — is  not  directly  recorded  for  us  with  any  se- 
quence or  distinctness.  We  infer  only  that  every  thing  went  by  in- 
flexible routine,  not  asking  at  all  what  pupil,  nor  much  whether  it 
would  suit  any  pupil.  Duhan,  with  the  tendencies  we  have  seen  in 
him,  who  is  willing  to  soften  the  inflexible  when  possible,  and  to 
'  guide  Nature '  by  a  rather  loose  rein,  was  probably  a  genial  element 
in  the  otherwise  strict  affair.  Fritz  had  one  unspeakable  advantage, 
rare  among  princes,  and  even  among  peasants  in  these  ruined  ages, 
that  of  not  being  taught,  or  in  general  not,  by  the  kind  called 
*  Hypocrites,  and  even  Sincere  Hypocrites,'  fatalest  species  of  the 
class  Hypocrite.  We  perceive  he  was  lessoned  all  along,  not  by  en- 
chanted Phantasms  of  that  dangerous  sort,  breathing  mendacity  of 
mind,  unconsciously,  out  of  every  look,  but  by  real  Men,  who  be- 
lieved from  the  heart  outward,  and  were  daily  doing  what  they 
taught.  To  which  unspeakable  advantage  we  add  a  second,  like- 


FREDERICK  II.  AND  HIS  SCHOOL  REFORMS.  5^ 

wise  considerable  :  that  his  masters,  though  rigorous,  were  not  un- 
lovable to  him ;  that  his  affections,  at  least,  were  kept  alive ;  that 
whatever  of  seed  (or  of  chaff  and  hail,  as  was  likelier)  fell  on  his 
mind  had  sunshine  to  help  in  dealing  with  it. 

[The  following  summary  of  the  father's  directions  to  his  son's 
tutors,  with  Carlyle's  interjected  elucidation,  contains  some  excel- 
lent hints,  and  throws  light  on  the  character  of  the  father,  and  the 
stern  regimen  under  which  the  great  Captain  of  the  age  was  trained 
to  the  endurance  and  obedience  which  he  exacted  of  others.] 

1.  'Must  impress  my  son  with  a  proper  love  and  fear  of  God,  as  the  founda- 
tion and  sole  pillar  of  our  temporal  and  eternal  welfare.     No  false  religions,  or 
sects  of  Atheist,  Arian  (Arrian),  Socinian,  or  whatever  name  the  poisonous 
things  have,  which  can  so  easily  corrupt  a  young  mind,  are  to  be  even  named 
in  his  hearing;  on  the  other  hand,  a  proper  abhorrence  (Abscheu)  of  Papistry, 
and  insight  into  its  baselessness  and  nonsensicality  (Ungrund  und  Absurditat)  is 
to  be  communicated  to  him.'     Papistry,  which  is  false  enough,  like  the  others, 
but  impossible  to  be  ignored  like  them,  mention  that,  and  give  him  due  abhor- 
rence for  it ;  for  we  are  Protestants  to  the  bone  in  this  country,  and  can  not 
stand  Absurditat,  least  of  all  hypocritically  religious  ditto.     But  the  grand  thing 
will  be  '  to  impress  on  him  the  true  religion,  which  consists  essentially  in  this, 
that  Christ  died  for  all  men,'  and  generally,  that  the  Almighty's  justice  is  eternal 
and  omnipresent,  '  which  consideration  is  the  only  means  of  keeping  a  sovereign 
person  (sauveraine  Macht\  or  one  freed  from  human  penalties,  in  the  right  way.' 

2.  'He  is  to  learn  no  Latin;'  observe  that,  however  it  may  surprise  you. 
What  has  a  living  German  man  and  King  of  the  eighteenth  Sceculum  to  do  with 
the  dead   old  Heathen  Latins,  Romans,  and  the  lingo  they  spoke  their  fraction 
of  sense  and  nonsense  in  ?     Frightful  how  the  young  years  of  the  European 
generations  have  been  wasted  for  ten  centuries  back,  and  the  Thinkers  of  the 
world  have  become  mere  walking  Sacks  of  Marine  stores — 'Gtleftrten,  Learned,' 
as  they  call  themselves — and  gone  lost  to  the  world  in  that  manner  as  a  set  of 
confiscated  Pedants,  babbling  about  said  Heathens,  and  thtir  extinct  lingo,  and 
fraction  of  sense  and  nonsense  for  the  thousand  years  last  past — Heathen 
Latins,  Romans,  who  perhaps  were  no  great  things  of  Heathen  after  all,  if  well 
seen  into.     I  have  heard  judges  say  they  were  inferior  in  real  worth  and  grist, 
to  German  home-growths  we  have  had,  if  the  confiscated  Pedants  could  have 
discerned  it.     At  any  rate,  they  are  dead,  buried  deep  these  two  thousand  years, 
well  out  of  our  way,  and  nonsense  enough  of  our  own  left  to  keep  sweeping 
into  corners.     Silence  about  their  lingo  and  them  to  this  new  Crown-Prince ! 
'Let  the  Prince  learn  French  arid  German,  so  as  to  write  and  speak  'with 
brevity  and  propriety '  in  these  two  languages,  which  may  be  useful  to  him  in 
life.     That  will  suffice  for  languages,  provided  he  have  any  thing  effectually 
rational  to  say  in  them.     For  the  rest, 

3.  '  Let  him  learn  Arithmetic,  Mathematics,  Artillery,  Economy  to  the  very 
bottom,  and,  in  short,  useful  knowledge  generally;  useless  ditto  not  at  all: 
'  History  in  particular ;    Ancient  History  only  slightly  (nur  iiberhin),   but  the 
History  of  the  last  Hundred  and  fifty  Years  to  the  exactest  pitch.     The  Jus 
Naturale  and  Jus  Gentium?  by  the  way  of  hand-lamp  to  History,  'he  must  be 
completely  master  of,  as  also  of  Geography,  whatever  is  remarkable  in  each 
Country;  and  in  Histories,  most  especially  the  History  of  the  House  of  Bran- 
denberg,  where  he  will  find  domestic  examples,  which  are  always  of  more  force 
than  foreign  ;  and  along  with  Prussian  History,  chiefly  that  of  the  Countries 
which  have  been  connected  with  it,  as  England,  Brunswick,  Hessen,  and  the 
others;  and  in  reading  of  wise  History-books  there  must  be  considerations 
made  (solltn  beym  Lesen  kluger  Historiarum  Betrachtungen  gemacht  werderi)  upon 
the  causes  of  the  events.'     Surely,  0  King ! 

4.  '  With  increasing  years,  you  will  more  and  more,  to  a  most  especial  degree, 


582  FREDERICK  II.  AND  HIS  SCHOOL  REFORMS. 

go  upon  Fortification  ' — mark  you  !  '  the  Formation  of  a  Camp  and  other  War- 
Sciences — that  the  Prince  may,  from  youth  upward,  be  trained  to  act  as  Officer 
and  General,  and  to  seek  all  his  glory  in  the  soldier  profession.'  This  is  whither 
it  must  all  tend,  You,  Finkenstein  and  Kalksteiri,  'have  both  of  you,  in  the 
highest  measure,  to  make  it  your  care  to  infuse  into  my  Son '  (einzurpragen, 
stamp  into  him)  'a  true  love  for  the  Soldier  business,  and  to  impress  on  him 
that,  as  there  is  nothing  in  the  world  which  can  bring  a  Prince  renown  and  hon- 
or like  the  sword,  so  he  would  be  a  despised  creature  before  all  men  if  he  did 
not  love  it,  and  seek  his  sole  glory  (die  einzige  Gloria)  therein ;'  which  is  an  ex- 
treme statement  of  the  case,  showing  how  much  we  have  it  at  heart. 

Military  Science  and  Practice. 

Of  the  sciences  relating  to  war,  the  future  captain  had  much  both 
of  theory  and  practice.  Before  he  was  eight  years  old,  '  there  had 
been  instituted  for  express  behoof  of  little  Fritz,  a  miniature  soldier 
company  above  a  hundred  strong,  which  grew  afterward  to  be  near 
three  hundred,  and,  indeed,  rose  to  be  a  permanent  Institution  by 
degrees,  called  Compagnie  der  Kronprinzlichen  Kadeiten  (Company 
of  Crown-Prince  Cadets).  A  hundred  and  ten  boys  about  his  own 
age,  sons  of  noble  families,  had  been  selected  from  the  three  Mili- 
tary Schools  then  extant,  as  a  kind  of  tiny  regiment  for  him,  where, 
if  he  was  by  no  means  commander  all  at  once,  he  might  learn  his 
exercise  in  fellowship  with  others.  Czar  Peter,  it  is  likely,  took  a 
glance  of  this  tiny  regiment  just  getting  into  rank  and  file  there, 
which  would  remind  the  Czar  of  his  own  young  days.  An  experi- 
enced Lieutenant-Colonel  was  appointed  to  command  in  chief.  A 
certain  handy  and  correct  young  fellow,  Rentzel  by  name,  about 
seventeen,  who  already  knew  his  fugling  to  a  hair's  breadth,  was 
drill  master,  and  exercised  them  all,  Fritz  especially,  with  due  strict- 
ness, till,  in  the  course  of  time  and  attainments,  Fritz  could  himself 
take  the  head  charge,  which  he  did  in  a  year  or  two ;  a  little  soldier 
thenceforth,  properly  strict,  though  of  small  dimensions,  in  tight 
blue  bit  of  coat  and  cocked  hat,  miniature  image  of  Papa  (it  is 
fondly  hoped  and  expected),  resembling  him  as  a  sixpence  does  a 
half  crown.  In  1721  the  assiduous  Papa  set  up  a  "little  arsenal" 
for  him  "  in  the  Orange  Hall  of  the  Palace ;"  there  let  him,  with 
perhaps  a  chosen  comrade  or  two,  mount  batteries,  fire  exceedingly 
small  brass  ordnance,  his  Engineer  Teacher,  one  Major  von  Senning, 
limping  about  (on  cork  leg),  and  superintending,  if  needful. 

'Rentzel,  it  is  known,  proved  an  excellent  driirsergeant;  had  good 
talents  every  way,  and  was  a  man  of  probity  and  sense.  He  played 
beautifully  on  the  flute  too,  and  had  a  cheerful,  conversible  turn, 
which  naturally  recommended  him  still  farther  to  Fritz,  and  awoke 
or  encouraged,  among  other  faculties,  the  musical  faculty  in  the 
little  boy.  Rentzel  continued  about  him  or  in  sight  of  him  through 


FREDERICK  II.  AND  HIS  SCHOOL  REFORMS.  533 

life,  advancing  gradually,  not  too  fast,  according  to  real  merit  and 
service  (Colonel  in  1759),  and  never  did  discredit  to  the  choice 
Friedrich  Wilhelin  had  made  of  him.  Of  Scnning,  too,  Engineer- 
Major  von  Senning,  who  gave  Fritz  his  lessons  in  Mathematics,  For- 
tification, and  the  kindred  branches,  the  like  or  better  can  be  said. 
He  was  of  graver  years ;  had  lost  a  leg  in  the  Marlborough  Cam- 
paigns, poor  gentleman,  but  had  abundant  sense,  native  worth,  and 
cheery  rational  talk  in  him,  so  that  he,  too,  could  never  be  parted 
with  by  Friedrich,  but  was  kept  on  hand  to  the  last,  a  permanent 
and  variously  serviceable  acquisition. 

*  Thus,  at  least,  is  the  military  education  of  our  Crown-Prince 
cared  for.  And  we  are  to  fancy  the  little  fellow,  from  his  tenth 
year  or  earlier,  going  about  in  miniature  soldier  figure  for  most  part 
— in  strict  Spartan-Brandenburg  costume  of  body  as  of  mind — cos- 
tume little  flattering  to  his  own  private  taste  for  finery,  yet  by  no 
means  unwholesome  to  him,  as  he  came  afterward  to  know.  In 
October,  1723,  it  is  on  record,  when  George  I.  came  to  visit  his 
son-in-law  and  daughter  at  Berlin,  his  Britannic  Majesty,  looking 
out  from  his  new  quarters  on  the  morrow,  saw  Fritzchen  "  drilling 
his  Cadet  Company,"  a  very  pretty  little-  phenomenon — drilling, 
with  clear  voice,  military  sharpness,  and  the  precision  of  clock-work, 
on  the  Esplanade  (Lustgarten)  there ;  and  doubtless  the  Britannic 
Majesty  gave  some  grunt  of  acquiescence,  perhaps  even  a  smile,  rare 
on  that  square,  heavy-laden  countenance  of  his. 

Of  riding  masters,  fencing  masters,  swimming  masters,  much  less 
of  dancing  masters  (celebrated  Graun  '  on  the  organ,'  with  Psalm 
tunes),  we  can  not  speak ;  but  the  reader  may  be  satisfied  they  were 
all  there,  good  of  their  kind,  and  pushing  on  at  a  fair  rate.  Nor  is 
there  any  lack  any  where  of  paternal  supervision  to  our  young  ap- 
prentice. From  an  early  age  Papa  took  the  Crown-Prince  with  him 
on  his  annual  reviews.  From  utmost  Memel  on  the  Russian  border 
down  to  Wesel  on  the  French,  all  Prussia,  in  every  nook  of  it,  gar- 
rison, marching-regiment,  board  of  management,  is  rigorously  re- 
viewed by  Majesty  once  a  year.  There  travels  little  military  Fritz 
beside  the  military  Majesty,  amid  thd  generals  and  official  persons, 
in  their  hardy  Spartan  manner,  and  learns  to  look  into  every  thing- 
like  a  Rhadamanthine  Argus,  and  how  the  eye  of  the  master,  more 
than  all  other  appliances,  fattens  the  cattle. 

On  his  hunts,  too,  Papa  took  him  ;  for  Papa  was  a  famous  hunter 
when  at  Wusterhausen  in  the  season :  hot  Beagle-chase,  hot  Stag- 
hunt,  your  chief  game  deer;  huge  'Force-hunt'  (Par-force- Jag d, 


584  FREDERICK  II.  AND  HIS  SCHOOL  REFORMS. 

the  woods  all  beaten,  and  your  wild  beasts  driven  into  straights  and 
caudine  forks  for  you);  Boar-hunting  (Sauhetze,  'sow-baiting,'  as 
the  Germans  call  it),  partridge-shooting,  fox  arid  wolf-hunting 
— on  all  grand  expeditions  of  such  sort  little  Fritz  shall  ride  with 
Papa  and  party.  Rough,  furious  riding ;  now  on  swift  steed,  now 
at  places  on  Wurstwayen —  Wurstwagen,  '  Sausage-car,'  so  called, 
most  Spartan  of  vehicles,  a  mere  stuffed  pole  or  'sausage'  with 
wheels  to  it,  on  which  you  sit  astride,  a  dozen  or  so  of  you,  and 
career,  regardless  of  the  summer  heat  and  sandy  dust,  of  the  win- 
ter's frost  storms  and  muddy  rain.  All  this  the  little  Crown-Prince 
is  bound  to  do,  but  likes  it  less  and  less,  some  of  us  are  sorry  to 
observe !  In  fact,  he  could  not  take  to  hunting  at  all,  or  find  the 
least  of  permanent  satisfaction  in  shooting  partridges  and  bait- 
ing sows,  '  with  such  an  expenditure  of  industry  and  such  damage 
to  the  seed  fields,'  he  would  sometimes  alledge  in  extenuation.  In 
later  years  he  had  been  known  to  retire  into  some  glade  of  the 
thickets,  and  hold  a  little  Flute-Hautbois  Concert  with  his  musical 
comrades  while  the  sows  were  getting  baited ;  or  he  would  converse 
with  Mamma  and  her  Ladies,  if  her  Majesty  chanced  to  be  there  in 
a  day  for  open  driving,  which  things  by  no  means  increase  his  favor 
with  Papa,  a  sworn  hater  of  '  effeminate  practices.' 

He  was  *  nourished  on  beer-soup,'  as  we  said  before.  Frugality, 
activity,  exactitude,  were  lessons  daily  and  hourly  brought  home  to 
him  in  every  thing  he  did  and  saw.  His  very  sleep  was  stingily 
meted  out  to  him:  'Too  much  sleep  stupefies  a  fellow,'  Friedrich 
Wilhelm  was  wont  to  say  ;  so  that  the  very  doctors  had  to  inter- 
fere in  this  matter  for  little  Fritz.  Frugal  enough,  hardy  enough ; 
urged  in  every  way  to  look  with  indifference  on  hardship,  and  take 
a  Spartan  view  of  life. 

Money  allowance  completely  his  own  he  does  not  seem  to  have 
had  till  he  was  seventeen.  Exiguous  pocket-money,  counted  in 
groschen  (English  pence,  or  hardly  more),  only  his  Kalkstein  and 
Finkenstein  could  grant  as  they  saw  good ;  about  eighteen  pence  in 
the  month  to  start  with,  as  would  appear. 
Intellectual  Culture. 

But  with  regard  to  our  little  Crown-Prince's  intellectual  culture, 
there  is  another  document,  specially  from  Papa's  hand,  which,  if 
we  can  redact,  adjust,  and  abridge  it,  as  in  the  former  case,  may  be 
worth  the  reader's  notice,  and  elucidate  some  things  for  him.  It  is 
of  date  Wusterhausen,  3d  September,  1721,  little  Fritz  now  in  his 
tenth  year,  and  out  there,  with  his  Duhans  and  Finkenstein,  while 
Papa  is  rusticating  for  a  few  weeks.  The  essential  title  is, 


FREDERICK  II.  AND  HIS  SCHOOL  REFORMS.  535 

To  Head- Governor  von  Firikenstein,  Sub- Governor  von  Kalkstein,  Preceptor 
Jacques  Egide  Duhan  de  Jaudun,  and  others  whom  it  may  concern :  Regula- 
tions/or schooling  at  Wusterhausen,  3d  September,  1721,  in  greatly  abridged 
form. 

Sunday.  '  On  Sunday  he  is  to  rise  at  7,  and,  as  soon  as  he  has  got  his  slippers 
on,  shall  kneel  down  at  his  bedside,  and  pray  to  God,  so  as  all  in  the  room 
may  hear  it '  (that  there  be  no  deception  or  short  measure  palmed  upon  us)  '  in 
these  words :  "  Lord  God,  bless  Father,  I  thank  thee  from  my  heart  that  thou 
hast  so  graciously  preserved  me  through  this  night.  Fit  me  for  what  thy  holy 
will  is,  and  grant  that  I  do  nothing  this  day,  nor  all  the  days  of  my  life,  which 
can  divide  me  from  thee.  For  the  Lord  Jesus  my  Redeemer's  sake.  Amen." 
After  which  the  Lord's  Prayer;  then  rapidly  and  vigorously  (geschwinde  und 
hurtig]  wash  himself  clean,  dress,  and  powder,  and  comb  himself:'  we  forget  to 
say  that,  while  they  are  combing  and  queuing  him,  he  breakfasts,  with  brevity, 
on  tea/  'Prayer,  with  washing,  breakfast,  and  the  rest,  to  be  done  pointedly 
within  fifteen  minutes.'  that  is,  at  a  quarter  past  7. 

'This  finished,  all  his  domestics  and  Duhan  shall  come  in- and  do  family 
worship  (das  grosse  Gebet  zu  halten) :  Prayer  on  their  knees,  Duhan  withal  to 
read  a  chapter  of  the  Bible,  and  sing  some  proper  Psalm  or  Hymn '  (as  prac- 
ticed in  well  regulated  families) ;  '  it  will  then  be  a  quarter  to  8.  All  the  do- 
mestics then  withdraw  again,  and  Duhan  now  reads  with  my  Sou  the  Gospel 
of  the  Sunday,  expounds  it  a  little,  adducing  the  main  points  of  Christianity;' 
'questioning  from  Noltenius's  Catechism '  (which  Fritz  knows  by  heart):  'it 
will  then  be  9  o'clock. 

'  At  9  he  brings  my  Son  down  to  me,  who  goes  to  Church,  and  dines  along 
with  me'  (dinner  at  the  stroke  of  Noon) ;  'the  rest  of  the  day  is  then  his  own ' 
(Fritz's  and  Duhan's).  '  At  half  past  9  in  the  evening  he  shall  come  and  bid 
me  good  night;  shall  then  directly  go  to  his  room;  very  rapidly  (sehr  gesch- 
wind)  get  off  his  clothes,  wash  his  hands  '  (get  into  some  tiny  dressing-gown  or 
cassaquin,  no  doubt),  '  and  so  soon  as  that  is  done,  Duhan  makes  a  prayer  on 
his  knees,  and  sings  a  hymn,  all  the  servants  being  again  there;  instantly  after 
which  my  Son  shall  get  into  bed — shall  be  in  bed  at  half  past  10;'  and  fall 
asleep  how  soon,  your  Majesty?  This  is  very  strict  work. 

Monday.  '  On  Monday,  as  on  all  week  days,  he  is  to  be  called  at  6,  and  so 
soon  as  called  he  is  to  rise ;  you  are  to  stand  to  him  (anhalten)  that  he  do  not 
loiter  or  turn  in  bed,  but  briskly  and  at  once  get  up,  and  say  his  prayers  the 
same  as  on  Sunday  morning.  This  done,  he  shall  as  rapidly  as  he  can  get  on 
his  shoes  and  spatterdashes,  also  wash  his  face  and  hands,  but  not  with 
soap ;  farther,  shall  put  on  his  cassaquin '  (short  dressing-gown),  '  have  his  hair 
combed  out  and  queued,  but  not  powdered.  While  getting  combed  and  queued, 
he  shall  at  the  same  time  take  breakfast  of  tea,  so  that  both  jobs  go  on  at  once, 
and  all  this  shall  be  ended  before  half  past  6.'  Then  enter  Duhan  and  the  do- 
mestics with  worship,  Bible,  Hymn,  all  as  on  Sunday;  this  is  done  by  7,  and 
the  servants  go  again. 

'  From  7  till  9  Duhan  takes  him  on  History ;  at  9  comes  Noltenius '  (a  sub- 
lime Clerical  Gentleman  from  Berlin)  with  the  'Christian  Religion,  till  a  quarter 
to  11.  Then  Fritz  rapidly  (geschivind)  washes  his  face  with  water,  hands  with 
soap  and  water;  clean  shirt;  powders,  arid  puts  on  his  coat;  about  11  comes 
to  the  King;  stays  with  the  king  till  2,'  perhaps  promenading  a  little;  dining 
always  at  Noon,  after  which  his  Majesty  is  apt  to  be  slumberous,  and  light 
amusements  are  over. 

'  Directly  at  2  he  goes  back  to  his  room.  Duhan  is  there,  ready ;  takes  him 
upon  the  Maps  and  Geography  from  2  to  3,  giving  account '  (gradually)  '  of  all 
the  European  Kingdoms ;  their  strength  and  weakness ;  size,  riches,  and  pover- 
ty of  their  towns.  From  3  to  4,  Duhan  treats  of  Morality  (soil  die  Moral  trac- 
tiren).  From  4  to  5,  Duhan  shall  write  German  letters  with  him,  and  see  that 
he  gets  a  good  stylum '  (which  he  never  in  the  least  did).  '  About  5,  Fritz  shall 
wash  his  hands,  and  go  to  the  King;  ride  out;  divert  himself,  in  the  air  and  not 
in  his  room,  and  do  what  he  likes,  if  it  is  not  against  God.' 

There,  then,  is  a  Sunday,  and  there  is  one  week  day,  which  latter  may  serve 
for  all  the  other  five,  though  they  are  strictly  specified  in  the  royal  monograph, 


586  FREDERICK  II.  AND  HIS  SCHOOL  REFORMS. 

and  every  hour  of  them  marked  out:  How,  and  at  what  points  of  time,  besides 
this  of  History,  of  Morality,  and  Writing  in  German,  of  Maps  and  Geography, 
with  the  strength  and  weakness  of  Kingdoms,  you  are  to  take  up  Arithmetic 
more  than  once ;  Writing  of  French  Letters,  so  as  to  acquire  a  good  stylum.  in 
what  nook  you  may  intercalate  '  a  little  getting  by  heart  of  something  in  order 
to  strengthen  the  memory;'  how,  instead  of  Noltenius,  Panzendorf  (another 
sublime  Reverend  Gentleman  from  Berlin,  who  comes  out  express)  gives  the 
clerical  drill  on  Tuesday  morning;  with  which  two  onslaughts,  of  an  hour  and 
a  half  each,  the  Clerical  Gentlemen  seem  to  withdraw  for  the  week,  and  we 
hear  no  more  of  them  till  Monday  and  Tuesday  come  round  again. 

On  Wednesday  we  are  happy  to  observe  a  liberal  slice  of  holiday  come  in. 
After  half  past  9,  having  done  his  History,  and  '  got  something  by  heart  to 
strengthen  the  memory '  (very  little,  it  is  to  be  feared),  '  tritz  shall  nipidly  dress 
himself  and  come  to  the  King;  and  the  rest  of  the  day  belongs  to  little  Fritz 
(gehort  vor  Fritzchen)."1  On  Saturday  there  is  some  fair  chance  of  half-holiday. 

'Saturday,  forenoon  till  half  past  10,  come  History,  Writing,  and  Ciphering, 
especially  repetition  of  what  was  done  through  the  week,  and  in  Morality  as 
well '  (adds  the  rapid  Majesty),  '  to  see  whether  he  has  profited ;  and  General 
Graf  von  Finkenstein,  with  Colonel  vOn  Kalkstein,  shall  be  present  during  this. 
If  Fritz  has  profited,  the  afternoon  shall  be  his  own ;  if  he  has  not  profited,  he 
shall,  from  2  to  6,  repeat  and  learn  rightly  what  he  has  forgotten  on  the  past 
days.'  And  so  the  laboring  week  winds  itself  up.  Here,  however,  is  one  gen- 
eral rule,  which  can  not  be  too  much  imprersed  upon  you.  with  which  we 
conclude : 

'  In  undressing  and  dressing,  you  must  accustom  him  to  get  out  of  and  into 
his  clothes  as  fast  as  is  humanly  possible  (hurtig  so  viel  als  menschenmoglich  ist). 
You  will  also  look  that  he  learn  to  put  on  and  off  his  clothes  himself,  without 
help  from  others,  and  that  he  be  clean  and  neat,  and  not  so  dirty  (nicht  so 
schmutzig}.'1  'Not  so  dirty,'  that  is  my  last  word;  and  here  is  my  sign-manual. 

'  FRIEDRICH  WILHELM.' 

His  sister  Wilhelmina,  in  her  Memoires,  says  her  brother  was 
'  slow '  in  learning ;  we  may  presume  she  means  idle,  volatile,  not 
always  prompt  in  fixing  his  attention  to  what  did  not  interest  him. 
Herr  von  Loen  testifies : — 

'  The  Crown-Prince  manifests  in  this  tender  age '  (his  seventh  year)  '  an  un- 
common capacity,  nay,  we  may  say  something  quite  extraordinary  (etwas  ganz 
Ausserordentliches).  He  is  a  most  alert  and  vivacious  Prince;  he  has  fine  and 
sprightly  manners,  and  shows  a  certain  kindly  sociality,  and  so  affectionate  a 
disposition  that  all  things  may  be  hoped  of  him.  The  French  Lady  who '  (under 
Roucoulles)  'has  had  charge  of  his  learning  hitherto  can  not  speak  of  him  with- 
out enthusiasm.  "  Cent  esprit  ang clique  (A  little  angel j,"  she  is  wont  to  say. 
He  takes  up  and  learns  whatever  is  put  before  him  with  the  greatest  facility.' 

For  the  rest,  that  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  intentions  and  Rhadaman- 
thine  regulations  in  regard  to  him  were  fulfilled  in  every  point,  we 
will  by  no  means  affirm.  Rules  of  such  exceeding  preciseness,  if 
grounded  here  and  there  only  on  the  sic  volo,  how  could  they  be 
always  kept,  except  on  the  surface  and  to  the  eye  merely  ?  The 
good  Duhan,  diligent  to  open  his  pupil's  mind  and  give  Nature  fair 
play,  had  practically  found  it  inexpedient  to  tie  him  too  rigorously 
to  the  arbitrary  formal  departments,  where  no  natural  curiosity,  but 
only  order  from  without,  urges  the  ingenious  pupil.  What  maxi- 
mum strictness  in  school-drill  there  can  have  been  we  may  infer 


FREDERICK  II.  AND  HIS  SCHOOL  REFORMS.  537 

from  one  thing,  were  there  no  other — the  ingenious  pupil's  mode 
of  spelling.  Fritz  learned  to  write  a  fine,  free-flowing,  rapid,  and 
legible  business-hand ;  '  Arithmetic,'  too,  '  Geography,'  and  many 
other  Useful  Knowledges  that  had  some  geniality  of  character  or 
attractiveness  in  practice,  were  among  his  acquisitions ;  much,  very 
much  he  learned  in  the  course  of  his  life ;  but  to  spell,  much  more 
to  punctuate,  and  subdue  the  higher  mysteries  of  Grammar  to  him- 
self, was  always  an  unachievable  perfection. 

The  things  ordered  with  such  rigorous  minuteness,  if  but  arbi- 
trary things,  were  apt  to  be  neglected ;  the  things  forbidden, 
especially  in  the  like  case,  were  apt  to  become  doubly  tempting. 
It  appears  the  prohibition  of  Latin  gave  rise  to  several  attempts  on 
the  part  of  Friedrich  to  attain  that  desirable  language.  Secret  les- 
sons, not  from  Duhan,  but  no  doubt  with  Duhan's  connivance,  were 
from  time  to  time  undertaken  with  this  view.  Once,  it  is  recorded, 
the  vigilant  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  going  his  rounds,  came  upon  Fritz 
and  one  of  his  preceptors  (not  Duhan,  but  a  subaltern)  actually  en- 
gaged in  this  illicit  employment.  Friedrich  was  wont  to  relate  this 
anecdote  in  after  life.  They  had  Latin  books,  dictionaries,  gram- 
mars on  the  table — all  the  contraband  apparatus — busy  with  it 
there,  like  a  pair  of  coiners  taken  in  the  fact.  Among  other  books 
was  a  copy  of  the  Golden  Bull  of  Kaiser  Karl  IV. — Aurea  Bulla, 
from  the  little  golden  bullets  or  pellets  hung  to  it — by  which  sub- 
lime document,  as  perhaps  we  hinted  long  ago,  certain  so-called 
Fundamental  Constitutions,  or  at  least  formalities  and  solemn  prac- 
tices, method  of  election,  rule  of  precedence,  and  the  like,  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  had  at  last  been  settled  on  a  sure  footing  by 
that  busy  little  Kaiser  some  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  before — 
a  document  venerable  almost  next  to  the  Bible  in  Friedrich  Wil- 
helm's  loyal  eyes.  'What  is  this  ?  What  are  you  venturing  upon 
here  ?'  exclaims  Paternal  Vigilance,  in  an  astonished,  dangerous 
tone.  *  Ihro  Majestate,  ich  explicire  dem  Prinzen  Auream  BullamJ 
exclaimed  the  trembling  pedagogue:  'Your  Majesty,  I  am  explain- 
ing Aurea  Bulla  (Golden  Bull)  to  the  Prince.'  '  Dog,  I  will  Golden 
Bull  you !'  said  his  Majesty,  flourishing  his  ratan,  *  Ich  will  dich, 
Schurke,  be-auream-bullam  /'  which  sent  the  terrified  wretch  off  at 
the  top  of  his  speed,  and  ended  the  Latin  for  that  time.  Friedrich's 
Latin  could  never  come  to  much  under  these  impediments,  but  he 
retained  some  smatterings  of  it  in  mature  life,  and  was  rather  fond 
of  producing  his  classical  scraps,  often  in  an  altogether  mouldy, 
and,  indeed,  hitherto  inexplicable  condition. 


588  FREDERICK  II.  AND  HIS  SCHOOL  REFORMS. 

The  worst  fruit  of  these  contraband  operations  was  that  they  in- 
volved the  boy  in  clandestine  practices,  secret  disobediences,  apt  to 
be  found  out  from  time  to  time,  and  tended  to  alienate  his  father 
from  him,  of  which  sad  mutual  humor  we  already  find  traces  in  that 
early  Wusterhausen  Document :  *  Not  to  be  so  dirty/  says  the  re- 
proving father.  And  the  boy  does  not  take  to  hunting  at  all;  likes 
verses,  story  books,  flute  playing  better;  seems  to  be  of  effeminate 
tendencies,  an  effeminirter  Kerl ;  affects  French  modes,  combs  out 
his  hair  like  a  cockatoo,  the  foolish  French  fop,  instead  of  conform- 
ing to  the  army  regulation,  which  prescribes  close  cropping  and  a  club. 

And  so,  unexpectedly,  Friedrich  Wilhelm  has  commanded  these 
bright  locks,  as  contrary  to  military  fashion,  of  which  Fritz  has  now 
unworthily  the  honor  of  being  a  specimen,  to  be  ruthlessly  shorn 
away.  Inexorable!  The  Hof-Chirurgus  (Court-Surgeon,  of  the 
nature  of  Barber-Surgeon),  with  scissors  and  comb  is  here,  ruthless 
father  standing  by :  Crop  him,  my  jolly  Barber,  close  down  to  the 
accurate  standard — soaped  club  instead  of  flowing  locks ;  we  suffer 
no  exceptions  in  this  military  department :  I  stand  here  till  it  is 
done.  Poor  Fritz,  they  say,  had  tears  in  his  eyes ;  but  what  help 
in  tears  ?  The  judicious  Chirurgus,  however,  proved  merciful.  The 
judicious  Chirurgus  struck  in  as  if  nothing  loth,  snack,  snack,  and 
made  a  great  show  of  clipping.  Friedrich  Wilhelm  took  a  news- 
paper till  the  job  were  done.  The  judicious  barber,  still  making  a 
great  show  of  work,  combed  back  rather  than  cut  off  these  Apollo 
locks,  did  Fritz  accurately  into  soaped  club  to  the  cursory  eye,  but 
left  him  capable  of  shaking  out  his  chevelure  again  on  occasion,  to 
the  lasting  gratitude  of  Fritz. 

Teaching  Religion  not  a  Success. 

On  the  whole  a  youth  needs  good  assimilating  power  if  he  is  to 
grow  in  this  world.  Noltenius  and  Panzenclorf,  for  instance,  were 
busy  *  teaching  Friedrich  religion.'  Rather  a  strange  operation  this, 
too,  if  we  were  to  look  into  it.  We  will  not  look  too  closely. 
Another  pair  of  excellent,  most  solemn  drill  sergeants,  in  clerical 
black  serge ;  they  also  are  busy  instilling  dark  doctrines  into  the 
bright  young  boy,  but  do  not  seem  at  any  time  to  have  made  too 
deep  an  impression  on  him.  May  we  not  say  that  in  matter  of  re- 
ligion, too,  Friedrich  was  but  ill-bested  ?  Enlightened  Edict  of 
Nantes  Protestantism,  a  cross  between  Bayle  and  Calvin,  that  was 
but  indifferent  babe's  milk  to  the  little  creature.  Nor  could  Nolte- 
nius's  Catechism  and  ponderous  drill  exercise  in  orthodox  theology 
much  inspire  a  clear  soul  with  pieties  and  tendencies  to  soar 
Heavenward. 


FREDERICK  II.  AND  HIS  SCHOOL  REFORMS.  589 

Noltenius's  Catechism,  or  ghostly  Drill  manual  for  Fritz,  at  least 
the  Catechism  he  had  plied  Wilhelmina  with,  which  no  doubt  was 
the  same,  is  still  extant — a  very  abstruse  piece,  orthodox  Lutheran- 
Calvanist,  all  proved  from  Scripture — giving  what  account  it  can  of 
this  unfathomable  Universe  to  the  young  mind.  To  modern  Prus- 
sians it  by  no  means  shines  as  the  indubitablest  Theory  of  the 
Universe.  Indignant  modern  Prussians  produce  excerpts  from  it 
of  an  abstruse  nature,  and  endeavor  to  deduce  therefrom  some  of 
Friedrich's  aberrations  in  matters  of  religion,  which  became  notori- 
ous enough  by  and  by.  Alas !  I  fear  it  would  not  have  been  easy, . 
even  for  the  modern  Prussian,  to  produce  a  perfect  Catechism  for 
the  use  of  Friedrich.  This  Universe  still  continues  a  little  abstruse. 

And  there  is  another  deeper  thing  to  be  remarked :  the  notion  of 
4 teaching'  religion  in  the  way  of  drill  exercise,  which  is  a  very 
strange  notion,  though  a  common  one,  and  not  peculiar  to  Noltenius 
and  Friedrich  Wilhelm.  Piety  to  God,  the  nobleness  that  inspires 
a  human  soul  to  struggle  Heavenward,  can  not  be  'taught'  by  the 
most  exquisite  catechisms,  or  the  most  industrious  preachings  and 
drillings.  No ;  alas  !  no.  Only  by  far  other  methods — chiefly  by 
silent,  continual  Example,  silently  waiting  for  the  favorable  mood 
and  moment,  and  aided  then  by  a  kind  of  miracle,  well  enough 
named  *  the  grace  of  God,'  can  that  sacred  contagion  pass  from  soul 
into  soul.  How  much  beyond  whole  libraries  of  orthodox  Theol- 
ogy is  sometimes  the  mute  action,  the  unconscious  look  of  a  father, 
of  a  mother,  who  had  in  them  *  Devoutness,  pious  Nobleness !'  in 
whom  the  young  soul,  not  unobservant,  though  not  consciously  ob- 
serving, came  at  length  to  recognize  it,  to  read  it  in  this  irrefragable 
manner — a  seed  planted  thenceforth  in  the  center  of  his  holiest 
affections  forevermore ! 

Noltenius  wore  black  serge,  kept  the  corners  of  his  mouth  well 
down,  arid  had  written  a  Catechism  of  repute ;  but  I  know  not  that 
Noltenius  carried  much  seed  of  living  piety  about  with  him  :  much 
affection  from  or  for  young  Fritz  he  could  not  well  carry.  On  the 
whole,  it  is  a  bad  outlook  on  the  religious  side,  and  except  in  ap- 
prenticeship to  the  rugged  and  as  yet  repulsive  honesties  of  Fried- 
rich  Wilhelm,  I  see  no  good  element  in  it.  Bayle-Calvin,  with 
Noltenius  and  Catechims  of  repute — there  is  no  '  religion '  to  be 
had  for  a  little  Fritz  out  of  all  that. 

Alienation  of  Father  and  Son. 

Those  vivacities  of  young  Fritz,  his  taste  for  music,  finery,  those 
furtive  excursions  into  the  domain  of  Latin  and  forbidden  things, 


590  FREDERICK  II.  AND  HIS  SCHOUL  REFORMS. 

were  distasteful  and  incomprehensible  to  Friedrich  Wilhelra. 
Where  can  such  things  end  ? 

The  beginnings  of  this  sad  discrepancy  are  traceable  from  Fried- 
rich's  sixth  or  seventh  year :  '  Not  so  dirty,  boy !'  And  there 
could  be  no  lack  of  growth  in  the  mutual  ill-humor  while  the  boy 
himself  continued  growing,  enlarging  in  bulk  and  in  activity  of  his 
own.  And  so  the  silent  divulsion — silent  on  Fritz's  part,  exploding 
loud  enough  now  and  then  on  his  father's  part — goes  steadily  on, 
splitting  ever  wider,  new  offenses  ever  superadding  themselves,  till 
-at  last  the  rugged  father  has  grown  to  hate  the  son,  and  longs,  with 
sorrowful  indignation,  that  it 'were  possible  to  make  August  Wil- 
helm  Crown-Prince  in  his  stead.  This  Fritz  ought  to  fashion  him- 
self according  to  his  fathers's  pattern,  a  well-meant,  honest  pattern, 
and  he  does  not.  Alas  !  your  Majesty,  it  can  not  be.  It  is  the  new 
generation  come,  which  can  not  live  quite  as  the  old  one  did — a 
perennial  controversy  in  human  life,  coeval  with  the  genealogies  of 
men.  This  little  boy  should  have  been  the  excellent  paternal  Maj- 
esty's exact  counterpart,  resembling  him  at  all  points,  '  as  a  little 
sixpence  does  a  big  half  crown  ;'  but  we  perceive  he  can  not.  This 
is  a  new  coin,  with  a  stamp  of  his  own :  a  surprising  Friedrich  d'or 
this,  and  may  prove  a  good  piece  yet,  but  will  never  be  the  half 
crown  your  Majesty  requires. 

Such  incurable  discrepancies  have  risen  in  the  Berlin  Palace — 
fountains  of  bitterness,  flowing  ever  wider,  till  they  made  life  all 
bitter  for  son  and  for  father,  necessitating  the  proud  son  to  hypoc- 
risies toward  his  terrible  father  which  were  very  foreign  to  the 
proud  youth  had  there  been  any  other  resource.  But  there  was 
none  now  or  afterward.  Even  when  the  young  man,  driven  to  re- 
flection and  insight  by  intolerable  miseries,  had  begun  to  recognize 
the  worth  of  his  surly  Rhadamanthine  Father,  and  the  intrinsic  wis- 
dom of  much  that  he  had  meant  with  him,  the  father  hardly  ever 
could,  or  could  only  by  fits,  completely  recognize  the  son's  worth. 

That  is  all  along  a  sad  element  of  Frieclrich's  education,  out  of 
which  there  might  have  come  incalculable  damage  to  the  young- 
man,  had  his  natural  assimilative  powers  to  extract  benefit  from  all 
things  been  less  considerable.  As  it  was,  he  gained  self-help  from 
it — gained  reticence,  the  power  to  keep  his  own  counsel,  and  did 
not  let  the  hypocrisy  take  hold  of  him,  or  be  other  than  a  hateful, 
compulsory  masquerade.  At  an  uncommonly  early  age,  he  stands 
before  us  accomplished  in  endurance,  for  one  thing,  a  very  bright 
young  Stoic  of  his  sort,  silently  prepared  for  the  injustices  of  men 


FREDERICK  II.  AND  HIS  SCHOOL  REFORMS.  591 

and  things ;  and  as  for  the  masquerade,  let  us  hope  it  was  essen- 
tially foreign  even  to  the  skin  of  the  man.  The  reader  will  judge 
as  he  goes  on.  *  Je  ri*  ai  jamais  trompe  personne  durant  ma  vie,  I 
never  deceived  any  body  during  my  life,  still  less  will  I  deceive  pos- 
terity,' writes  Friedrich  when  his  head  was  grown  very  gray. 

He  did  learn  'Arithmetic,'  'Geography,'  and  the  other  useful 
knowledges  that  were  indispensable  to  him.  He  knows  History 
extensively,  though  rather  the  Roman,  French,  and  general  Euro- 
pean as  the  French  have  taught  it  him,  than  that  of <  Hessen,  Bruns- 
wick, England,'  or  even  the  *  Electoral  and  Royal  House  of  Branden- 
burg,' which  Papa  had  recommended.  He  read  History,  where  he 
could  find  it  readable,  to  the  end  of  his  life,  and  had  early  begun 
reading  it,  immensely  eager  to  learn  in  his  little  head  what  strange 
things  had  been  and  were  in  this  strange  Planet  he  was  come  into. 

We  notice  with  pleasure  a  lively  taste  for  facts  in  the  little  boy, 
which  continued  to  be  the  taste  of  the  man,  in  an  eminent  degree. 
Fictions  he  also  knows — an  eager,  extensive  reader  of  what  is  called 
Poetry,  Literature,  and  himself  a  performer  in  that  province  by  and 
by ;  but  it  is  observable  how  much  of  Realism  there  always  is  in 
his  Literature — how  close,  here' as  elsewhere,  he  always' hangs  on 
the  practical  truth  of  things — how  Fiction  itself  is  either  an  exposi- 
tory illustrative  garment  of  Fact,  or  else  is  of  no  value  to  him. 
Romantic  readers  of  his  Literature  are  much  disappointed  in  conse- 
quence, and  pronounce  it  bad  Literature;  and,  sure  enough,  in 
several  senses  it  is  not  good. 

However  it  may  go  with  Literature,  and  satisfaction  to  readers 
of  romantic  appetites,  this  young  soul  promises  to  become  a  suc- 
cessful Worker  one  day,  and  to  do  something  under  the  Sun  ;  for 
work  is  of  an  extremely  unfictitious  nature,  and  no  man  can  roof 
his  house  with  clouds  and  moonshine  so  as  to  turn  the  rain  from  him. 

It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  his  style  of  French,  though  he  spelled 
it  so  ill,  and  never  had  the  least  mastery  of  punctuation,  has  real 
merit — rapidity,  easy  vivacity,  perfect  clearness,  here  and  there  a 
certain  quaint  expressiveness;  on  the  whole,  he  had  learned  the  Art" 
of  Speech  from  those  old  French  governesses,  in  those  old  and  new 
French  books  of  his.  We  can  also  say  of  his  Literature,  of  what 
he  hastily  wrote  in  mature  life,  that  it  has  much  more  worth,  even 
as  Literature,  than  the  common  romantic  appetite  assigns  to  it.  A 
vein  of  distinct  sense  and  good  interior  articulation  is  never  want- 
ing in  that  thin-flowing  utterance.  The  true  is  well  riddled  out 
from  amid  the  false ;  the  important  and  essential  are  alone  given  us, 
the  unimportant  and  superfluous  honestly  thrown  away. 


502  FREDERICK  II.  AND  HIS  SCHOOL  REFORMS. 

Results  of  his  Teachers'  Work. 

That  Friedrich' s  Course  of  Education  did  on  the  whole  pros- 
per, in  spite  of  every  drawback,  is  known  to  all  men.  He  came 
out  of  it  a  man  of  clear  and  ever  improving  intelligence ;  equipped 
with  knowledge,  true  in  essentials,  if  not  punctiliously  exact,  upon 
all  manner  of  practical  and  speculative  things,  to  a  degree  not  only 
unexampled  among  modern  Sovereign  Princes  so  called,  but  such 
as  to  distinguish  him  even  among  the  studious  class  ;  nay,  many 
'  Men  of  Letters '  have  made  a  reputation  for  themselves  with  but  a 
fraction  of  the  real  knowledge  concerning  men  and  things,  past  and 
present,  which  Friedrich  was  possessed  of.  Already,  at  the  time 
when  action  came  to  be  demanded  of  him,  he  was  what  we  must 
call  a  well  informed  and  cultivated  man,  which  character  he  never 
ceased  to  merit  more  and  more ;  and  as  for  the  action  and  the 
actions,  we  shall  see  whether  he  was  fit  for  these  or  not. 

One  point  of  supreme  importance  in  his  Education  was  all  along 
made  sure  of  by  the  mere  presence  and  presidence  of  Friedrich 
Wilhelm  in  the  business :  that  there  was  an  inflexible  law  of  dis- 
cipline every  where  active  in  it ;  that  there  was  a  Spartan  rigor, 
frugality,  veracity,  inculcated  upon  him.  l  Economy  he  is  to  study 
to  the  bottom ;'  and  not  only  so,  but,  in  another  sense  of  the  word, 
he  is  to  practice  economy ;  and  does,  or  else  suffers  for  not  doing  it. 
Economic  of  his  time  first  of  all :  generally  every  other  noble  econ- 
omy will  follow  out  of  that,  if  a  man  once  understand  and  practice  that. 
Here  was  a  truly  valuable  foundation  laid ;  and  as  for  the  rest,  Nature, 
in  spite  of  shot  rubbish,  had  to  do  what  she  could  in  the  rest.  Among 
the  confused  hurtful  elements  of  his  schooling,  was  the  salutary  and 
potent  one  of  its  being  an  apprenticeship  to  Friedrich  Wilhelm. 

Friedrich  Wilhelm,  King  of  Prussia,  did  not  set  up  for  a  Pestalozzi,  and  the 
plan  of  education  for  his  son  is  open  to  manifold  objections.  Nevertheless,  as 
schoolmasters  go,  I  much  prefer  him  to  most  others  we  have  at  present  The 
wild  man  had  discerned,  with  his  rugged  natural  intelligence  (not  wasted  away 
in  the  idle  element  of  speaking  and  of  being  spoken  to,  but  kept  wholesomely 
silent  for  most  part),  that  human  education  is  not,  and  can  not  be,  a  thing  of 
vocables;  that  it  is  a  thing  of  earnest  facts;  of  capabilities  devoloped,  of  habits 
established,  of  dispositions  well  dealt  with,  of  tendencies  confirmed  and  tenden- 
cies repressed ;  a  laborious  separating  of  the  character  into  two  firmaments ; 
shutting  down  the  subterranean,  well  down  and  deep ;  an  earth  and  waters, 
and  what  lies  under  them;  then  your  everlasting  azure  sky  and  immeasurable 
depths  of  ether  hanging  overhead.  To  make  of  the  human  soul  a  Cosmos,  so 
far  as  possible,  that  was  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  dumb  notion,  not  to  leave  the  hu- 
man soul  a  mere  Chaos ;  how  much  less  a  Singing  or  eloquently  Spouting  Chaos, 
which  is  ten  times  worse  than  a  Chaos  left  mute,  confessedly  chaotic  and  not 
cosmic!  To  develop  the  man  into  doing  something,  and  withal  into  doing  it  as 
the  Universe  and  the  Eternal  Laws  require— which  is  but  another  name  for 
really  doing  and  not  merely  seeming  to  do  it — that  was  Friedrich  Wilhelm's 
dumb  notion ;  and  it  was,  I  can  assure  you,  very  far  from  being  a  foolish  one, 
though  there  was  no  Latin  in  it,  and  much  of  Prussian  pipe-clay. 


FREDERICK  II.  AND  H[S  SCHOOL  REFORMS.  593 

FREDERICK  II.  ascended  the  throne  June,  1740,  .and  in  October  of 
that  year,  issued  an  order,  which  was  followed  by  others  of  similar 
import  in  1741  and  1743,  to  provide  for  the  support  of  village 
schools  wherever  established.  In  1748  he  assisted  Hecker  to  develop 
the  Real  School  in  Berlin,  and  caused  a  Seminary  for  Teachers  to  be 
attached — in  which  he  required  all  schoolmasters  employed  on  the 
crown  lands  to  be  educated.  In  1753  he  made  the  system  of  instruc- 
tion in  the  Kermark  the  example  and  models  for  other  portions  of 
the  monarchy.  In  August,  1763,  he  issued  his  General  School  Regu- 
lations, and  two  years  later,  those  for  the  Catholic  Schools  of  Silesia. 

GENERAL  SCHOOL  REGULATIONS,  AUGUST  12,  1763. 

\Ve  FHEDERIC,  by  the  grace  of  God,  King,  etc.: 

WHEREAS,  to  our  great  displeasure,  we  have  perceived  that  schools  and  the 
instruction  of  youth  in  the  country  have  come  to  be  greatly  neglected,  and 
that  by  the  inexperience  of  many  sacristans  (custos*)  and  schoolmasters,  the  young 
people  grow  up  in  stupidity  and  ignorance,  it  is  our  well  considered  and  serious 
pleasure,  that  instruction  in  the  country,  throughout  all  our  provinces,  should  be 
placed  on  a  better  footing,  and  be  better  organized  than  heretofore.  For,  as  we 
earnestly  strive  for  the  true  welfare  of  our  country,  and  of  all  classes  of  people  ; 
now  that  quiet  and  general  peace  have  been  restored,  we  find  it.  necessary  and 
wholesome  to  have  a  good  foundation  laid  in  the  schools  by  a  rational  and  Chris- 
tian education  of  the  young  for  the  fear  of  God  and  other  useful  ends.  Therefore, 
by  the  power  of  our  own  highest  motive,  of  our  care  and  paternal  disposition 
for  the  best  good  of  all  our  subjects,  we  command  hereby,  all  governors,  con- 
sistories and  other  collegiates  of  our  country;  that  they  shall,  on  their  part, 
contribute  all  they  can,  with  affection  and  zeal,  to  maintain  the  following  GENERAL 
SCHOOL  REGULATIONS,  and  in  future  to  arrange  all  things  in  accordance  with  the 
law  to  the  end  that  ignorance,  so  injurious  and  unbecoming  to  Christianity,  may 
be  prevented  and  lessened,  and  the  coming  time  may  train  and  educate  in  the 
schoo's  more  enlightened  and  virtuous  subjects. 

SECTION  1.  First,  it  is  our  pleasure  that  all  our  subjects,  parents,  guardians  or 
masters,  whose  duty  it  is  to  educate  the  young,  shall  send  their  children  to  school, 
and  those  confided  to  their  care,  boys  and  girls,  if  not  sooner,  certainly  when  they 
reach  the  age  of  five  years ;  and  shall  continue  regularly  to  do  so,  and  require  them 
to  go  to  school  until  they  are  thirteen  or  fourteen  years  old,  and  know  not  only 
what  is  necessary  of  Christianity,  fluent  reading  and  writing,  but  can  give  answer 
in  everything  which  they  learn  from  the  school  books,  prescribed  and  approved 
by  our  consistory. 

§  2.  Masters  to  whom  children  in  Prussia,  by  custom  are  bound  to  render  work 
for  certain  years,  are  seriously  advised  not  to  withdraw  such  children  from 
school  until  they  can  read  well,  and  have  laid  a  good  foundation  in  Christian 
knowledge ;  also  made  a  beginning  in  writing,  and  can  present  a  certificate  from 
the  minister  and  school  master  to  this  effect  to  the  school-visitors.  Parents  and 
guardians  ought  much  more  to  consider  it  their  bouriden  duty  that  their  children 
and  wards  receive  sufficient  instruction  in  the  necessary  branches. 

§  3.  If  children,  by  their  own  aptitude  or  by  the  care  of  the  teacher  are  suffi- 
ciently advanced  in  the  common  studies  before  they  attain  their  thirteenth  or 
fourteenth  year,  even  then  the  parents  or  guardians  are  not  at  liberty  to  retain 
them  at  home,  but  can  do  so  only  when  the  superintendents  or  inspectors,  after 
a  notice  from  the  minister  and  a  testimonial  of  the  schoolmaster,  that  the  pupil 
has  acquired  a  sufficient  knowledge,  have  issued  a  regular  dismissal  based  on  the 
above  testimonial.  Still  such  children  must  attend  the  Repetition  School,  not 
only  on  Sundays,  at  the  minister's,  but  also  on  week-days  at  the  schoolmaster's. 

g  4.  As  in  many  towns,  parents  do  not  send  their  children  to  school  in  summer, 
on  the  plea  that  they  have  to  guard  the  cattle ;  our  magistrates  and  judges  in  the 
districts  containing  towns  and  communes,  shall  see  that  a  special  shepherd  is 
engaged,  rather  than  allow  the  children  to  be  kept  from  school.  Whereas,  as  in 

•NOTE.— Custos,  or  German  "  Kuster,"  is  the  name  by  which  the  sacristan  or  custodian  of 
the  Church  was  designated ;  from  among  these  persons  many  w  re  taken  as  teachers,  or 
rather  the  first  teachers  combined  the  office  of  custodian  with  their  duties  in  the  school. 


594  GENERAL    REGULATIONS    OF    SCHOOLS,    BY    FREDERIC    II. 

our  Westphalia  counties,  in  the  Wisher-land,  in  the  old  Margraviate  and  other 
parts,  the  houses  are  scattered  far  apart,  and  the  cattle  cannot  well  be  driven  into 
one  place  to  be  guarded,  one  child  after  the  other,  if  there  are  several  in  a  family 
or  neighborhood,  shall  alternately,  every  day,  attend  to  the  herds ;  or  the  inn- 
keepers and  inhabitants  of  such  towns  shall  make  other  arrangements  by  which 
each  child  can  go  to  school  at  least  three  days  of  the  week,  that  it  may  not  forget 
in  summer  what  it  learned  in  winter.  In  many  cases  it  could  be  organized  that 
the  children  form  two  divisions,  one  of  which  could  be  in  school  during  the  three 
first  days  of  a  week,  and  the  other  during  the  three  last  days 

§  5.  In  order  to  regulate  definitely  the  summer  and  winter  schools,  we  decree 
that  winter  schools  must  be  held  on  all  the  six  days  of  the  week,  from  8  to  11 
o'clock  in  the  forenoon,  and  from  1  to  4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  except  Wednes- 
day and  Saturday  afternoons.  The  winter  school  must  be  continued  from  Mich- 
aelmas to  the  Easter-days.  But  the  summer  schools  shall  be  open  only  in  the 
forenoon  or,  if  necessary  by  the  location  of  the  place,  during  three  hours  every 
weeK-day,  when  the  ministers  can  best  decide  at  what  hour  to  commence.  No 
vacations  are  to  be  given,  not  even  during  harvest  time ;  the  schools  shall  be  kept 
in  the  prescribed  manner,  with  this  distinction,  that  in  summer  each  lesson  is  to 
be  of  half  an  hour's  duration,  and  in  winter  of  a  full  hour. 

And  since  it  has  not  remained  unknown  to  us,  that  in  many  places  the  magis- 
trates  and  patrons  of  nobility  have  taken  great  pains  that  schools  might  be  kept 
winter  and  summer  in  the  fore  and  afternoon,  we  will,  by  this  decree,  not  at  all 
abolish  an  arrangement  so  praiseworthy,  but  allow  the  example  of  Christian  care 
for  the  interests  of  the  children,  to  serve  as  an  example  to  others. 

§  6.  On  Sundays,  beside  the  lesson  of  the  catechism  or  repetition  school  by  the 
minister  given  in  the  Church,  the  schoolmaster  shall  give  in  the  school  a  recapit- 
ulary  lesson  to  the  unmarried  people  of  the  township.  They  shall  there  practise 
reading  and  writing.  Reading  should  be  from  the  New  Testament  or  some  other 
edifying  book,  and  as  an  exercise  in  writing,  the  young  people  should  write  some 
passages,  or  the  epistle,  or  Gospel  of  the  day.  In  towns  where  the  schoolmaster  is 
not  likewise  sexton,  and  not  obliged  to  travel  through  the  parish  with  the  cler- 
gyman, he  shall  be  bound  to  sing  with  the  children  in  Church,  either  morning  or 
afternoons,  to  hear  them  recite  the  catechism  and  address  to  them  easy  questions 
on  the  order  of  salvation.  If  a  sacristan  or  schoolmaster  has  no  experience  in 
catechising,  the  minister  should  write  down  for  him  the  questions  he  must  ask, 
that  in  this  manner,  together  with  their  children,  the  people  may  be  edified  and 
improved  in  scriptural  knowledge. 

|  7.  In  regard  to  tuition  fee,  every  child,  until  it  can  read,  shall  pay  in  winter 
six  pennies,  after  it  can  read,  nine  pennies,  and  when  it  can  write  and  read,  one 
groschen  a  week.  For  the  months  of  summer,  however,  they  shall  pay  only  two- 
thirds  of  this  fee,  so  that  those  who  paid  six  pennies  in  winter,  after  his  proportion 
shall  pay  four ;  those  who  paid  nine  pennies  shall  pay  six,  and  those  who  paid  one 
groschen  will  pay  eight  pennies.  If,  in  any  place  the  schoolmaster  has  been  paid 
better,  he  must  continue  to  receive  the  customary  fees. 

§  8.  Parents  too  poor  to  pay  the  tuition  fee  for  their  children,  and  orphan  chil- 
dren who  cannot  pay,  must  petition  the  magistrate,  patron,  minister  or  church- 
council  for  an  allowance  from  any  funds  of  the  church  or  town  at  their  disposal, 
that  the  schoolmaster  may  get  his  income,  and  teach  the  children  of  the  poor  and 
rich  with  equal  diligence  and  fidelity. 

§  9.  In  furtherance  of  this  object,  there  shall  be  delivered  in  every  town  of  the 
country  and  in  the  cities,  on  St.  Michael's  Sunday  of  every  year,  a  school  dis- 
course, in  which  a  topic,  chosen  with  discretion,  from  the  subjects  of  Christian 
education  and  edification  of  youth,  in  harmony  with  the  Gospel  of  the  day,  or 
based  on  another  suitable  text 'from  the  Old  or  New  Testament,  shall  be  expounded 
to  the  people.  After  this  discourse,  and  an  earnest  exhortation  from  the  minister, 
a  collection  will  be  taken  in  aid  of  country  schools,  and  especially  for  the  purchase 
of  school-books  for  the  poor  children  in  village  schools ;  and  in  the  manner  cus- 
tomary to  the  place ;  they  shall  also  collect  voluntary  contributions,  which,  to- 
gether with  the  regular  quarterly  collections,  shall  be  forwarded  to  the  consistory 
of  the  province  to  be  applied  to  the  purchase  of  books. 

§  10.  Having  made  good  and  sufficient  provision  for  the  instruction  of  the 
young,  all  parents,  guardians,  and  others,  having  children  to  educate,  who  act 
contrarjT  to  this  ordinance,  by  withholding  them  from  school,  shall  still  be 


GENERAL    REGULATIONS    OF    SCHOOLS,    BY    FREDERIC    II.          '      595 

obligel  to  pay  the  common  school-fee  for  the  term;  and  guardians  shall  not  be 
permitted  to  charge  the  money  thus  paid  to  the  account  of  their  wards.  And  if, 
after  oarnest  exhortation  of  the  minister,  they  do  not  send  their  children  regu- 
larly to  school,  then  the  magistrate  of  the  town,  in  the  last  resort,  shall  direct 
execution  against  them.  It  is  made  the  duty  of  the  school-visitors  to  impose  on 
such  parents  as  have  not  made  their  children  attend  school  regularly,  a  fine  of 
sixteen  groschen,  to  be  paid  into  the  school-treasury. 

We  therefore  command  all  officers  and  magistrates  to  ascertain  without  delay, 
after  receiving  notice  from  the  schoolmaster,  of  the  non-attendance  of  any  child, 
from  the  parent  or  guardian  of  the  same  the  cause  of  such  absence,  and  if  it  is  for 
other  reason  than  sickness,  they  shall  employ  proper  legal  means  to  secure  that 
child's  attendance. 

§  11.  To  this  end,  and  to  enable  him  the  better  to  control  the  matter,  the 
schoolmaster  shall  receive,  from  the  register  of  the  church  or  the  town  in  which 
they  are  engaged,  a  list  of  all  children  of  school  age,  that  they  may  know  who 
are  due  to  the  school ;  and  the  teacher  shall  also  keep  a  monthly  register,  in 
which  the  children  are  enrolled  as  follows  :  (1)  By  their  name  and  surname ;  (2) 
their  age;  (3)  the  names  of  their  parents;  (4)  their  residence;  (5)  the  date  when 
they  enter  school ;  (6)  the  lessons  they  study  ;  (7)  the  degree  of  their  diligence  or 
negligence;  (8)  their  abilities  of  mind;  (9)  their  morals  and  conduct ;  (10)  the 
day  when  they  leave  school. 

This  register,  which  no  child  should  be  suffered  to  read,  is  sect  to  the  school- 
visitor  before  his  annual  inspection,  and  inspected  by  the  minister  during  his 
weekly  visits  that  he  may  know  the  delinquent  children,  and  exhort  them  to 
greater  diligence,  and  speak  with  their  parents  in  this  regard. 

This  register  is  ruled  with  lines  for  every  day  of  the  month,  on  which  the 
teacher  can  enter  his  remarks,  and  check  those  who  are  absent  with  or  without 
permission  or  excuse.  This  will  incite  children  to  diligence,  and  remind  parents, 
who  send  their  children  irregularly  and  say,  "our  children  have  gone  so  many 
years  to  school,  and  yet  learned  nothing,"  that  the  fault  is  not  with  the  school  or 
the  teacher,  but  with  themselves. 

g  12.  Since  the  chief  requisite  in  a  good  school  is  a  competent  and  faithful 
teacher,  it  is  our  gracious  and  earnest  will,  that  one  and  all,  who  have  the  right 
of  appointment,  shall  take  heed  to  bring  only  well  qualified  persons  into  office 
as  teachers  and  sacristans.  A  schoolmaster  should  not  only  possess  the  necessary 
attainments  and  skill  in  instruction,  but  should  be  an  example  to  the  children, 
and  not  tear  down  by  his  daily  life  what  he  builds  up  by  his  teaching.  He  should 
therefore  strive  after  godliness,  and  guard  against  everything  which  might 
give  offence  or  temptation  to  parents  or  children.  Above  all  things,  he  should 
endeavor  to  obtain  a  correct  knowledge  of  God  and  of  Christ,  thereby  laying  a 
foundation  to  honest  life  and  true  Christianity,  and  feeling  that  they  are  entrusted 
with  their  office  from  God,  as  followers  of  the  Saviour,  and  in  it  have  an  oppor- 
tunity, by  diligence  and  good  example,  not  only  to  render  the  children  happy  in 
the  present  life,  but  also  to  prepare  them  for  eternal  blessedness. 

\  13.  Though  we  intend  to  leave  undiminished  the  privileges  of  the  nobility 
and  other  patrons  to  select  and  appoint  their  sacristans  and  teachers,  yet  our  su- 
perintendents, inspectors  and  the  clergy  must  see  that  no  incompetent,  unsuita- 
ble, nor  reckless  and  wicked  person  io  employed  or  continued  in  office.  Espe- 
cially should  those  be  removed  who  arc  addicted  to  drink  or  theft,  who  excite 
dissensions  in  the  commune,  or  give  scandal.  If  they  are  addicted  to  such  vices 
before  their  engagement  they  are  unfit  for  the  office ;  and  the  patrons  should  le 
required  to  present  another  person,  of  good  repute,  to  the  examiners.  But  if 
these  vices  crop  out  after  they  are  in  office,  it  must  not  only  be  noted  on  the 
annual  report  of  conduct,  but  be  directly  communicated  to  our  consistory,  that 
they  may  be  saved  further  vexation,  and  the  incumbent  be  suspended  without 
delay  and  brought  to  trial  before  the  proper  tribunal.  All  teachers  are  forbidden 
to  keep  tavern,  to  sell  beer  or  wine,  to  engage  in  any  other  occupation  by  which 
their  labor  may  be  hindered  or  the  children  lured  by  their  example  into  habits 
of  idleness  and  dissipation,  such  as  the  hanging  round  taverns  or  making  music 
at  dinners  and  balls,  which  is  prohibited  under  high  fine  and  punishment. 

§  14.  No  sacristan  or  teacher  can  be  installed  into  office  before  his  qualifications, 
ascertained  by  actual  examination,  are  certified  to  by  the  Inspector.  No  clergy- 
man can  admit  any  person  to  such  position  in  church  or  school  who  does  not 
produce  said  certificate  Of  a  successful  examination. 


GENERAL    REGULATIONS    OF    SCHOOLS,    BY    FREDERIC    II. 

With  regard  to  our  country  schools  in  towns  and  villages  on  our  own  domains, 
we  repeat  our  former  directions,  that  no  person  shall  be  engaged  as  custos  or 
school  teacher  unless  he  has  been  a  member  of  the  Teachers'  Seminary  at  Berlin, 
and  understands  the  cultivation  of  silk,  as  well  as  the  excellent  method  of  instruc- 
tion pursued  in  the  German  schools  of  Trinity  Church.  And  those  teachers  who 
have  received  from  Chief  Counsellor  and  Pastor  Hecker  a  certificate  of  qualifica- 
tion, may  be  elected  to  a  vacancy  after  giving  a  trial  lesson  in  singing  in  the 
church  and  in  teaching  the  children  in  school  in  presence  of  the  inspector,  or  of 
the  clergyman  and  some  citizens  of  the  town.  Whenever  a  vacancy  occurs,  the 
clergyman  must  give  notice  to  the  inspector,  mentioning  the  specific  salary  and 
circumstances  of  the  position,  who  reports  to  the  chief  consistory,  waiting  for 
the  presentation  of  a  candidate  from  the  Teachers'  Seminary  ;  if  none  such  is  pre- 
sented, then,  with  the  assistance  of  the  clergyman,  he  must  find  a  proper  person 
and  send  him  to  Berlin  for  examination  and  trial  lessons.  Should  he  not  be 
found  qualified,  he  may  be  permitted  to  attend  the  seminary  at  his  own  expense, 
until  he  has  obtained  the  certificate  of  qualification  ;  and  failing  that,  anoiher 
candidate  must  be  proposed. 

$  15.  No  person  shall  assume  to  teach  in  any  school  of  the  country,  village,  or 
town,  who  has  not  regularly  obtained  a  license  to  teach  ;  and  all  schools,  whether 
kept  by  man  or  woman,  not  duly  authorized,  nre  entirely  prohibited.  But  par- 
ents of  wealth  may,  as  heretofore,  engage  private  teachers  for  their  children, 
provided  that  the  children  of  others  who  cannot  yet  be  taught  the  higher  branches, 
are  not  induced  to  withdraw  from  the  regular  school  in  order  to  share  the  private 
elementary  instruction. 

§  16.  As  a  schoolmaster  is  not  permitted  to  employ  his  pupils  for  his  own 
work  during  school  hours,  neither  shall  he  attend  to  his  trade  or  other  business 
during  such  hours,  or  entrust  his  wife  with  the  duties  of  the  school-room; 
though  he  may  employ  her  or  another  person  to  assist  when  the  school  is  too 
large  for  his  personal  instruction.  If  for  any  cause  he  neglects  to  teach  the  pre- 
scribed hours,  the  clergyman  shall  remind  him  of  his  duty  ;  and,  in  case  of  per- 
sistent neglect,  notice  must  be  sent  to  the  inspector  that  such  irregularities  may 
be  corrected  or  punished. 

§  17.  The  daily  work  of  the  school  should  begin  with  prayer  to  the  Giver  of  all 
good  gifts,  that  He  will  send  His  divine  blessing  on  their  work,  and  give  them  a 
heart  full  of  tenderness  and  sincerity  towards  the  children  entrusted  to  their  care, 
that  they  may  do  willingly  and  without  passion  all  that  is  incumbent  upon  them 
as  teachers;  being  always  reminded  that  they  can  have  no  influence  over  chil- 
dren, nor  win  their  hearts  without  the  divine  assistance  of  Jesus,  the  friend  of 
children,  and  of  His  holy  spirit.  During  the  instructions  they  should  devoutly 
pray  that  they  may  not  only  keep  their  minds  composed,  but  that  God  will  bless 
their  work,  and  to  planting  and  watering  graciously  give  His  increase. 

Teachers  should  also  devise  various  means  to  win  the  confidence  of  young  pupils, 
especially  of  the  bashful  and  slow,  and  to  render  their  task  easy.  To  this  end, 
they  should  make  themselves  familiar  with  the  third  part  of  the  u  Berlin  School- 
book,  "  by  which  all  the  elementary  branches  are  successfully  taught. 

§.  18.  As  much  depends  on  a  good  plan  of  organization,  it  is  ordered  that  three 
hours  in  the  forenoon  (from  8  to  11)  and  three  in  the  afternoon  (from  1  to  4 
o'clock)  shall  be  the  school  time,  unless  the  minister  and  town  council  find  it 
more  suitable  to  begin  earlier  or  close  later  in  the  day,  provided  six  hours  each 
day  in  summer  and  winter  are  devoted  to  instruction. 
§.  19.  The  order  of  school  shall  be  thus  : 
In  the  first  hour  of  the  morning  they  will— 

First.  Sing  a  hymn,  the  words  being  slowly  pronounced  by  the  schoolmaster, 
and  sung  by  the  children  after  him.  Every  month,  but  one  hymn,  designated  by 
the  clergyman,  and  not  too  long  or  unfamiliar,  shall  be  learned  and  sung,  in  order 
that  the  old  and  young  may  remember  the  words  and  tune  by  frequent  repetition. 
While  singing,  the  teacher  must  see  that  all  participate,  and  no  child  should  be 
permitted  to  hold  open  the  hymnbook  and  sing  from  it,  but  all  should  be  required 
to  follow  him. 

Second.  After  the  hymn,  a  prayer  shall  be  offered,  either  by  the  master,  or  one 
of  the  pupils  may  be  allowed  to  read  slowly  and  distinctly  a  prescribed  prayer, 
while  the  rest  join  in  silence.  Then  all  should  directly  offer  up  a  common  prayer, 
learned  by  heart ;  and  after  the  reading  of  the  psalm  for  the  month  by  one  of  the 


GENERAL    REGULATIONS    OF    SCHOOLS,    BY    FREDERIC    IT  597 

pupils,  the  devotional  exercise  should  close  with  the  Lord's  prayer.  Any  tardy 
children  must  wait  at  the  door  until  prayer  is  ended,  in  order  not  to  disturb  the 
others. 

Third.  After  prayer  such  a  portion  of  the  catechism  is  explained  that  in  every 
six  weeks  the  book 'is  gone  through.  In  this  exercise  the  following  method  should 
be  adopted  :  The  portion  to  be  interpreted  must  be  read  by  the  children  until  it 
is  familiar  to  most  of  them.  Then  the  words  and  their  meaning  are  explained,  by 
questions  and  answers,  and  verified  by  passages  from  the  Scriptures ;  and  finally 
the  children  should  be  told  how  to  apply  the  truth  of  what  they  hear  to  practical 
life.  For  little  children  Luther  s  smaller  catechism  should  be  used  ;  for  the  more 
advanced  the  clergyman  and  schoolmaster  should  use  the  larger  catechism  with 
interpretations. 

During  the  remaining  hours  of  the  morning,  exercises  in  reading,  spelling,  and 
the  A  B  C  should  follow  according  to  the  proficiency  of  the  pupils. 

(1.)  In  the  first  half  hour  the  advanced  pupils  read  a  chapter  from  the  Old  or 
New  Testament,  sometimes  together,  sometimes  a  certain  portion  of  the  class, 
alternating  with  a  single  pupil,  as  the  teacher  may  designate  to  keep  the  order 
and  attention  of  all  alive. 

(2.)  The  next  half  hour  is  devoted  to  spelling,  either  by  the  entire  class  in  con- 
cert or  each  child  alone.  Sometimes  a  word  is  written  on  the  "tafel,"  (black- 
board,) which  all  are  required  to  spell  and  pronounce.  During  this  lesson  with 
the  younger  pupils  the  older  are  practised  in  finding  passages  of  Scripture  or 
hymns  in  the  hymnbook ;  or  they  commit  to  memory  verses  and  the  names  of 
Biblical  books  in  their  succession,  that  they  may  become  ready  in  consulting  the 
Scriptures. 

(3.)  The  next  hour  is  devoted  to  the  A  B  C  classes,  with  copying  on  their  tablets 
one  or  two  letters  from  the  larger  tablet,  the  teacher  often  calling  them  to  name 
the  letters,  or  show  them  on  their  slates,  while  he  is  hearing  an  advanced  class 
spell,  or  attending  to  their  writing,  which  last  is  in  this  wise: 

(1.)  The  larger  children  write  during  the  first  half  of  the  third  hour,  when  their 
woik  is  inspected  and  corrected  in  the  next  half  hour.  That  no  child  may  be 
neglected,  the  teacher  keeps  a  list  of  the  scholars,  who  present  their  copy-books  in 
succession,  and  he  continues  the  next  day  where  he  left  off.  In  this  manner  every 
child  will  have  his  book  returned  and  corrected  several  times  each  week. 

Here  it  stiould  be  remarked,  that  the  left  side  of  the  copy-book  should  be 
written  and  corrected  first,  and  the  scholar  should  re-write  the  same  exercise  on  the 
right-hand  page,  free  of  the  errors  pointed  out  by  the  teacher. 

(2.)  While  the  larger  pupils  are  writing,  the  spelling  class  is  to  be  exercised 
and  made  familiar  with  the  rules  of  reading,  and  the  powers  of  letters.  While 
the  larger  scholars  have  their  copies  corrected,  the  spelling  class  may  now  and 
then  recite  their  Bible-verse  for  the  week.  Towards  the  end  of  the  third  morning- 
hour,  the  whole  school  is  called  to  prayer,  after  which  the  teacher  reads  the 
psalm  or  part  of  the  hymn  designated  for  the  season,  and  then  the  pupils  are 
quietly  dismissed.  The  master  looks  to  their  behavior  in  going  home,  that  care- 
lessness and  wickedness  may  not  dissipate  the  instructions  of  the  morning. 

During  the  first  hour  of  the  afternoon  the  whole  school  is  occupied  with  the 
teacher,  and  after  singing  some  verses  and  reading  a  psalm,  they  are  taught 
biblical  history  and  the  "Manual  for  the  instruction  of  children  in  country- 
schools.''* 

The  second  hour  of  the  afternoon,  the  classes  alternately  learn  portions  of  the 
catechism.  This  may  be  done  after  the  method  shown  in  the  third  part  of  the 
Berlin  Reader,  by  writing  down  the  first  letters,  or  in  the  following  manner: 

(1.)  The  teacher  reads  repeatedly,  slowly  and  distinctly,  the  portion  which 
the  children  are  to  commit,  while  the  pupils  follow  in  the  open  book  mentally. 
Then  the  children  read  the  exercises  in  concert,  while  the  middle  and  spelling 
clas?  listen. 

(2.)  After  this  is  done,  the  teacher  reads  aloud  from  comma  to  comma,  while 
the  children  repeat  until  they  know  it  by  heart;  then  he  proceeds  with  the  next 
paragraph  in  the  same  manner,  explaining  the  Bible  phraseology  of  the  catechism, 
which  the  children  learn  together.  As  regards  the  interpretation  of  Luther's 

*  See  Memoir  of  Frederic*  Eberhard  von  Rochow. 


598  GENERAL    REGULATIONS    OF    SCHOOLS,    BY    FREDERIC    II. 

catechism,  the  larger  children  will  learn  that  by  frequent  repetition  ;  the  middle 
class,  and  the  small  pupils  meanwhile  listening  attentively.  After  the  first  class  hag 
in  concert  repeated  the  lesson  a  few  times,  the  teacher  indicates  the  individuals  to 
recite  the  lesson  from  memory,  and  thus  he  satisfies  himself  as  to  their  mastery  of  it. 

(3.)  Finally  each  class  recites  its  weekly  Bible-verse,  varying  in  length  accord- 
ing to  the  age  of  the  pupils.  In  this  manner  children  generally  learn  the  por- 
tions of  the  catechism  and  Christian  Doctrine  in  their  proper  connection,  together 
with  their  Bible-verses,  a  psalm  and  a  hymn  every  month. 

The  next  half  hour,  the  larger  children  attend  to  reading,  the  middle  class  to 
spelling,  and  the  lower  class  to  their  letters,  as  in  the  morning. 

During  the  third  and  last  hour  of  the  afternoon,  the  first  class  shall  write  and 
cypher ;  while  the  middle  class  continue  their  spelling,  and  the  little  children 
their  A,  B,  C. 

On  Saturday,  instead  of  the  catechism  in  the  first  hour  of  the  morning,  the 
children  will  repeat  the  Bible-verses,  psalms  and  hymns  they  have  learned,  of 
which  the  teacher  keeps  a  memorandum.  Then,  from  week  to  week,  he  relates 
to  them  a  history  from  the  Old  or  New  Testament,  explains  the  same  and  shows 
its  application  to  life  and  conduct.  For  the  older  children  he  may  use  the  Biblical 
chart,  to  aid  them  in  more  perfectly  understanding  the  Holy  Scriptures.  After 
this  they  shall  read  the  gospel  or  the  epistle  for  the  next  Sunday.  Next  they 
write  on  their  slate,  of  which  the  teacher  corrects  the  orthography.  At  the  conclu- 
sion of'-the  school,  the  children  shall  be  earnestly  exhorted  to  behave  well  on 
Sunday ;  to  be  quiet  and  devotional  at  church  ;  to  listen  and  treasure  up  the 
word  of  God  for  their  salvation. 

The  schoolmaster,  during  all  the  hours  above  designated,  must  be  constantly 
with  the  children,  and  never  be  absent  from  school  one  hour,  much  less  one  day, 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  pastor  and  the  permission  of  his  superiors,  in  which 
case  he  must  in  time  provide  another  person  to  teach  the  school,  that  the  young 
may  not  be  neglected. 

In  large  cities,  and  villages,  where  there  is  more  than  one  class-room,  it  shall 
be  reported  by  the  inspectors  and  clergymen  to  our  provincial  consistory,  which 
will  regulate  the  order  of  lessons  and  method  of  instruction  according  to  the 
condition's  of  the  place. 

$  20.  As  the  country  has  hitherto  been  deluged  with  all  sorts  of  school- 
books,  especially  with  interpretations  of  the  catechism,  and  so-called  "orders  of 
salvation,"  because  every  preacher  selects  the  books  after  his  own  pleasure,  or 
writes  some  himself  and  has  them  printed,  by  which  children,  especially  if  the 
parents  change  their  residence,  are  much  confused,  it  is  our  will,  that  henceforth 
no  other  books,  than  such  as  have  been  approved  by  our  consistory,  shall  be  used 
in  any  country-schools  over  which  we  have  the  right  of  patron.  These  books  in- 
clude, according  to  the  wants  of  the  country,  the  New  Testament,  the  book  culled 
a  Exercise  in  Prayer,"  in  which  not  only  are  the  contents  of  each  book  in  the 
Bible,  but  the  main  subject  of  each  chapter  is  framed  into  a  prayer,  to  assist  the 
young  in  expressing  their  invocations  in  the  words  of  divine  truths.  Also  the 
Halle  or  Berlin  Bible,  both  of  which  agree  in  their  divisions  into  paragraphs  and 
pages  ;  next  the  small  and  large  Catechism  of  Luther  ;  the  Index  of  the  books  ot 
the  Bible  ;  the  Christian  Doctrines  in  their  conneciion  ;  the  Berlin  Spelling-book 
and  Reader ;  the  General  Attributes  of  God,  of  the  world  and  man  ;  and  the 
Little  Book  for  children  in  the  country,  on  all  sorts  of  necessary  and  useful 
things. 

§  21.  Each  class  must  not  only  have  the  same  books,  but  the  clergyman  and 
teacher  must  see  that  every  child  has  his  own  book,  so  that  two  pupils  need  not 
look  over  the  same  book.  Children,  whose  books  are  furnished  from  the  funds  or 
the  church  or  the  commune,  are  not  allowed  to  take  them  home,  but  will  deliver 
them  to  the  master,  at  the  close  of  the  lessons,  who  will  take  charge  of  them  as 
the  property  of  the  school. 

§  22.  Discipline  should  be  administered  with  discretion,  and  the  sin  and 
vices  of  selfishness,  obstinacy,  lying,  calling  bad  names,  disobedience,  wrath, 
the  habit  of  quarrelling  and  fighting  must  be  rebuked,  corrected  and  punished, 
yet  always  with  discretion  and  after  previous  inquiry  into  the  circumstances  or 
each  act.  In  punishing  the  young  the  teacher  must  abstain  from  all  unbecoming 
passion,  harsh  language,  and  exhibit  a  paternal  calmness  and  moderation,  so  that 


GENERAL    RERGULATIONS    OF    SCHOOLS,    BY    FREDERIC    II  599 


children  may  not  be  spoiled  by  excessive  tenderness,  or  made  timid  by 
severity.  When,  from  the  enormity  of  the  offence,  or  for  example,  it  becomes 
necessary  to  punish  severely,  the  teacher  shall  first  consult  the  clergyman,  who 
shall  thoroughly  investigate  the  ease,  advise  impartially,  so  that  parents  shaii 
not  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  the  school. 

§  23.  Before  church  service  on  Sundays  and  holidays,  the  parents  shall  be 
required  to  send  their  children  to  the  schoolmaster,  that  they  may  walk  to  church 
in  proper  order  arid  be  under  good  supervision  while  there.  He  must  take  them 
quietly  and  orderly  out  of  church,  after  the  service  ;  and  while  in  church  must 
occupy  a  special  s-eat,  near  the  children,  that  he  may  note  down  the  absent,  and 
have  an  eye  on  those  present,  that  they  behave  modestly,  and  join  in  singing  with 
becoming  devotion,  without  whispering  or  playing  during  the  sermon,  respecting 
which  they  should  be  interrogated  on  the  following  day.  It  is  also  the  duty  of 
the  schoolmaster  to  watch  the  conduct  of  the  boys  who  assist  at  funerals,  that  they 
walk  reverently  two  and  two,  while  those  who  can,  join  in  singing  the  funeral 
hymns  ;  and  on  all  public  occasions,  they  should  behave  modestly,  and  be  cour- 
teous in  their  manners,  words  and  actions. 

§  24.  In  all  other  affairs  of  the  school,  the  teacher  must  avail  himself  of 
the  advice  and  suggestions  of  the  clergyman,  as  his  superior  officer,  and  by  his 
school-regulation  the  teat  hers  are  so  directed.  Of  all  that  regards  their  office  they 
must,  on  demund,  give  an  account,  and  accept  directions  in  reference  to  the  pre- 
scribed method  and  discipline,  because  we  have  confidence  in  our  ministers  and 
bind  it  on  their  consciences  that  in  their  towns  they  will  earnestly  endeavor  to 
abolish  all  abuses  and  defects,  and  improve  the  condition  of  the  schools.  In 
case  however  one  or  the  other  of  the  schoolmasters  should  neglect  the  duties  of 
his  office,  after  he  is  engaged,  and  be  found  unreliable,  the  pastor's  duty  will  be, 
earnestly  to  remind  him  of  his  duty,  with  kindness  once  or  twice,  and  if  he 
still  continues  in  his  negligence,  to  apply  for  a  remedy  to  the  nearest  justice  :  at 
the  same  time  to  inform  the  Superintendent  or  Inspector,  and  if  the  r  warning  is 
not  heeded,  make  a  report  to  the  consistory,  that,  according  to  the  circumstances, 
they  may  decree  a  su?pension  or  removal. 

§  25.  Especially  is  it  our  pleasure,  that  clergymen  in  villages  and  towns 
shall  visit  the  schools  of  their  place,  generally  twice  a  week,  sometimes  in  the 
morning  and  sometimes  in  the  afternoon,  and  shall  not  only  take  the  informa- 
tion of  the  sacristans  or  schoolmaster,  but  themselves  examine  the  children  in  the 
catechism  and  question  them  after  other  schoolbooks.  They  shall  hold  a  monthly 
conference  with  the  schoolteachers  in  matre,  and  designate  to  them  the  portion  of 
the  catechism,  the  hymn,  the  psalm  and  Bible-verses  which  the  children  shall 
learn  during  the  next  month.  Then  he  instructs  them  how  to  observe  the  princi- 
pal divisions  of  the  sermon  and  how  to  examine  the  children  ;  he  also  points  out 
the  defects  in  their  instruction  in  school,  their  method,  discipline,  and  gives 
them  other  information,  that  the  school  teachers  may  fulfil  their  duties.  If  a 
clergyman,  against  our  expectation,  should  be  careless  in  his  visits  to  the  schools, 
or  in  the  performance  of  the  other  duties  enjoined  upon  him  in  these  regulations, 
and  not  labor  earnestly  to  effect  an  exact  observance  of  this  law  on  the  part  of 
custos  and  teachers,  he  shall  if  convicted  of  the  non-fulfilment  of  these  instruc- 
tions, be  suspended  cum  effectu,  for  a  time,  or,  as  the  case  may  be,  removed  from 
office  :  because  the  care  for  the  instruction  of  the  young  and  the  supervision 
thereof,  belong  to  the  most  important  duties  of  the  ministry,  as  we  always  desire 
them  to  be  considered. 

§  26.  The  Superintendents  and  Inspectors  of  every  district  are  hereby  com- 
manded, in  the  most  expressive  manner,  annually  to  inspect  every  country-school 
in  their  jurisdiction,  and  with  due  attention  to  inquire  into  the  condition  of  the 
schools,  and  examine  whether  partnts  and  school  authorities  have  held  their 
children  to  regular  attendance  at  school  or  have  been  negligent;  whether  the 
clergymen  have  done  their  duty  in  the  observance  of  these  regulations,  by  visit- 
ing the  schools  and  superintending  the  teacher  ;  especially  whether  the  school- 
master has  the  abili'y  required  or  is  not  competent,  and  whatever  else  is  in  need 
of  improvement.  About  all  this  the  sakl  Superintendents  and  Inspectors  shall 
remit  a  dutiful  report,  every  year,  to  our  High  Consistory  in  this  city  for  furthei 
examination  and  disposition.  We  command  that  this  be  done  without  fail,  not 
only  in  regard  to  public  schools  in  the  country,  in  villages  or  cities,  but  also 


600  GENERAL    REGULATIONS    OF    SCHOOLS,    BY   FREDERIC    II. 

where  the  nobility  have  the  Jus  Patronalus,  that  incompetent  schoolmasters  may 
be  known  to  the  consistory  and  they  t.ke  measures  to  diminish  ignorance  and 
immorality  among  the  young.  At  the  same  time  those  children,  who  have  made 
good  progress  in  school,  shall  be  introduced  to  the  school-visitors  at  the  examina- 
tion, and  afterwards  be  admitted  to  the  weekly  instruction  in  the  catechism  at 
the  house  of  the  pastor,  where  they  shall  be  made  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
Christianity. 

In  general  we  here  confirm  and  renew  all  wholesome  laws,  published  in  former 
times,  especially,  that  no  clergyman  shall  admit  to  confirmation  and  the  sacrament, 
any  children  not  of  his  commune,  nor  those  unable  to  read,  or  who  are  ignorant 
of  the  fundamental  principles  of  evangelical  religion. 

ORDINANCE  RESPECTING  CATHOLIC  SCHOOLS  IN  SILESIA— 1765. 

He,  FREDERIC,  by  the  grace  of  God,  King  of  Prussia,  £c., 
Make  known  hereby  that,  as  in  our  paternal  care  for  the  welfare  of  our  faithful 
suojects,  we  were  led  to  issue  the  order  of  August  12,  1763,  for  the  better  organi- 
zaiion  of  the  ill-managed  country  schools,  we  have  thought  proper  to  proclaim  a 
similar  order  in  regard  to  our  Roman  Catholic  subjects  of  Silesia  and  the  county 
of  Glatz,  for  the  organization  of  the  common  elementary  schools  in  towns  and 
villages.  '1  hat  we  may  make  our  Roman  Catholic  subjects  more  useful  citizens, 
we  hereby  ordain  :  , 

1.  To  strike  at  the  source  of  all  poor  instruction,  no  schoolmaster,  or  by  what- 
ever name  teachers  in  cities  and  villages  may  be  designated,  shall  be  anywhere 
engaged  if  he  cannot  prove,  in  the  manner  described  below,  that,  with  skill  in 
singing  and  playing  the  organ  sufficient  to  perform  the  services  in  the  Church,  he 
has  acquired  the  art  of  instructing  the  young  in  the  German  language,  after  the 
manner  approved  by  Catholic  school  authorities. 

2.  And  that  every  one  who  desires  to  be  employed  in  schools  may  have  the 
opportunity  for  learning  all  that  is  needed  by  a  good  teacher,  we  have  thought  it 
best  to  establish  here  and  there  certain  schools,  in  which  not  only  the  young  will 
have  the  best  instruction,  but  where  adults,  also,  maybe  taught  how  to  teach  and 
manage  youth.     For  this  purpose  we  have  selected  the  following  schools  :  for 
Lower  Silesia,  the  school  of  the  Breslau  Cathedral  ad  St.  Joanncm,  the  school  of 
the  second  Cistercians  at  the  convents  of  Leubus,  Grussau,  and  the  Augustines  of 
Sagan  ;  for  upper  Silesia,  the  school  in  the  city  of  Ratibor  and  of  the  Cistercians 
at  the  convent  of  Rauden  ;  and  for  the  county  of  Glatz,  the  school  of  the  city  of 
Habelschwerdt. 

3.  We  command  that  the  above-named  schools,  which  are  to  serve  as  semina- 
ries for  future  teachers  shall  not  only  be  constantly  provided  with  skillful  teach- 
ers, but  each  shall  also  have  a  well-informed  director,  who  shall  devote  himself  to 
maintaining  and  improving  the  condition  of  his  school,  and  especially  to  training 
and  instructing  those  who  are  preparing  to  teach.     The  director  must  observe  the 
following : 

4  He  should  aim  at  having  everything  in  his  school  taught  and  learned  thor- 
oughly, and  in  reference  to  the  needs  of  common  life,  which  will  be  further  de- 
scribed below.  He  should  show  the  teachers  how  to  give  their  pupils  the  reasons 
for  everything,  that  they  may  obtain  an  understanding  thereof,  and  become  them- 
selves able,  on  being  questioned,  to  give  these  reasons.  His  object  should  not  be 
to  load  the  memorv  of  the  pupil,  but  to  enlighten  and  train  his  mind. 

5.  And,  since  the  method  in  which  the  first  teachers  of  the  above-named 
schoo's  were  instructed  is  such  that,  by  retaining  it.  all  those  advantages  may  be 
reached,  it  is  our  will  that  it  should  be  introduced  everywhere,  especially  the 
essential  part  of  the  method  of  letters,  tables,  questions,  and  answers,  as  well  as 
the  books  written  for  this  purpose. 

6  The  directors  shou'd  not  omit  to  employ  such  other  advantages  as  the}'  or 
others  may  discover  in  connection  with  this  popular  mode  of  teaching  ;  and  to 
this  end  they  should  correspond  among  themselves,  and  read  the  best  works  on 
schools  and  education.  That  such  writings  may  become  known  to  them,  we  com- 
mend the  publisher  of  the  privileged  Breslau  literary  periodical  to  notice  and 
criticise  such  books  and  treaties  as  are  new  or  reprinted. 

7.  With  regard  to  those  who  frequent  such  schools  in  order  to  become  skillful 
teachers,  the  directors  must  not  only  observe  the  above,  but  also  require  them, 


GENERAL    REGULATIONS    OF    SCHOOLS,    BY    FREDERIC    II.  601 

after  their  lessons  in  matters  pertaining  to  schools,  and  the  use  of  school  books 
and  tables,  to  be  present  when  the  regular  teachers  instruct  the  children.  They 
must  also,  as  soon  as  they  are  capable,  be  required  to  teach  certain  classes  under 
the  eye  of  the  teachers,  that  the  latter  may  correct  them  when  they  do  nU  proceed 
in  a  right  manner.  The  director  and  teachers  of  the  seminary  should  take  pains 
to  point  out  all  such  helps  as  will  facilitate  and  lessen  the  labors  of  the  teacher, 
without  injury  to  thoroughness  of  instruction,  and  without  employing  any  means 
that  would  cause  aversion  on  the  part  of  the  pupil.  The  director  should  make 
the  j.rceparandi  acquainted  with  all  the  duties  of  their  future  profession,  and 
inspire  them  with  a  delight  in  fulfilling  them.  Especially  should  he  impress  them 
with  the  importance  of  their  office,  and  how  much  depends  upon  it,  as  good  or 
evil  instruction  tends  to  form  useful  or  bad  subjects  of  the  State. 

8.  He  should  diligently  inquire  as  to  what  progress  the  prceparondi  have  made, 
and  how  far  they  have  acquired  a  knowledge  of  teaching  ;  especially  at  the  time 
when  they  are  about  to  leave  he  should  have  an  eye  on  their  morals  and  conduct, 
endeavor  to  improve  them,  and  remark  on  their  deportment  in  the  certificates  to 
be  given  them. 

9.  Such  certificate  the  candidate  shall  present  at  the  vicar's  office  in  Breslau, 
or  to  the  deacon  in  Glatz,  or  to  the  vicars  in  other  dioceses  ;  or,  if  not  trained  in 
the  principal  seminary  at  Breslau,  or  in  that  of  Glatz,  he  shall  present  it  first  to 
the  director  of  the  Cathedral  school,  and  then  to  the  director  of  the  seminary, 
that  he  may  be  examined  by  them,  to  discover  if  he  actually  possesses  the  skill 
which  the  testimonial  ascribes  to  him.     If  he  does  not  give  satisfactory  evidence 
of  this,  or  fails  to  acquire  a  better  preparation  in  the  seminaries  at  the' Cathedral 
of  Breslau,  or  in  that  in  the  district  of  Glaiz,  his  certificate  shall  be  of  no  avail. 

10.  All  candidates  of  theology  shall  acquire  in  the  principal  seminary  at  Bres- 
lau that  knowledge  of  teaching  nec.ssary  in  order  to  exercise  a  proper  superin- 
tendence over  schools,  in  conformity  with  these  regulations.     The  director  will 
give  them  such  instruction  and  note  their  progress  in  a  certificate,  by  which  the 
students  may  satisfy  their  directing  minister  in  Silesia  that  they  have  learned  the 
method,  whenever  they  request  permission  to  take  orders,  or  ask  for  an  ecclesias- 
tical benefice. 

11.  As  to  school  teachers  who  apply  for  position  in  those  parts  of  the  State 
where  the  Polish  language  is  spoken,  the  directors  of  the  seminaric  s  in  Upper  and 
Lower  Silesia  should  examine,  the  candidates  as  to  their  knowledge  of  German; 
whether  they  are  able  to  teach  that  language  to  the  children  ;  and  if  not,  they 
must  learn  it  before  they  will  be  permitted  to  take  charge  of  a  school.     They  must 
also  understand  the  Polish  language  sufficiently  to  use  the  school  books  in  both 
languages  which  have  been  prepared  for  the  schools  of  Upper  Silesia. 

12.  Since  we  have  thus  made  ample  provi  ion  for  school  teachers  to  become 
skilled  in  the  administration  of  their  office,  it  is  our  will,  also,  that  the  places 
where  no  teachers  are  to  be  procured  shall  henceforth  not  be  without  them.     In 
towns  which  have  no  teachers,  and  are  farther  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the 
nearest  school,  it  would  be  impracticable  to  send  children  to  school  in  winter. 
Therefore,  wherever  hitherto  towns  have  depended  upon  a  school  at  a  distance  of 
one  half  or  three  quarters  of  a  mile,  we  command  our  Council  of  War  and  Do- 
mains to  determine,  through  the  administrator  of  the  district,  who,  to  this  end, 
shall  take  the  advice  of  the  highest  clergy  in  the  district  where  teachers  should 
be  located,  how  much  the  State  and  the  commune  must  contribute  to  his  support, 
and  what  measures  are  necessary  to  erect  school-houses. 

13.  It  is  well  known  how  much  children  are  hindered  in  their  studies  and  be- 
come distracted  when,  in  the  room  in  which  the  school  is  kept,  the  wife  and 
children  and  frequently  even  the  relatives  of  the  schoolmaster,  work  at  their 
trade  or  domestic  duties.     In  order  to  remove  this  evil,  the  school  room  must  be 
separated  from  the  living  room,  in  all  new  school-houses  erected  in  cities  and  vil- 
lages, and  shall  be  convenient,  well  lighted,  and  large  enough  to  accommodate  all 
the  children.     In  cities  where  schools  have  several  teachers,  a  separate  room  must 
be  constructed  for  every  teacher,  which  shall  not  be  used  for  any  other  than 
school  purposes.     These  schools  are  to  be  erected  at  the  expense  of  the  commune, 
if  it  is  mainly  Catholic,  with  concurrence  of  the  proprietors,  without  distinction 
of  religion  ;  because  it  is  important  to  masters  of  every  denomination  that  sub- 


602  GENERAL    REGULATIONS    OF    SCHOOLS,    BY    FREDERIC    II 

ordinates  be  made  useful  through  the  training  of  the  school ;  and  all  necessary 
furniture,  blackboards,  inkstands,  and  books  for  children  of  destitute  parents 
they  shall  furnish  also. 

*14.  In  places  where  the  salary  of  a  teacher  is  so  small  that  he  cannot  subsist 
on  it,  our  Council  of  War  and  Domains  shall  see  that  the  proprietors  and  Catholic 
subjects  raise  a  sufficient  support  for  him  and  pay  it  promptly.  In  places  where 
the  number  of  Catholic  inhabitants  is  very  small,  and  consequently  a  living  sal- 
ary for  the  teacher  cannot  be  made  up  without  oppressing  the  people,  we  will  per- 
mit the  teacher  to  practice  a  trade  for  his  better  subsistence,  like  that  of  a  tailor 
or  stocking  weaver  ;  but  he  shall  not  be  permitted  to  work  in  the  school  room  or 
during  school  hours.  Any  traffic  in  beer  or  liquor,  or  attendance  at  fairs  with 
music,  shall  not  be  included  in  the  lawful  trades  of  a  teacher.  Experience  shows 
that  the  first  distracts  a  teacher  and  entices  him  from  his  duties  ;  and  by  music 
and  taverns  the  best  schoolmasters  are  ruined,  and  reduced  to  drinking  and  idle- 
ness. 

15.  Therefore  all  teachers  are  forbidden  to  keep  a  tavern,  or  to  wait  on  wed- 
dings and  other  occasions  ;  and  we  permit  them  to  labor  in  any  trade  that  will  be 
no  hindrance  to  the  work  of  teaching. 

16.  With  the  same  intent,  of  guarding  schools  against  interruptions,  we  re- 
lease teachers  from  the  customary  duty  of  carrying  the  messages  from  the  arch- 
bishop to  the  neighboring  clergy,  and  we  command  that  such  should  be  done  in 
future  by  other  messengers  from  the  commune,  since  these  messages  generally 
concern  our  war  orders. 

I1?.  The  instructions  published  at  the  beginning  of  this  year  by  our  Depart- 
ment of  War  and  Domain  in  Breslau  for  school  teachers  in  villages,  which  define 
the  hours  of  school  and  all  that  belongs  to  it,  must  be  observed  by  all  teachers. 
We  here  refer  to  it,  and  command  that  these  instructions  be  folloVed  in  every 
particular. 

18.  In  regard  to  primary  schools  in  cities,  for  which  no  regulations  have  yet 
been  issued,  we  ordain  the  following  :  First,  there  shall  be  no  difference  between 
winter  or  summer,  as  far  as  the  schools  are  concerned;  because,  in  cities,  the 
causes  which  prevent  country  people  from  sending  their  children  to  school  do  not 
generally  exist.     Therefore  the  schools  must  be  open  throughout  the  year  from 
eight  to  eleven  in  the  morning,  and  from  one  to  three  in  the  afternoon. 

19.  As  schools  in  large  cities  have  frequently  two  or  three  teafh^rs,  we  ordain 
that  one  of  them — he  who  writes  the  best  hand — shall  teach  the  smaller  children 
in  the  first  elements ;  the  others  the  more  advanced  pupils. 

20.  Instruction  to  beginners  includes:  1st,  the  letters,  spelling,  and  simple 
reading.     The  letters  must  be  learned  in  a  month  ;  and  since,  in  cities,  new  chil- 
dren are  coming  in  every  month,  the  course  is  to  be  repeated.     Every  month  the 
children  should  spell  the  six  different  classes  of  syllables  in  the  spelling  book  ;  in 
the  third  month  the  children,  who  began  with  the  letters  the  first  month,  should 
commence  to  read,  but  the  difficult  words  must  still  be  spelled  and  the  rules  be 
inquired  into.     Every  month  they  must  go  over  the  tables  belonging  to  the  sub- 
ject, as  they  are  found  in  the  school  books  for  children.     2d,  in  writing,  the 
teacher  should  first  acquaint  the  pupils  with  the  rules  of  penmanship  after  the 
printed  instructions,  and  they  should  then  practise  themuntil  they  have  a  correct 
German  current  handwriting,  and  can  also  write  Latin  letters  according  to  the 
rules  contained  in  the  above  instructions.  He  should  go  over  the  tables  of  callig- 
raphy every  month,  taking  the  general  principles  during  the  first  two  weeks  and 
the  current  letters ;  in  the  third  week,  the  Latin  and  current  handwriting  ;  and 
in  the  fourth  week  whatever  is  necessary  to  write  words  and  sentences.     In  cor- 
recting, he  should  not  omit  to  point  at  the  tables,  and  proceed  after  the  instruc- 
tions printed  on  the  same.     3d.  in  arithmetic  he  must  likewise  proceed  after  the 
tables  on  the  five  simple  operations  prepared  for  the  Silesian  schools  ;  also  in  the 
rule  of  three  with  simple  numbers,  and  he  must  endeavor  to  bring  the  children  to 
do  quick  cyphering.     During  the  first  month  he  is  to  finish  the  table  of  enumera- 
tion, and  the  children  should  know  how  to  pronounce  and  write  any  given  num- 
ber of  not  above  eight  or  nine  figures.     Addition  and  multiplication  should  be 
completed  in  two  months,  and  the  remaining  three  months  of  the  semi-annual 
term  given  to  subtraction  and  division  and  recapitulating  the  other  operations. 


GENERAL    REGULATIONS    OF    SCHOOLS,    B\    FREDERIC    II  G03 

21.  The  children  thus  prepared  are  to  be  further  instructed  by  the  second 
teacher.     When  they  are  able  to  read  the  larger  tables  with  fluency,  they  should 
be  taught  how  to  pronounce  correctly  the  French  words  which  occur  frequently 
in  German  papers.     In  writing,  the  teacher  should  show  them  the  law  style  and 
jractura.  and  the  current  letters  which  they  learned  from  the  first  teacher  need  not 
conform  to  his  own  handwriting,  and  he  need  not  make  copies  for  them,  but 
should  cause  them  to  copy  select  portions  from  books  or  other  useful  matters,  he 
seeing  that  all  they  write  is  in  agreement  with  the  rules  given  in  the  tables  of  cal- 
ligraphy.    He  should  instruct  them  in  orthography,  not  only  by  copying,  but  by 
dictating  to  them  from  time  to  time,  in  order  that  the  pupils  acquire  a  fluency  in 
writing  and  also  to  see  how  far  they  apply  the  rules  of  orthography.    He  should 
teach  the  older  scholars  to  write  compositions  of  various  kinds,  especially  letters 
and  forms  which  occur  most  frequently  in  common  life.     He  should  observe  the 
mistakes  in  the  use  of  language,  in  the  modifications  or  combinations  of  words, 
for  which  purpose  he  should  use  Gottsched's  grammar.     In  arithmetic  the  pupils 
should  learn  the  four  operations  in  simple  numbers  and  with  fractions,  the  rule  of 
three  in  all  its  applications,  and  the  Italian  practice,  if  any  desire  it.    Oftentimes, 
especially  to  those  who  are  about  to  leave  the  school  and  gain  a  living  by  the  pen, 
the  teacher  should  give  them  various  bills  and  accounts,  and  show  them  how  to 
iraw  these  up  correctly,  and  Avhat  must  be  done  in  revising  accounts. 

22.  If,  as  in  almost  all  large  cities,  the  school  has  a  third  teacher,  he  should 
nstruct  in  the  first  elements  of  the  French  and  Latin  languages,  in  general  and 

special  history,  in  understanding  and  using  a  map,  in  studying  geography  from 
tables  printed  for  this  purpose,  and  in  finding  places  on  the  map  by  means  of  the 
Lexicorum.  We  shall  also,  in  order  to  give  the  young  an  idea  of  those  things 
which  render  a  State  prosperous  and  the  subjects  contented,  cause  to  be  published 
a  short  text-book,  containing  the  most  useful  knowledge  of  physics  and  some  pre- 
liminary knowledge  of  the  objects  which  are  of  importance  in  arts,  trades,  and 
manufactures .  The  duty  of  making  the  contents  of  such  a  book  known  to  youth 
belongs,  also,  in  larger  cities,  to  the  third  teacher. 

Though  these  are  the  branches  taught  by  the  second  and  third  teacher,  as 
named  above  and  more  in  detail  in  Appendix  A,  yet  it  has  not  been  defined,  as 
was  done  in  the  duties  of  the  lowest  teacher,  how  much  each  shall  accomplish 
m  a  fixed  time.  Since  this,  as  well  as  what  each  shall  teach,  depends  on  the  con- 
dition of  the  place  and  the  skill  of  the  teachers,  we  will  leave  it  to  he  determined 
by  the  clergyman  of  the  place,  with  the  approbation  of  his  school  inspector,  who 
may  also,  for  instruction  in  music,  select  a  teacher  whom  they  consider  best 
adapted.  But  a  programme  should  describe  what,  by  whom,  and  at  which  hour 
this  or  that  is  to  be  taught,  and  when  to  review  a  subject  again,  in  order  to  stim- 
ulate the  teacher  to  advance  the  young,  and  to  give  children  who  commence  their 
studies  an  opportunity  to  learn  all  by  a  set  time  from  the  beginning  and  thor- 
oughly. 

23.  That  there  may  be  no  want  of  persons  skilled  in  teaching,  the  directors  of 
seminaries  must  endeavor  gradually  to  train  the  best  scholars  for  these  duties ; 
and  in  changing  teachers,  try  to  engage  persons  who  understand  these  branches, 
and  are  able  to  teach  them. 

24.  At  the  end  of  this  we  have  added  sub.  A,  a  table  in  which  the  time  is  ex- 
actly given  when  to  pursue  each  lesson  above  named,  and  also  as  to  how  to  pro- 
ceed in  cities  where  there  are  two  teachers  only,  that  the  children  may  learn  a 
little  more  than  reading,  writing,  and  cyphering.     We  have  therefore  caused  to 
be  added,  from  the  instructions   already  given   for  the  organization   of  village 
schools,  sub.  B  ,  the  order  of  time,  which  is  to  be  punctually  observed  by  the 
schoolmaster  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  in  our  duchy  of  Silesia  and  the  sover- 
eign county  of  Glatz. 

'te.  All  these  regulations,  intended  for  the  welfare  of  our  faithful  subjects, 
will  create  but  little  effect  if,  as  has  been  the  case  heretofore,  the  schools  are 
empty,  where  it  is  left  to  the  will  of  the  parents  to  send  their  children  to  school 
or  not.  We  ordain,  therefore,  by  this  present,  that  all  children  in  cities  and  vil- 
lages, without  distinction,  whether  the  parents  are  able  to  pay  for  tuition  or  not, 
shall  be  sent  to  school  as  soon  as  they  complete  their  sixth  year,  and  shall  attend 
the  sau>  3  until  they  are  thirteen  years  old. 


604  GENERAL    REGULATIONS    OF    SCHOOLS,    BY    FREDERIC    11. 

26.  Parents  and  guardians  who  retain  their  children  at  home  against  this 
order  shall,  unless  notoriously  known  as  unable,  pay  double  the  tuition  fee  to  the 
school  teacher  ;  the  guardians  from  their  own  means,  without  any  right  of  charg- 
ing it  to  their  wards'  account;  this  to  be  levied  by  the  justice  of  the  court  of  the 
district ;  and  the  poor,  who  cannot  pay  this  forfeiture,  shall  be  compelled  to  two 
days'  work  for  the  commune,  wi;hout  pay,  for  every  week  they  neglect  to  send 
their  children  to  school.     Children  of  less  than  eight  years  must  attend  school  in 
summer  and  winter;  in  summer  only  in  the  forenoon. 

27.  As  regards  older  children,  whom  the  parents  need  for  guarding  the  cattle 
and  for  other  farm  work,  we  permit  that  such,  because  the  young  now  learn  faster 
and  more  thoroughly  by  the  new  method  introduced,  be  free  from  school  from 
St.  George's  day  to  St.  Martin's. 

28.  They  shall  be  required,  however,  during  this  time,  to  attend  the  instruc- 
tions in  Christianity  every  Sunday  afiernoon,  and  after  that  to  participate  for 
two  hours  in  the  lessons  in  reading  and  writing  given  in  school ;  which  lessons 
the  teachers  shall  gi\e  under  direction  of  the  pas'or,  that  they  may  become  use- 
ful to  the  young.     Those,  also,  who  have  left  school,  and  are  not  yet  twenty 
years  of  age,  must  attend  these  lessons  though  they  may  be  in  service  on  a  do- 
main or  with  a  farmer,  for  their  employers  are  bound  to  send  them  to  school  at 
such  time,  that  they  may  recapitulate  what  they  learned  before,  and  prevent  the 
utter  lack  of  necessary  knowledge.     The  schoolmaster  shall  keep  a  list  of  all  per- 
sons who  attend  this  repetition  school,  note  their  presence  and  absence,  and  in- 
form the  pastor  of  the  latter.     Such  list  is  to  be  made  after  formula  F,  and  the 
teacher  shall  pre-ent  it,  together  with  his  semi-annual  report,  to  the  clergyman, 
who  again  transmits  the  same  to  the  bishop  and  to  the  school  inspector,  whose 
duty  it  is  to  report  the  number  of  those  who  have  attended  and  who  have  ab- 
sented themselves  from  the  repetition  school. 

29.  The  best  means  of  bringing  all  children  into  school  is  the  keeping  of  an 
exact  list.     The  schoolmasters  in  the  country  shall  be  obliged  to  make  such  a  list 
from  the  records  of  baptism,  after  the  form  published  with  the  former  instruc- 
tions, and  to  this  end  should  make  careful  inquiries  about  the  children  brought  in 
from  other  towns.     This  cannot  be  difficult,  and  thus  they  can  keep  a  complete 
register  of  all  the  children  of  school  age. 

30.  There  may  be  more  difficulties  in  cities,  on  account  of  the  many  new 
comers  from  other  places,  and  we  therefore  command  that  every  owner  of  a  house, 
fifteen  days  before  St.  Michael's  and  fifteen  days  before  St.  George's  day,  make  a 
written  return  to  the  magistrate  of  the  place,  giving  the  number  of  his  house,  the 
names  and  ages  of  the  children,  together  with  the  name  and  occupation  of  the 
parents,  and  the  magistrate  shall  transmit  the  same  to  the  clergyman  for  the  com- 
pletion of  the  school  register. 

31.  Inhabitants  of  cities,  who  have  the  means,  are  still  at  liberty  to  engage 
family  tutors  for  their  children,  but  these  tutors  are  not  permitted  to  teach  chil- 
dren of  other  families  than  those  of  the  house  in  which  they  are  engaged,  in  order 
not  to  diminish  the  number  at  the  common  city  school.     In  general,  all  irregular 
schools  are  suppressed,  and  the  magistrates  should  not  permit  any  to  be  kept; 
and  all  parents,  who  cannot  keep  a  tutor  for  the  family,  must  send  their  children 
to  the  city  school  under  penalty  of  the  above  forfeits. 

32.  Children,  who  desire  to  follow  professional  studies,  provided  they  are  qual- 
ified according  to  these  amended  regulations  need  not  have  reached  the  thirteenth 
year,  but  may  at  an  earlier  age  enter  the  school  of  the  Jesuits,  if  they  have  pre- 
sented themselves  before  the  bishop  or  inspector  of  the  district  and  received  a 
written  certificate  in  regard  to  their  knowledge  of  reading,  writing,  letter-wri- 
ting, the  four  rules  in  arithmetic  and  the  fractions,  and  the  different  applications 
of  the  rule  of  three.     This  examination  is  also  binding  on  all  children  who  have 
been  taught  by  tutors  at  home  when  they  intend  to  enter  the  school  of  the  Je- 
suits, and  also  when  the  bishop  and  school  inspector  come  to  inspect  the  public 
schools  in  their  district. 

33.  Tutors  shall  not  be  engaged  by  any  family  unless  they  prove,  by  a  testi- 
monial from  the  director  of  a  seminary,  that  they  have  practised  the  art  of  teach 
ing,  or  have  proved  their  qualification  before  the  pastor  and  teacher  of  the  place ; 
and  in  the  latter  case,  they  must  have  a  certificate  from  the  clergyman.     Sine* 


GENERAL    REGULATIONS    OF    SCHOOLS,    BY    FREDERIC    II.  605 

there  is  no  want  of  opportunity  for  tutors  to  qualify  themselves,  and  since  the 
public  interest  demands  that  children  should  not  be  neglected  in  private  instruc- 
tion as  is  frequently  the  case,  we  command  all  who  engage  tutors  to  observe  this 
provision. 

34.  Children  in  villages,  who  often  possess  the  ability  to  learn  what  is  re- 
quired in  village  schools  before  their  thirteenth  year,  may  leave  school  before  this 
age,  if  the  parents  or  guardians  obtain  a  written  certificate  from  the  clergy  and 
the  inspector. 

35.  That  children  may  not  be  kept  from  school,  masters,  in  places  where  obli- 
gatory service  is  rendered,  shall  have  no  power  to  compel  the  young  of  either  sex 
to  work  on  their  farms  until  they  have  completed  their  thirteenth  year  ;  yet  those 
of  eight  years  of  age  may  tend  the  flocks  in  summer,  if  they  attend  the  repetition 
schools  on  Sunday. 

36.  If  farmers  hire  the  children  of  poor  people  before  their  thirteenth  year, 
they  are  required  to  send  them  to  school  between  St.  Andrew's  and  Easter,  every 
day,  in  the  forenoon  or  afternoon,  and  pay  half  tuition  fees  for  them  to  the  school- 
master.    If  they  neglect  to  send  such  children  to  school  they  shall  pay,  as  a  for- 
feit, the  full  tuition  fee,  and  double  that  if  they  remain  disobedient,  or  the  justice 
may  decree  other  punishment.     Schoolmasters  shall  charge  for  such  children  only 
half  tuition  fees. 

37.  The  instruction  in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic  remains  the  same  in 
the  village  schools :  but  in  cities  where  children  have  hitherto  been  instructed 
free  of  charge,  they  shall  continue  to  enjoy  the  same  advantages  in  reading,  wri- 
ting, and  arithmetic ;  also  in  music  and  Latin,  whenever  such  was  customary, 
and  shall  pay  nothing  if  the  schoolmasters  can  make  their  subsistence  without 
this.     But  for  all  other  branches  which,  according  to  this  regulation,  are  taught 
by  skilful  teachers,  we  command  all  school  inspectors  to  fix  the  fees  to  be  paid  the 
teachers,  according  to  the  condition  of  the  place,  at  not  above  six  groschen  per 
month  and  scholar.     The  other  tuition  fees  in  cities  remain  as  heretofore. 

38.  For  the  benefit  of  children  of  destitute  parents,  who  are  not  able  to  pay 
for  instruction,  nor  to  buy  the  necessary  books  and  papers,  we  command  that 
twice  every  year,  on  the  first  Sunday  after  Three  Kings,  and  on  the  twelfth  Sun- 
day after  Pentecost,  the  clergy  shall  take  a  collection  in  their  churches,  and  im- 
press on  the  people  the  duty  of  charity  to  the  poor.     Separate  money  boxes  shall 
be  put  up  for  each  school,  and  the  congregation  be  informed  for  which  school 
each  is  designated. 

39.  The  moneys  collected  shall  be  given  to  the  court  of  the  town,  which,  by 
the  advice  of  the  clergyman,  shall  first  pay  for  books  and  paper,  and  then  the 
tuition  fee  to  the  schoolmaster  for  these  poor  scholars.     These  amounts  must  be 
accounted  for  separately  in  the  accounts  of  the  commune,  and  if  any  more  is  ne- 
cessary to  defray  all  dues,  the  communal  treasury,  where  the  parish  is  entirely 
Catholic,  or  the  individual  Catholics  in  towns  where  there  are  other  confes.-ions, 
shall  pay  the  balance.     In  cities,  the  disposition  of  these  moneys  is  left  with  the 
clergy  and  the  aldermen.     Expenditures  and  receipts  must  constitute  a  separate 
chapter  in  the  church  accounts. 

40.  The  pastor  and  aldermen  of  cities,  the  justices  in  towns,  who  have  the 
best  knowledge  of  the  community,  must  judge  what  children  need  such  benefice, 
and  parents  are  not  allowed  to  excuse  themselves  from  the  duly  of  payir.g  the 
schoolmaster  in  order  to  procure  necessaries  for  their  family  until  their  incompe- 
tency  has  been  acknowledged,  and  their  names  put  on  the  list  of  the  poor.     Such 
list  is  to  be  given  to  the  teacher,  that  he  may  know  what  parents  are  excused 
from  paying  for  instruction. 

41.  The  children  should  not  be  allowed  to  take  home  the  books  provided  in 
this  manner,  but  they  must  be  left  in  the  school.     The  teacher  should  number 
them,  and,  at  the  close  of  school,  put  them  in  a  book  closet,  and  have  a  regular 
inventory  of  them,  as  well  as  of  other  furniture  and  utensils,  and  must  not  per- 
mit any  to  be  carried  away.     The  Sagan  school,  which  has  the  privilege  of  pub- 
lishing school  books,   gives  every  tenth  copy  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor,  and 
teachers  who  want  school  books  should  never  order  less  than  nine,  so  as  to  have 
the  tenth  copy  gratis  for  the  use  of  poor  children. 

42.  It  is  unnecessary  here  further  to  describe  how  a  teacher  should  conduct 


606  GENERAL    REGULATIONS    OF    SCHOOLS,    13Y    FREDERIC    II. 

himself  in  his  office,  since  the  new  schoolmasters  have  been  instructed  on  these 
points  in  the  seminaries,  and  the  elder  ones  are  required  to  acquaint  themselves 
with  their  duties  from  the  former  regulation.  But  we  command  them  especially 
to  give  diligent  attention  to  the  prescribed  regulations,  and  the  semi-annual  ab- 
stracts thereof,  for  which  purpose  are  appended  formulas  C  and  D. 

43  It  is  the  duty  of  the  clergyman  to  see  that  the  young  of  his  parish  are  well 
taught  in  school.  We  therefore  command  earnestly  all  clergymen  in  cities  and 
villages  to  take  care  that  these  regulations  arc  faithfully  observed. 

44.  Clergymen  who,  on  account  of  age  or  professional  engagements,   have 
been  provided  with  one  or  more  chaplains,  may  transfer  the  care  over  the  schools 
to  one  of  them,  but  they  shall  be  responsible  lor  their  delegate. 

45.  At  least  once  every  two  weeks  the  clergyman  or  his  chaplain  shall  visit 
every  school  during  school  hours,  of  which  the  teacher  shall  make  a  note  in  his 
register  by  placing  a  V,  for  visitation,  on  that  day. 

46.  The  clergyman,  during  his  visitation,  shall  observe  :  a,  whether  the  pre- 
scribed school-hours  are  kept;  b,  whether  the  improved  method  is  practised ;  c, 
whether  the  catalogue  and  list  is  in  order;  d,  whether,  punishments  are  too  se- 
vere ;  e,  whether  the  school  utensils  and  books  are  well  kept ;  /,  whether  the 
school  room  is  clean,  and  used  for  no  other  than  school  purposes,  those  cases  ex- 
cepted  where  no  other  room  is  provided  for  the  teacher 

4*7.  In  regard  to  the  children,  the  clergyman  should  see — a,  whether  all  per- 
sons, who,  according  to  law,  should  attend  the  day  school,  or  Sunday  and  repeti- 
tion school,  are  regular  in  their  attendance  ;  6,  whether  the  scholars  are  divided 
into  classes  on  the  basis  of  their  abilities  as  well  as  age;  c,  whether  they  are  ben- 
efittcd  by  the  instructions  and  have  made  progress;  d,  whether  the  teacher  ad- 
vances them  too  rapidly  before  they  have  well  learned  the  preceding  lessons  ;  e, 
whether  the  teacher  employs  children  at  his  private  work  during  school  hours, 
and  excuses  them  on  this  account  from  learning  their  lessons 

48.  The  clergyman  shall  also  see  whether  the  school-house  and  furniture  are 
in  good  condition,  and  whether  a  copy  of  the  school  regulations  and  everything 
necessary  has   been  provided  ;  and  if  not,  he  should  notify  the  magistrate,  the 
nobleman,  or  the  justice;  aiso  expostulate  with  parents  who  neglect  to  send  their 
children,  and  endeavor  to  remove  all  defects  and  impediments  as  much  as  is  in  his 
power;,  arid  where  he  cannot  remedy  them  himself,  he  should  notify  the  bishop 
and   the  school  inspector.     He  should  preserve  the  monthly  statements  of  the 
teacher,  and  prepare  an  abstract  of  them,  which  he  should  be  able  to  present  to 
the  bishop  or  school  visitor. 

49.  He  should  remonstrate  with  the  teacher  for  his  faults,  but  not  in  presence" 
of  the  children,  only  when  alone,  and  endeavor  to  instruct  him  in  those  matters 
wherein  he  is  deficient.     He  must  never  employ  him  for  other  purposes  during 
school  hours,  especially  not  in  his  own  interest.     When  ministerial  duties,  like 
the  visitation  of  the  sick,  call  him  away,  he  must  not  take  the  schoolmaster  along ; 
but  may  take  one  of  the  larger  boys.     He  should  also  exhort  his  people  on  the 
advantages  of  instruction,  before  taking  up  the  collections  for  school  purposes. 

50  We  will  not  prescribe  what  religious  instruction  clergymen,  and  others 
who  take  their  place,  shall  impart  to  the  young.  We  direct  them  to  the  instruc- 
tions from  the  Vicar  General  of  the  diocese  of  Breslau.  However,  we  command 
them  to  explain  to  our  subjects,  besides  the  duties  they  owe  to  God,  to  their  fel- 
low-men and  to  themselves,  that  they  owe  also  allegiance,  fidelity,  and  obedience, 
and  an  unwavering  submission  to  us.  as  their  sovereign,  and  to  the  magistrates 
we  have  appointed.  We  remind  them  that  it  is  not  enough  to  say  a  few  general 
words  on  this  subject  to  them ;  they  must  also  be  enlightened  on  these  duties,  and 
acknowledge  them  from  motives  of  religion  as  well  as  of  reason,  and  from  their 
youth  be  ready  to  fulfil  them. 

51.  In  order  to  render  ns  permanent  as  possible  this  reform  of  schools,  which 
lies  near  our  heart,  we  cannot  be  satisfied  with  committing  the  care  of  schools  to 
the  cKrgy  only.  We  find  it  necessary  that  our  bureau  of  War  and  Domain,  the 
bureau  of  the  Episcopal  Vicariate,  and  the  dioceses  in  our  Silesian  and  Glatz 
districts,  as  well  as  all  special  school  inspectors,  give  all  due  attention  to  this  sub- 
ject, so  important  to  the  State. 


GENERAL    REGULATIONS    OF    SCHOOLS,    BY    FREDERIC    II.  G07 

52.  The  head  priests  we  command  to  visit  all  schools  within  their  district  dur- 
ing the  week  of  Lent.     This  is  the  mo>t  convenient  time  in  the  country,  because 
the  children,  attending  school  only  in  winter,  will  have  then  had  three  months' 
instruction,  and,  consequently,  the  visitation  will  show  whether  they  have  learned 
anything.     If  the  visitation  were  held  after  Easter,  or  in  the  fall,  many  children 
would  have  left  school  at  the  first  period,  and  at  the  other  period  many  would 
not  yet  be  in  attendance,  and  no  accurate  opinion  of  the  school  could  be  formed. 

53.  The  visiting  head  priest  must  observe,  in  his  visitation,  all  that  has  before 
been  said  in  regard  to  the  duties  of  the  clergy,  and  especially  he  should  note  the 
following : 

54.  He  should  receive  from  the  clergyman  the  monthly  school  register  and 
the  abstract  made  from  it ;  compare  it  with  the  list  of  the  children  belonging 
to  school,  and  see  if  all  have  attended  the  school.     He  should  inquire  into  the 
causes  of  the  children's  absence,  and  whether  the  clergyman  has  taken  proper 
steps  to  bring  them  in ;  if  their  non-attendance  is  owing  to  the  carelessness  of 
parents  or  guardians   he  must  summon  them  before  him,  remonstrate  with  them 
on  their  disobedience  of  law.  and  if  necessary,  remind  the  magistrates  of  their  duty 
to  levy  the  fines,  or  if  the  nobleman  is  at  home  he  may  tell  him.     To  the  latter  he 
must  also  report  if  children  of  school  age  are  in  his  service  without  being  sent 
to  school. 

55.  During  the  school  visitation,  he  should  be  present  at  a  lesson  given  by  tho 
teacher,  in  order  to  see  and  to  hear  whether  he  teaches  after  the  prescribed  mei hod; 
he  should  examine  the  children  separately,  to  find  whether  they  have  profited  by 
the  instructions,  and  have  really  advanced  as  far  as  the  register  says,     h'ome 
members  of  the  court  and  some  deputies  from  the  commune  should  also  be  present 
at  this  visitation,  and  should  be  summoned  in  the  notice  of  visitation. 

56.  The  register  must  show  that  the  weekly  visits,  prescribed  to  the  clcrgj- 
man.  have  been  made,  and  also  whether  the  same  is  zealous  and  active  for  the 
interest  of  the  school,  or  cares  little  for  it;  the  visitor,  by  skilful  questions,  may 
inform  himself  of  this  from  the  schoolmaster  or  the  scholar,  so  that  he  will  not  be 
deceived  by  false  reports. 

57.  He 'should  also  ask  respectable  people  in  tbc  commune  whether  the  school 
hours  are  kept  and  the  teacher  does  not  abridge  the  time,  or  is  prevented  by 
various  causes  from  teaching  in  school. 

58.  He  should  inquire  into  the  conduct  of  the  schoolmaster  towards  the  children 
in  school,  and  especially  towards  the  clergyman  or  chaplain,  when  they  remon- 
strate with  him  in  the  interest  of  schools,  and  if  necessary,  exhort  and  reprimand 
him,  and  the  same  he  should  do  with  the  clergyman  if  circumstances  require      He 
should  ascertain  from  him  the  cause  of  the  want  of  progress  of  a  school,  and  what 
suggestions  he  has  made  for  improvement. 

59.  He  should  also  see  and   inquire  whether  the  school-house  is  in  a  good 
condition  and  provided  with  all  necessary  furniture,  and  whether  the  teacher 
receives  his  salary  and   pay  ;  he   should  endeavor  to  remove  all  those  defects 
which  the  clergyman  cannot  remedy. 

GO.  And  of'all  this  he  should  make  a  record,  from  which  to  draw  up  a  report 
to  the  school  inspector,  as  well  as  to  see,  at  the  next  visitation,  whether  the  defects 
at  the  preceding  one  have  been  remedied. 

61.  After  the  visitation,  and  within  two  weeks  from  Easter,  he  is  to  render  r, 
report  to  the  school  inspector,  including   the  abstract  of  the  school  register, 
and  state  how  far  his  instructions  have  been  followed,  and  especially  what  defects 
he  had  not  power  to  remove.     A  similar  report  must  be  transmitted  by  him  about 
the  middle  of  October,  which  contains  what  the  clergyman  has  reported  since  tt<3 
last  visitation. 

62.  The  Vicariate  General  shall  appoint  clergymen  as  inspectors  of  schools  ; 
also,  for  the  Vicariates  of  other  dioceses,  pepsons  well  informed  on  educational  re- 
jects and  the  method  now  popular  in  Silesia,  or  such  persons  as  will  acquaint 
themselves  with  it.     Each  should  have  a  certain  district.     Their  duties  are  these  : 

63.  a.  They  must  obtain  information  on  the  condition  of  schools,  personally  or 
by  circular. 

64.  b.  For  the  school  at  their  own  place,  they  should  have  their  teachers  learn 


608  GENERAL    REGULATIONS    OF    SCHOOLS,    BY    FREDERIC    II. 

the  essential  part  of  the  new  method,  unless  they  are  too  old,  or  endeavor  to 
engage  a  teacher  who  is  familiar  with  methodical  instruction,  and  knows  how  to 
organize  a  school.  As  soon  as  they  have  succeeded  in  this,  they  shall — 

65  c.  Send  for  one  or  two  of  ihe  most  active  and  skilful  school  teachers  from 
each  archipiesbytery  of  their  inspection,  that  they  may  learn  the  ne'/essary  and 
important  part  of  the  method,  namely  :  the  method  of  spelling  ;  of  tea  'hing  in 
classes  ;  the  use  of  school  bonks  and  tables  ;  the  preparation  and  keeping  of  cata- 
logues and  school  lists.  When  they  have  learned  this,  they  should  return  and 
organize  their  schools,  and  the  school  inspector  should  see  that  they  do  so. 

66.  d.  Request  every  head  priest  to  send  successively  all  other  teachers,  par- 
ticul  irly  during  the  summer,  to  the  one  who  has  acquired  the  popular  method  ;  and 
he  should   instruct  the  others  as  he  himself  was  taught  in  the  school  at  the 
inspector's  place. 

67.  e    That  the  head  priests  themselves  may  become  acquainted  with  all  that 
belongs  to  a  good  school,  and  which  they  cannot  learn  from  these  regulations, 
the  above-named  instruction,  or  from  other  books,  the  inspectors  shall  inform 
them  of  it. 

68.  /.  They  are  also  required  to  make  visitations  of  schools  after  the  head 
priests,  to  see  how  far  their  reports  are  reliable,  and  examine  the  schools  in  the 
same  manner  as  described  above . 

69.  g.  Their  duty  is  also  to  labor  for  the  removal  of  all   impediments  and 
defects  which  the  head  priests  could  not  remove ;  if  they  cannot  succeed  in  this, 
they  should  make  note  of  it  in  their  reports.     These  icports  they  are  to  send 
twice  a  year  to  the  office  of  the  Vicat  iate  General,  and  those,  who  belong  to  outside 
dioceses,  to  the  vicar  or  deacons,  always  within  one  month  after  Easter  or  St. 
Michael's,  and  add  thereto,  if  necessary,  their  own  suggestions  and  the  abstract 
from  the  head  priests'  reports. 

70.  h.  They  are  required  to  publish  and  execute  all  laws  and  changes  in  laws 
relating  to  schools. 

71.  The  office  of  the  Vicariate  General,  and  the  vicars  and  deacons  of  outside 
dioceses,  must  make  a  semi-annual  report  on  the  condition  of  schools,  from  the 
reports  of  school  inspectors,  10  our  royal  Council  of  War  and  Domain,  namely  :  at 
the  end  of  Mav  and  at  the  ( nd  of  November,  and  inform  in  regard  to — 

72.  1st.  All  neglect  of  these  general  school  regulations,  by  magistrates,  land- 
holders, or  subjects,  which  cannot  be  reached  by  the  head  priests  and  inspectors; 
2d,  impediments  of  any  kind ;  3d,  when  school  houses  are  out  of  repair,  or  the 
teachers  are  not  paid  ;  4th.  important  observations  and  discoveries  which  may 
serve  to  a  better  arrangement  of  the  school  system;  5th,  clergymen  ai.d  teachers 
who  distinguish  themselves  by  their  zeal  and  diligence  in  promoting  education, 
that  we  may  remove  them  to  better  benefices  within  our  patronage ;  6th,  incor- 
rigible schoolmasters  in  our  domain  or  villages,  that  they  may  be  removed  from 
office. 

73.  We  command  our  Council  of  War  and  Domain  to  see  that  all  defects  brought 
to  their  notice  are  remedied;  all  obstacles   removed;   all  incorrigible  teachers 
expelled  and  good  ones  put  in  their  places ;  that  all  zealous  school  inspectors, 
directors  of  seminaries,  clergymen  and  chaplains,  who  deserve  reward  for  their 
exertions  in  the  cause  of  education,  are  provided  with  better  benetices  whenever 
vacancies  occur,  and  thus  others  maybe  encouraged  to  like  zeal.     To  the  Epis- 
copal Vicariate  General,  the  vicars  and  deacons  of  outside  dioceses,  to  the  magis- 
trates,   landho;deis,    and    to    all    our    subjects,    clergy   or    laity,   whom    these 
regulations  concern,   especially  to  all  Roman   Catholic  school   inspectors,  head 
piusts,  directors  of  seminaries,  clergymen,  chaplains  and  schoolmasters,  do  we 
command,  in  the  most  serious  manner,  under  pain  of  our  disfavor  and  of  due 
punishment,  to  superintend  with  all  attention  the  fulfilment  of  these  regulations 
to  their  full  extent,  and  the  duties  made  thereby  obligatory  on  each  and  all. 

Given  at  Potsdam,  the  3d  day  of  November,  1765. 

FREDERIC. 


FREDERICK  II.  AND  HIS  SCHOOL  REFORMS. 


609 


The  School  Reforms  and  Extension,  inaugurated  by  Frederick  II. 
in  his  adoption  of  the  Real  School  of  Hecker,  and  converting  the 
same  into  a  Seminary  for  Teachers;  his  recognition  of  Teaching  as 
an  Art,  in  which  apprenticeship  should  be  served  under  experienced 
masters;  and  his  careful  organization  of  Elementary  Schools  in 
Silesia,  are  facts  of  immense  significance  in  the  History  of  Public 
Instruction.  Their  direct  influence  on  the  school  systems  of  the 
United  States,  and  of  Austria,  are  easily  traced.  [Barnard's  jvor.  Schools.} 

FROM   LETTERS   ON   SILESIA,    WRITTEN   IN   THE   YEARS    1800   AND    1801.* 

LETTER  XLII. — Schools  and  Seminaries  for  the  Instruction  of  Youth  in 

Silesia — System  of  Education  established  by  Frederick  II.  upon  thf 

recommendation  of  Felbiger. 

BERLIN,  March  1th,  1801. 

I  HAVE  promised  in  this  letter  to  give  you  some  account  of  the  institu- 
tions in  the  province  of  Silesia  for  the  education  of  youth.  The  university 
at  Breslau  and  the  academy  of  nobles  at  Liegnitz  I  need  not  mention, 
having  noticed  them  in  my  letters  at  the  time  when  we  visited  those 
places.  Besides  these,  there  are  what  we  call  grammar  schools,  where 
Latin  is  taught  in  almost  every  town  of  the  province,  and  usually 
in  connection  with  some  church  or  convent.  But  the  arrangements  and 
regulations  of  the  trivial  schools,  as  they  are  here  called — schools  des- 
tined for  that  elementary  instruction  which  ought  to  be  diffused  over  the 
whole  mass  of  the  people — particularly  deserve  your  attention,  because 
you  may,  perhaps,  as  a  native  of  New  England,  entertain  the  prejudice, 
that  your  own  country  is  the  only  spot  on  earth  where  this  object  is 
rightly  managed,  and  where  the  arts  of  reading  and  writing  are  accom- 
plishments almost  universally  possessed. 

Probably  no  country  in  Europe  could  so  strongly  contest  our  pre- 
eminence in  this  respect  as  Germany,  and  she,  for  this  honorable  dis- 
tinction, is  indebted  principally  to  Frederick  II. ;  to  the  zeal  with  which 
he  pursued  the  purpose  of  spreading  useful  knowledge  among  all  classes 
of  his  subjects,  and  to  the  influence  of  his  example  and  of  his  success 
even  beyond  the  limits  of  his  own  dominions.  To  enter  upon  this  topic, 
with  the  details  of  which  it  is  susceptible,  might,  perhaps,  not  amuse 
you,  and  would  lead  me  too  far  from  my  subject,  I  shall,  therefore,  con- 
fine myself  to  the  measures  he  adopted  and  the  system  he  introduced  in 
this  particular  into  Silesia. 

At  the  time  of  his  conquest  education  had  seldom  been  made  an  object 
of  the  concern  of  governments,  and  Silesia,  like  the  rest  of  Europe,  was 
but  wretchedly  provided  either  with  schools  or  teachers.  In  the  small 
towns  and  villages  the  schoolmasters  were  so  poorly  paid,  that  they 

*  First  published  in  consecutive  numbers  of  the  Port  Folio,  Philadelphia,  in  1803,  and  collected 
and  republisbed  in  a  volume  of  387  pages,  in  London  in  1804.  The  letter  on  the  School  System 
of  Silesia  was  copied,  with  commendation  as  an  example  to  the  English  Government,  in  the  Edin- 
burgh Review  for  October,  1804,  and  in  the  London  Quarterly  Journal  of  Education  for  January, 
1831. 


610  EDUCATIONAL  REFORM  IN  SILESIA  BY  FREDERICK  II. 

could  not  subsist  without  practicing  some  other  trade  besides  their  occu- 
pation as  instructors,  and  they  usually  united  the  character  of  the  village 
fiddler  with  that  of  the  village  schoolmaster.  Even  of  these  there  were 
so  few,  that  the  children  of  the  peasants  in  general,  throughout  the 
province,  were  left  untaught.  This  was  epecially  the  case  in  Upper  Si- 
lesia. Frederick  issued  an  ordinance,  that  a  school  should  be  kept  in 
every  village,  and  that  a  competent  subsistence  should  be  provided  for 
the  schoolmaster,  by  the  joint  contribution  of  the  lord  of  the  village  ano 
of  the  tenants  themselves.  The  superintendence  of  the  schools  was  pre- 
scribed as  the  duty  of  the  clergy. 

But  in  order  that  this  ordinance  might  have  its  due  execution,  it  wat 
necessary  to  form  the  teachers  themselves  properly  qualified  to  give  use- 
ful instruction.  This  was  effected  by  the  persevering  intelligence  and 
zeal  of  a  man  by  the  name  of  Felbiger,  an  Augustine  monk,  belonging  to 
a  convent  at  Sagan  ;  a  man,  says  a  Silesian  historian,  whom  a  great  par- 
of  Germany  must  thank  for  a  revolution,  not  less  important,  though  pi 
slower  progress  and  milder  character,  than  that  which,  two  centuries  am' 
a  half  earlier,  was  accomplished  by  another  monk  of  the  same  order- 
by  Luther. 

Felbiger,  after  spending  some  years  at  Berlin  to  obtain  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  the  best  method  of  instruction  practiced  in  the  schoolr, 
there,  returned  to  Sagan,  and  made  the  convent  to  which  he  belonged  a 
seminary  for  young  ecclesiastics  and  candidates  as  schoolmasters  to  ac- 
quire the  knowledge  of  the  improved  mode  of  teaching.  Several  other 
institutions  of  the  same  kind  were,  in  due  time,  established  at  Breslau, 
Glatz,  and  other  places,  upon  his  principles,  and  conducted  by  persons 
whom  he  had  formed.  To  defray  the  expenses  necessary  for  the  support 
of  these  seminaries,  a  fund  is  raised,  consisting  of  one  quarter's  salary, 
which  every  Catholic  curate  is  obliged  to  pay  upon  being  first  settled  in 
a  parsonage. 

With  each  of  these  seminaries  are  connected  certain  schools,  where 
the  young  candidates  for  the  clerical  or  teaching  office  are  obliged  to  at- 
tend and  observe  the  practice  of  the  method,  the  theory  of  which  they 
learn  at  the  seminaries  themselves.  The  clergy  are  required,  no  less 
than  the  teachers,  to  go  through  this  process,  because  the  superintend- 
ence over  the  teachers  is  intrusted  to  them.  No  young  man  can  be  ad- 
mitted to  either  of  the  offices  without  an  attestation  of  his  qualification 
from  one  of  the  seminaries. 

After  all  these  preparatory  measures  had  been  carried  into  effect,  an 
ordinance  was  published  in  the  year  1765  prescribing  the  mode  of  teach- 
ing as  adopted  in  the  seminaries,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  clergy 
should  superintend  the  efficacious  establishment  of  the  system.  The 
regulations  of  this  ordinance  prove  the  earnestness  with  which  the  king 
of  Prussia  labored  to  spread  the  benefits  of  useful  knowledge  among  his 
subjects.  The  teachers  are  directed  to  give  plain  instruction,  and  upon 
obiects  applicable  to  the  ordinary  concerns  of  life ;  not  merely  to  load 


EDUCATIONAL  REFORM  IN  SILESIA  BY  FREDERICK  II. 


611 


the  memory  of  their  scholars  with  words,  but  to  make  things  intelligible 
to  their  understanding ;  to  habituate  them  to  the  use  of  their  own  reason, 
by  explaining  every  object  of  the  lesson  so  that  the  children  themselves 
may  be  able  to  explain  it  upon  examination.  The  candidates  for  school- 
keeping  must  give  specimens  of  their  ability,  by  teaching  at  one  of  the 
schools  connected  with  the  seminary,  in  the  presence  of  the  professors  at 
the  seminary,  that  they  may  remark  and  correct  any  thing  defective  in 
the  candidate's  method.  If  one  school  suffices  for  more  than  one  village, 
neither  of  them  must  be  more  than  half  a  German  mile  distant  from  it 
in  the  flat  country,  nor  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  the  mountain- 
ous parts.  The  school  tax  must  be  paid  by  the  lord  and  tenants  without 
distinction  of  religions.  In  the  towns  the  school  must  be  kept  the  whole 
year  round.  It  is  expected  that  one  month  shall  suffice  to  make  a  child 
know  the  letters  of  the  alphabet ;  that  in  two  it  shall  be  able  to  join  them ; 
and  in  three  to  read.  The  boys  must  all  be  sent  to  school,  from  their 
sixth  to  their  thirteenth  year,  whether  the  parents  are  able  to  pay  the 
school  tax  or  not.  For  the  poor,  the  school  money  must  be  raised  by 
collections.  Every  parent  or  guardian  who  neglects  to  send  his  child  or 
pupil  to  school,  without  sufficient  cause,  is  obliged  to  pay  a  double 
school  tax,  for  which  the  guardians  shall  have  no  allowance.  Every  cu- 
rate must  examine  weekly  the  children  of  the  school  in  his  parish.  A 
general  examination  must  be  held  annually,  by  the  deans  of  the  districts, 
of  the  schools  within  their  respective  precincts ;  and  a  report  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  schools,  the  talents  and  attention  of  the  schoolmasters,  the 
state  of  the  buildings,  and  of  attendance  by  the  children,  made  to  the 
office  of  the  vicar-general,  who  must  transmit  all  these  reports  to  the 
royal  domain  offices.  From  these,  orders  are  issued  to  the  respective 
landraths  to  correct  the  abuses  and  supply  the  deficiencies  indicated  in 
the  reports.  This  system  was  at  first  prepared  only  for  the  Catholic 
schools ;  but  it  was  afterwards  adopted,  for  the  most  part,  by  most  of 
the  Lutheran  consistories.  Its  truly  respectable  author,  Felbiger,  was, 
in  the  sequel,  with  the  consent  of  Frederick,  invited  to  Vienna  by  the 
Empress  Maria  Theresa,  and  her  son  Joseph  II.,  who  appointed  him 
director  of  the  normal  schools  or  seminaries  in  all  the  Austrian'dorain- 
ions.  His  regulations  have  been  introduced  and  are  acted  upon  in  almost 
all  the  Catholic  countries  of  Germany. 

In  Silesia  they  had  at  first  many  old  prejudices  to  contend  with.  The 
indolence  of  the  Catholic  clergy  was  averse  to  the  new  and  troublesome 
duty  imposed  on  them.  Their  zeal  was  alarmed  at  the  danger  arising 
from  this  dispersion  of  light  to  the  stability  of  their  church.  They  con- 
sidered alike  the  spirit  of  innovation  and  the  spirit  of  inquiry  as  their 
natural  enemies.  Besides  this,  the  system  still  meets  resistance  from  the 
penurious  parsimony  and  stubborn  love  of  darkness  prevailing  in  some 
parts  of  the  province.  Many  villages  neglect  the  support  of  their  schools ; 
many  individuals,  upon  false  pretexts,  forbear  sending  their  children  to 
school  for  the  sake  of  saving  the  tax.  The  compulsive  measures  and  the 


612  EDUCATIONAL  REFORM  IN  SILESIA  BY  FREDERICK  II. 

penalties  prescribed  by  the  ordinance  are  used  seldom  and  with  reluc- 
tance. The  benevolent  design  has  not  been  accomplished  to  the  fill, 
extent  of  which  it  was  susceptible ;  but  as  far  as  it  has  been  accom- 
plished its  operation  has  been  a  blessing.  That  its  effects  have  been 
very  extensive  is  not  to  be  doubted,  when  we  compare  the  number  of 
schools  throughout  the  province  in  the  year  1752  when  they  amounted 
only  to  one  thousand  five  hundred  and  fifty-two,  with  that  in  the  year 
1798  when  they  were  more  than  three  thousand  five  hundred.  The 
consequences  of  a  more  general  diffusion  of  knowledge  are  attested  by 
many  other  facts  equally  clear.  Before  the  seven  years'  war,  there  had 
scarcely  ever  been  more  than  one  periodical  journal  or  gazette  published 
in  the  province  at  one  time.  There  are  now  no  less  than  seventeen  news- 
papers and  magazines  which  appear  by  the  day,  the  week,  the  month,  or 
the  quarter,  many  of  them  upon  subjects  generally  useful,  and  containing 
valuable  information  and  instruction  for  the  people.  At  the  former  pe- 
riod there  were  but  three  booksellers,  and  all  these  at  Breslau.  There 
are  now  six  in  that  capital,  and  seven  dispersed  about  in  the  other  cities. 
The  number  of  printing-presses  and  of  bookbinders  has  increased  in  the 
same  proportion. 

Dr.  Johnson,  in  his  Life  of  Watts,  has  bestowed  a  just  and  exalted  en- 
comium upon  him  for  not  disdaining  to  descend  from  the  pride  of  genius 
and  the  dignity  of  science  to  write  for  the  wants  and  the  capacities  of 
children.  "Every  man  acquainted,"  says  he,  "with  the  common  princi- 
ples of  human  actions,  will  look  with  veneration  on  the  writer,  who  is  at 
one  time  combating  Locke,  and  at  another  time  making  a  catechism  for 
children  in  their  fourth  year."  Bui  how  much  greater  still  is  the  tribute 
of  admiration  irresistibly  drawn  from  us,  when  we  behold  an  absolute 
monarch,  the  greatest  general  of  his  age,  eminent  as  a  writer  in  the  high- 
est departments  of  literature,  descending,  in  a  manner,  to  teach  the 
alphabet  to  the  children  of  his  kingdom ;  bestowing  his  care,  his  perse- 
vering assiduity,  his  influence  and  his  power,  in  diffusing  plain  and  use- 
ful knowledge  among  his  subjects ;  in  opening  to  their  minds  the  first 
and  most  important  pages  of  the  book  of  science ;  in  filling  the  whole 
atmosphere  they  breathed  with  that  intellectual  fragrance  which  had 
before  been  imprisoned  in  the  vials  of  learning,  or  inclosed  within  the 
gardens  of  wealth  !  Immortal  Frederick  !  when  seated  on  the  throne  of 
Prussia,  with  kneeling  millions  at  thy  feet,  thou  wast  only  a  king.  On 
the  fields  of  Leuthen,  of  Zorndorf,  of  Rosbach,  of  so  many  other  scenes 
of  human  blood  and  anguish,  thou  wast  only  a  hero.  Even  in  thy  rare 
and  glorious  converse  with  the  muses  and  with  science,  thou  wast  only  a 
philosopher,  an  historian,  a  poet;  but  in  this  generous  ardor,  this  active 
and  enlightened  zeal  for  the  education  of  thy  people,  thou  wast  truly 
great — the  father  of  thy  country — the  benefactor  of  mankind. 

Yours,  &c. 


MARIA  THERESA  AND  HER  SCHOOL  REFORMS. 


MEMOIR. 

MARIA  THERESA,  Queen  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  Archduchess 
of  Austria,  and  Empress  of  Germany,  daughter  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  VI.,  was  born  at  Vienna  in  17 17,  and  in  1736  married 
Duke  Charles  Stephen  of  Lorraine,  who  became  Grand  Duke  of 
Tuscany  in  1737.  On  the  death  of  her  father,  in  October,  1740, 
she  ascended  the  throne  of  Hungary,  Bohemia,  and  Austria,  and  in 
the  month  following  declared  her  husband  joint  ruler.  She  found 
the  kingdom  exhausted,  her  people  dissatisfied,  the  treasury  empty, 
the  army  reduced,  and  within  a  year  the  princes  of  Europe  had 
shown  themselves  eager  to  avenge  real  or  fancied  wrongs,  and  assert 
claims  which,  if  sound,  would  have  reduced  her  sovereignty  to  the 
shadow  of  a  name.  Before  her  first  son  was  born  the  greatest 
captain  of  the  age  had  seized  on  Silesia,  the  largest  and  wealthiest 
province  of  her  dominion ;  and  the  armies  of  France,  Bavaria, 
Spain,  and  Prussia,  in  various  quarters  proved  too  strong  for  her 
forces,  and  within  a  year  of  her  coronation,  her  capital  was  sum- 
moned to  surrender.  In  her  necessities  she  summoned  a  diet  at 
Presburg,  and  in  Hungarian  dress,  with  the  crown  of  St,  Stephen 
on  her  head,  and  girt  with  the  kingly  sword,  she,  with  her  child  in 
her  arms,  appeared  before  the  assembly  and  committed  the 
darkened  fortunes  of  her  family  and  throne  to  her  faithful  Hunga- 
rians. The  age  of  chivalry  was  not  gone,  the  magnates  of  the  land 
exclaimed — moriamur  pro  rege  nostro  Maria  Theresa  ;  troops  were 
furnished,  and  the  tide  of  disaster  was  turned ;  and  with  varying 
fortunes,  but,  on  the  whole,  her  foreign  and  domestic  administra- 
tion, both  in  peace  and  war,  will  compare  favorably  with  the  record 
of  any  other  sovereign  of  her  time.  Her  husband  was  chosen 
Emperor,  and  crowned  October  4,  1745,  Maria  Theresa  being  the 
first  to  exclaim  from  the  balcony,  l  Long  live  the  Emperor  Francis 
I.;'  and  on  his  death,  in  1765,  her  son,  the  Archduke  Joseph,  who 
had  been  chosen  King  of  Rome  in  1764,  was  declared  emperor, 
with  the  title  of  Joseph  II. — sharing  with  the  mother  the  govern- 
ment of  the  hereditary  possessions.  She  died  Nov.  29,  1780. 


(314  MARIA  THERESA  AND  SCHOOL    REFORM  IN  AUSTRIA. 

EDUCATIONAL   REFORMS. 

With  the  wars  and  domestic  administration  of  Maria  Theresa  we 
have  nothing  to  do ;  but  her  school  reforms  deserve  a  fuller  no- 
tice, in  the  history  of  modern  national  education,  than  the  brief  rec- 
ord we  can  now  give.  Frederic  II.  of  Prussia  avowedly  recognized 
her  superior  sagacity  in  making  special  instruction  tributary  to 
the  public  service,  by  copying  in  his  war  school  at  Berlin  the 
studies  and  practical  training  which  she  had  already  introduced 
into  the  education  of  the  young  officers  of  her  armies. 

Special  Training  of  Officers. 

The  earliest  scientific  school  in  Europe  was  opened  at  Vienna 
in  1 747-8,  a  year  or  more  in  advance  of  the  first  French  school  of 
engineering  at  Mezieres,  and  three  years  before  the  military  school 
at  Paris  in  1751,  and  the  artillery  school  at  La  Fere  in  1756. 
Frederic's  Ritter  Academic  dates  from  1764.  '  My  fire  is  quenched,* 
writes  the  latter  at  the  close  of  the  Seven  Years'  War, '  but  I  am  de- 
voting my  utmost  care  to  the  instruction  of  my  officers  in  the  art  of 
war,  and  they  will  be  obliged  to  give  reasons  for  all  they  do.  My 
plan  will  not  answer  with  every  one  ;  still  out  of  the  whole  body  we 
shall  certainly  form  some  men  and  officers  who  will  not  merely 
have  their  patent  as  generals  to  show,  but  some  capacity  for  the 
office  as  well.'  He  had  seen  the  military  school  founded  by  Maria 
Theresa,  and  in  his  *  History  of  My  Time '  this  great  military 
authority  observes :  *  In  order  to  neglect  nothing  bearing  on  the 
state  of  the  army,  the  Empress  founded  near  Vienna  (at  Wiener 
Neustadt)  a  college  where  young  nobles  were  instructed  in  the 
whole  art  of  war.  She  drew  to  it  distinguished  professors  of 
geometry,  fortification,  geography,  and  history,  who  formed  able 
pupils,  and  made  it  a  complete  nursery  for  the  army.  By  means 
of  her  care,  the  military  service  attained  in  that  country  a  degree 
of  perfection  which  it  had  never  reached  under  the  Emperors  of 
the  House  of  Austria;  and  a  woman  thus  carried  out  designs 
worthy  of  a  great  man.' 

HIGHER    EDUCATION. 

As  soon  as  her  attention  ceased  to  be  engaged  by  the  pressing 
necessities  of  war,  Maria  Theresa  took  up  several  educational  meas- 
ures which  had  been  inaugurated  by  a  commission  appointed  by 
her  father  in  1735,  in  the  universities,  and  which  brought  them 

*  A  fuller  treatment  of  the  progressive  development  of  public  instruction  in  the  Empire  of  Aus- 
tria, including  the  measures  of  Maria  Theresa,  will  be  found  in  Barnard's  National  Education-* 
German  States. 


MARIA  THERESA  AND  SCHOOL  REFORM  IN  AUSTRIA 


615 


more  under  government  control.  Dissatisfied  with  the  divergent 
influences  of  several  modes  of  training  in  the  different  provinces, 
and  of  the  want  of  unity  of  plan,  her  first  efforts  were  directed  to 
introducing  a  similar  course  of  study  into  all  schools  of  the  same 
grade,  wherever  situated;  and  she  required,  as  early  as  1747,  that 
greater  attention  should  be  given  to  history,  Greek,  and  mathe- 
matics, as  well  as  to  the  German  language,  in  the  gymnasium, 
and  that  ethics,  political  economy,  and  applied  mathematics  should 
receive  attention  in  special  courses  of  the  most  advanced  classes. 
In  1752  the  schools  of  secondary  instruction  were  subjected  to  a 
semi-annual  inspection,  arid  reports  of  the  examinations  were  made 
to  the  government ;  in  1760  a  State  Board  of  Studies  was  instituted, 
with  subordinate  boards  in  the  several  provinces  to  revise  and 
regulate  the  text- books,  and  supervise  the  course  and  methods  of 
instruction.  With  most  of  this  class  of  schools  under  the  imme- 
diate charge  of  different  religious  orders,  which  were  in  rivalry  and 
often  in  collision  with  each  other,  the  progress  of  reform  was  slow 
down  to  1772,  when  the  opposition  to  the  Jesuits  within  the  church 
assumed  such  proportions  that  the  order  was  abrogated  by  a  Papal 
bull,  and  their  extensive  possessions  were  appropriated  by  the  gov- 
ernment as  an  educational  fund  for  the  support  of  the  gymnasiums. 

THE   PUBLIC   PRIMARY   SCHOOL. 

The  principal  field  of  Maria  Theresa's  governmental  activity  was 
the  public  primary  school  in  which  little  had  been  done  beyond 
the  most  beggarly  elements,  and  mainly,  so  far  as  attempted  at  all, 
in  connection  with  the  parish  church.  At  the  close  of  the  Seven 
Years'  War,  the  Empress  took  the  matter  in  hand  on  a  memorial 
of  Count  Firmian,  Archbishop  of  Passau,  and  through  the  activity 
of  Joseph  Messmer,  rector  of  St.  Stephens,  and  as  such,  director  of 
the  civic  schools  of  Vienna.  The  former,  in  1769,  printed  a  me- 
morial on  'The  Usefulness  of  Schools  to  the  State  and  Religion,' 
and  the  latter,  in  1770,  'Humble  Thoughts  on  the  Improvement 
of  the  German  (Common)  Schools  of  the  City  and  Suburbs  of 
Vienna,'  urging  modifications  in  the  subjects  and  methods  of  study, 
and  to  this  end  the  establishment  of  a  central  Normal  (in  this  case 
a  model)  School,  under  the  charge  of  a  special  commission.  These 
promptly  met  the  approval  of  the  Empress,  whose  attention  had 
already  been  called  to  the  subject,  and  who  had  already  issued  a 
decree  in  reference  to  an  attempt  of  the  clergy  of  Carinthia,  that 
the  management  of  popular  schools  belonged  to  the  state. 

In  1770  two  Boards  of  Education  were  instituted,  one  for  Upper 


QIQ  MARIA  THERESA  AND  SCHOOL  REFORM  IN  AUSTRIA. 

and  the  other  for  Lower  Austria,  and  a  central  Normal  School  was 
instituted  at  Vienna.  Over  one  of  the  Boards  was  placed  Count 
Firmian  as  president;  and  to  the  Normal  School,  Messmer,  who  had 
already  been  tutor  in  the  imperial  family,  and  was  familiar  with  the 
methods,  charts,  maps,  and  other  appliances  of  Felbiger,  was  ap- 
pointed principal.  This  school  was  opened  January  2,  1771,  with 
four  classes,  each  under  a  special  teacher,  after  the  organization  of 
the  Sagan  school.  The  upper  class  was  composed  of  pupil-teachers, 
and  were  instructed  and  trained  by  the  principal,  Messmer.  The 
classes  were  visited  by  teachers  and  clergymen  from  different 
provinces,  and  through  them  the  improved  classification  and 
methods  spread  from  city  to  city,  and  the  way  was  prepared  for  the 
reception  of  the  new  ordinance  which  had  been  announced  for  all 
the  states  of  the  empire. 

General  School  Law—  It 74. 

The  germ  of  the  General  School  Law,  issued  in  the  name  of  the 
Empress  in  December,  1774,  was  in  the  memorial  of  the  Bishop  of 
Passau,  in  1769,  and  was  elaborated  by  Count  de  Pergen  for  the 
consideration  of  the  Empress  in  1770.  The  plan  rested  on  three 
fundamental  ideas  :  (1.)  The  duty  of  the  sovereign  authority  to  inaug- 
urate a  system  of  public  popular  schools,  to  make  both  sexes  good 
Christians,  and  industrious,  intelligent  and  obedient  subjects  in  the 
different  orders  of  society.  (2.)  The  state  should  assume  the  com- 
plete and  exclusive  supervision  and  control  of  schools  and  educa- 
tion, including  the  training  and  examination  of  teachers,  the 
inspection  of  schools,  even  those  which  are  domestic,  and  the 
prohibition  of  all  foreign  instruction.  (3.)  The  right  of  instruction 
should  be  taken  from  religious  corporations  which  had  shown  them- 
selves incompetent  to  meet  the  expectations  of  parents  and  the  de- 
mands of  modern  society.  These  ideas  were  in  advance  of  the  age 
and  the  country,  and 'the  Empress  went  no  further  than  to  express 
her  purpose  to  modify  the  existing  system  and  institutions,  and  make 
advances  in  the  direction  indicated.  The  suppression  of  the  order 
of  Jesuits  in  1772,  and  some  disturbance  in  the  central  Normal 
School,  made  the  introduction  of  new  measures  immediately  neces- 
sary and  practicable.  Under  the  presidency  of  Kressler,  and  with 
the  personal  attention  of  the  Empress,  the  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion took  into  consideration  a  general  plan  of  studies  drawn  up  by 
Martini,  in  which  the  superior  and  secondary  schools  relied  directly 
on  the  programme  of  the  primary  schools  completed,  which  pro- 
gramme secured  to  every  subject,  according  to  his  rank  and  calling-, 


MARIA  THERESA  AND  SCHOOL  REFORM  IN  AUSTRIA.  Q\* 

the  necessary  instruction,  under  teachers  legally  qualified  and 
trained,  in  a  complete  and  practical  course  of  studies.  To  secure 
a  satisfactory  organization,  the  Empress  summoned  Felbiger  from 
Silesia,  at  the  close  of  1773  or  in  the  beginning  of  1774,  who  was 
at  once  charged  with  the  oversight  of  the  central  Normal  School, 
and  the  preparation  of  a  general  school  ordinance  for  the  entire 
empire,  which  was  issued  in  the  name  of  the  Empress,  October  6, 
1774.  This  act  extended  in  its  operations  to  the  whole  empire — 
the  old  hereditary  states,  Bohemia,  and  the  recent  accessions  of 
territory  and  people  in  Galicia,  and  embraced  many  features  in 
anticipation  of  our  modern  systems  of  national  popular  education.  It 
recognizes  the  necessity  of  education  for  both  sexes  to  the  prosperity 
of  nations,  provides  for  instruction  beyond  reading  and  learning  the 
catechism,  in  the  elements  1".  "history,  geography,  especially  of 
their  own  country,  domestic  economy,  and  the  history  of  arts  and 
trades— enforces  on  parents  the  duty  of  sending  their  children  from 
the  age  of  six  years,  until  they  begin  to  work  at  a  trade,  and  provides 
for  the  special  education  of  teachers,  and  their  examination,  as  well  as 
for  the  inspection  and  annual  examination  of  the  schools. 

The  law  of  1774  is  so  much  in  advance  of  contemporary  legislation, 
in  this  or  any  other  county,  except  the  two  Regulations  of  1763 
and  1765,  of  Frederick  II.  already  noticed,  that  we  shall  give  it 
entire.  The  term  Normal  as  applied  to  the  highest  grade  of 
schools  created  by  this  act,  is  the  earliest  use  of  the  word,  and 
probably  suggested  the  name  to  the  French  School  of  1794. 
Special  Technical  Schools. 

In  1745,  the  Empress  authorized  the  first  university  lectures  on 
experimental  physics,  and  in  1757,  on  mechanics;  in  1763  she  per- 
mitted the  Piorists  to  give  instruction  in  book-keeping ;  and  in  1 770 
a  Commercial  Academy  was  established  in  Vienna,  after  a  plan 
drawn  up  by  Wolf  of  Baden,  on  her  invitation.  This  academy 
from  time  to  time  was  expanded,  till  it  grew  into  the  Polytechnic 
Institute  of  Vienna,  one  of  the  best  in  Europe  for  all  mechanical 
and  commercial  industries.  Under  her  enlightened  administration 
the  Mining  School  at  Schemnitz  was  opened  in  1763,  and  in  1794 
it  had  attained  such  reputation,  that  Fourcroy,  in  his  speech  in  the 
French  National  Assembly,  advocating  the  erection  at  Paris  of  a 
Central  School  of  Science,  preparatory  for  the  public  service,  referred 
to  it,  as  a  model  for  imitation. 

Out  of  the  germs  of  institutions  planted  during  the  reign  of 
Maria  Theresa,  has  grown  up  a  system  of  public  instruction  in 
Vienna,  not  surpassed  in  any  great  city  in  the  world. 


613  MARIA  THERESA  AND  SCHOOL  REFORMERS. 

GERARD    TAN    SWEITEN. 

In  the  reforms  in  the  Austrian  High  School,  inaugurated  by 
Maria  Theresa,  Gerard  Van  Sweiten  took  an  active  part.  This 
eminent  physician  was  bom  in  Ley  den  in  1700,  and  after  pursuing 
his  preliminary  studies  at  Louvain,  he  returned  to  his  native  city. 
Here  it  was  his  good  fortune  to  attract  the  attention  of  Boerhaave, 
who  became  his  friend  and  patron.  His  love  of  study  was  un- 
bounded, and  his  application  so  great  as  to  threaten  his  health,  until 
the  good  counsels  of  his  distinguished  teacher  restrained  his  ardor. 
Besides  a  profound  and  systematic  study  of  his  own  profession,  he 
found  time  to  push  his  acquirements  in  other  fields,  and  when  he 
attained  his  doctor's  degree  at  the  age  of  twenty -five,  he  was  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  savans  of  Europe.  He  began  a  course  of 
lectures  at  the  University  of  Ley 0^,1  which  were  attended  by  un- 
precedented numbers.  His  success,  however,  did  not  fail  to  excite 
jealousy ;  and  after  a  time  his  enemies  made  the  fact  of  his  being 
a  Catholic  a  pretext  for  his  removal.  He  devoted  himself  at  once 
to  his  *  Commentaries  on  the  Aphorisms  of  Boerhaave,'  the  chief 
literary  work  by  which  he  is  known,  until  the  Empress  Maria 
Theresa  invited  him  to  Vienna,  where,  in  1745,  he  became  first 
physician  to  the  Empress,  and  a  baron  of  the  empire. 

He  immediately  distinguished  himself  by  his  activity  in  his  new 
field.  He  reformed  the  study  of  medicine  at  the  University,  and 
lectured  himself  until  new  and  more  important  duties  forced  him  to 
desist,  but  not  until  he  had  seen  his  place  worthily  filled.  It  was 
at  his  instigation  that  the  clinical  school  was  established  which  was 
the  model  of  the  now  famous  schools  in  France  and  the  north  of 
Germany,  and  it  was  also  owing  to  him  that  the  Empress  rebuilt 
the  University.  He  was  also  Imperial  Librarian  and  Director- 
General  of  Medical  Affairs  in  Austria,  and  in  1760  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  State  Board  of  Studies,  in  which  he  was  associated  with 
Migazzi,  Archbishop  of  Vienna. 

As  Imperial  Librarian  he  was  instrumental  in  making  the  library 
accessible  to  every  one.  A  senseless  rule  had  been  inforced  which 
forbade  any  one  from  making  notes  of  what  they  read  there.  He 
not  only  abolished  this,  but  offered  every  facility  to  those  who 
wished  to  avail  themselves  of  the  great  treasures  contained  in  the 
library  by  arranging  and  cataloguing  its  contents. 

As  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Studies,  he  was  influential  in  in- 
troducing into  the  University  lectures  on  experimental  physics,  and 
in  developing  realistic  studies,  especially  those  which  related  to 
agriculture  and  commerce  in  special  schools  at  Prague  and  Vienna. 


GENERAL  SCHOOL  LAW  OF  AUSTRIA—  1774. 


GENERAL   LAW   FOR  THE   SCHOOLS  OF  AUSTRIA. 
(December  6th,  1774  ) 

MARIA  THERESA,  etc. 

Having  nothing  more  at  heart  than  the  true  welfare  of  the  countries  which 
God  has  confided  to  us,  and  having  always  attentively  considered  whatever 
might  contribute  to  this  end,  we  have  observed  that  the  education  of  both 
sexes,  the  basis  of  the  real  happiness  of  nations,  requires  our  especial  care. 
This  very  important  object  has  so  much  the  more  attracted  our  attention,  inas- 
much as  the  future  destiny  of  man,  the  genius  and  thought  of  entire  nations, 
depend  mainly  on  the  good  instruction  and  right  training  of  children  from  their 
tenderest  years.  Such  an  object,  however,  can  never  be  attained  if  the  dark- 
ness of  ignorance  is  not  dispelled  by  well  regulated  instruction  arid  education, 
so  that  every  individual  can  acquire  knowledge  according  to  his  ability  and 
condition.  These  necessary  ends,  the  utility  of  which  is  generally  acknowl- 
edged, we  desire  to  reach  by  the  following  regulation  for  all  schools  in  our  king- 
doms and  hereditary  states  : 

1.   Creation  of  a  School-commission  in  every  State  of  the  Monarchy. 

In  each  State  of  the  monarchy  shall  be  formed  a  school-commission,  composed 
of  two  or  three  counselors  of  the  government,  one  under-delegate,  and  a  secre- 
tary, associated  with  the  inspector-general  of  normal  schools. 

This  commission  is  charged  with  the  supervision  of  all  school  interests,  school- 
officers  as  well  as  school  material,  and  they  shall  assure  themselves  that  the 
method  prescribed  by  ordinance  is  employed  ..........  Frequent  reports  on  the  con- 

dition of  schools  must  be  rendered. 

2.   Grades  of  schools,  and  where  they  are  to  be  situated. 

Schools  are  of  three  classes  :  Normal  schools,  Principal  schools  (superior  pri- 
mary schools.)  and  Trivial  schools,  (primary.) 

There  shall  be  one  normal  (pattern  or  model)  school  in  each  province.  All 
other  establishments  must  conform  to  this  school.  The  corps  of  teachers  shall 
consist  of  a  director  and  four  or  five  teachers,  one  of  whom  shall  be  a  catechist. 

Every  capital  of  a  canton  must  possess  a  Principal  school. 

Finally,  shall  be  established  Trivial  schools  in  all  the  small  cities  or  boroughs 
in  the  country,  and  in  all  villages  where  exists  a  parish  or  a  filial  church,  dis- 
tant from  the  centre. 

3.  Rules  for  the  establishment  of  schools. 

It  is  not  intended  to  establish  new  schools  every  where,  but  to  improve  ex- 
isting schools.  In  future  no  teacher  shall  be  admitted,  unless  he  knows  the 
prescribed  method  of  teaching,  and  has  been  found  capable,  on  examination 
before  the  teachers  of  the  Normal  school. 

The  right  of  keeping  school  or  teaching  the  young  shall  continue  to  all  lay- 
men and  ecclesiastics,  who  at  present  are  engaged  in  the  profession  of  teachers  ; 
but  they  must,  as  soon  as  possible,  make  themselves  familiar  with  the  new 
method,  and  conform  to  the  principles  of  this  ordinance. 

New  schools  shall  be  created  only  where  none  exist,  and  only  as  many  as 
are  necessary  ;  also  in  those  places  where  the  young  are  too  numerous  for  the 
existing  schools  to  accommodate  all,  or  for  the  teachers  to  bestow  the  necessary 
care  upon  them.  When  the  insufficiencj^  is  proved  to  exist,  new  schools  must 
be  erected,  or  the  old  ones  repaired,  as  appears  necessary,  at  the  expense  of 
the  communes,  who  draw  direct  profit  therefrom,  unless  the  nobility,  who 
have  the  advantage  of  drawing  from  these  schools  employees  of  good  character, 
take  upon  themselves  the  expenses,  or  other  means  are  devised. 

The  school-commission  is  charged  with  stating  the  real  wants,  and  to  deter- 
mine what  portion  of  the  expenses  each  party  shall  contribute. 

4.  Rules  for  the  construction  of  School-houses. 

When  it  is  necessary  to  build  school-houses,  or  to  repair  the  old  buildings, 
care  must  be  taken  to  have  as  many  distinct  class-rooms  as  there  will  be  teach- 


GENERAL  SCHOOL   LAW  OF  AUSTRIA— 1774. 

ers  to  give  lessons  at  the  same  hour,  since  it  is  not  possible  that  two  or  more 
persons  teach  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same  place. 

And  as  it  is  necessary  that  the  attention  of  children  should  not  be  distracted 
by  the  domestic  affairs  of  the  teachers,  the  school-rooms  must  not  be  used  for 
any  other  purposes  than  those  of  the  school,  and  must,  even  in  villages,  be  sep- 
arated from  the  teacher's  dwelling. 

There  shall  be  not  only  a  sufficient  number  of  rooms,  but  they  shall  be  well 
lighted,  and  the  Principal  schools  shall  have  a  convenient  room  for  examina- 
tions ;  each  room  must  be  well  provided  with  benches,  tables,  blackboards, 
writing-desks,  and  other  necessary  utensils,  also  a  locked  case  for  the  books. 

5.  Branches  of  Instruction  in  each  of  the  three  classes  of  Schools. 

NORMAL  SCHOOL. — A.  RELIGION. — Instruction  in  religion  is  to  be  given  : 

1st.  From  the  catechism  specially  introduced  by  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  or 
from  the  Vienna  catechism  for  normal  schools,  approved  by  the  bishops. 

2d.  In  a  systematic  manner,  for  which  purpose  the  Reader  is  arranged. 

3d.  As  history,  that  the  pupils  may  learn  under  what  circumstances  and  in 
what  periods  the  divine  revelations  took  place;  what  lessons  man  should  draw 
from  them,  relative  to  his  own  conduct,  etc. 

4th.  By  means  of  interpretation  of  passages  in  the  Reader,  which  treat  of 
the  principles  of  morality  and  the  condition  of  man. 

B  READING. — Reading,  writing,  and  orthography ;  arithmetic  and  its  appli- 
cation ;  and,  in  general,  all  that  can  contribute  to  inspire  a  well  regulated  con- 
duct, and  be  conducive  to  good  manners. 

C.  LANGUAGE  AND  SCIENCE. — Subjects  which  serve  to  prepare  pupils  for  the 
study  of  Latin,  or  those  who  intend  to  pursue  the  career  of  political  economy, 
and  especially  those  who  will  devote  themselves  to  agriculture  and  the  arts  and 
trades,  should  be  introduced.     The  mother  language  should  be  taught  by  exer- 
cises in  composition ;  and  the  pupils  should  obtain  a  sufficient  knowledge  of 
Latin  to  be  able  to  begin  the  humanitas,  to  learn  surgery  and  pharmacy,  or  to 
take  up  the  profession  of  a  writer.     The  best  principles  of  economy,  and  espe- 
cially of  domestic  economy,  should  be  taught ;  also  the  history  of  arts  arid 
trades,  as  well  as  natural  history,  within  the  limits  of  utility  and  necessity. 
Also  the  elements  of  history  and  geography,  especially  of  their  own  country ; 
also  the  principles  of  surveying  and  mechanics;  drawing  by  means  of  compass. 
ruler,  and  instruments. 

D.  METHODS  OF  INSTRUCTION.— Those  who  aspire  to  the  profession  of  teaching, 
shall  be  specially  made  to  know,  and  have  explained,  what  are  the  duties  and 
qualifications  of  a  good  teacher;  the  methods  and  practical  means  by  which 
order  and  discipline  are  maintained  in  classes ;  how  the  school  registers  must 
be  kept,  and  in  what  manner  they  should  question  the  pupils  in  an  examina- 
tion ;  finally,  what  is  required  of  public  and  of  private  teachers. 

Principal  Schools. — The  programme  of  the  Principal  schools  comprises  the 
subjects  indicated  under  A  and  B,  and.  as  much  as  possible,  those  under  C,  as 
the  number  and  ability  of  the  teachers  and  the  time  prescribed  permit. 

Trivial  Schools. — The  subjects  of  instruction  in  the  schools  of  small  cities, 
boroughs  and  villages,  are: 

(#,)  Religion  and  its  history ;  morals  drawn  from  the  Bible  and  reading. 

(?;,)  Reading  printed  and  written  type ;  current  handwriting ;  the  four  rules  of 
arithmetic,  with  the  rule  of  simple  proportions. 

(c,)  In  the  country  a  little  book  is  to  be  used,  which  has  been  written  to  form 
"an  honest  citizen,"  and  teach  him  thrift  and  management. 

6.    Who  shall  teach  the  different  branches  of  Instruction. 

Ecclesiastics  alone  may  teach  the  Christian  doctrine.  The  Normal  and  Prin- 
cipal schools  have  a  professor  specially  charged  with  giving  every  day,  at  least 
one  hour,  lessons  on  the  catechism,  on  sacred  history  and  morality,  and  ex- 
plaining the  epistles  and  gospels.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  vicar  to  catechise 
twice,  or  at  least  once  a  week,  in  the  Trivial  schools.  If  the  vicars  are  not  suf- 
ficient to  teach  religion  in  the  schools  of  small  towns,  burghs,  and  of  the 
country,  friars  may  be  appointed,  with  approval  of  the  bishops,  by  the  superiors 
of  the  neighboring  convents.  The  schoolmasters  shall  be  present  during  the 
lessons  in  the  catechism,  and  pay  good  attention,  that  they  may  be  able  to 


GENERAL  SCHOOL  LAW  OF  AUSTRIA-1774. 


621 


repeat  to  the  children  the  explanations  which  have  been  made.  If  the  vicar 
or  clergyman  is  prevented,  the  teachers  themselves  shall  be  obliged  to  question 
the  children  on  what  they  have  learned  by  heart,  for  instance,  on  verses  from 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  etc.,  or  on  what  they  have  studied  in  the  Reader  relative 
to  religion.  Other  subjects  can  be  taught  by  laymen  or  ecclesiastics,  provided 
they  have  passed  their  examination.  The  teachers  of  the  Principal  schools 
consist  of  the  director  and  four  or  five  assistant  teachers. 

7.  School-books. 

In  order  to  have  instruction  uniform,  the  books  and  charts  to  be  used  in  school 
are  prescribed,  and  the  necessary  regulations  will  be  issued,  to  guide  the  teach- 
ers in  the  duties  obligatory  upon  them.  None  but  the  prescribed  books  shall 
be  used  in  school ;  but  teachers,  who  desire  to  perfect  their  own  education,  may 
procure  other  books  treating  on  the  subjects  taught  in  the  school. 

8.   Of  the  manner  of  Teaching. 

Instruction  must  be  given  simultaneously  to  all  pupils  of  the  same  class.  The 
teacher  should  take  special  care  that  all  pupils  read  together,  He  will  punc- 
tually conform  to  the  directions  given  in  the  books  on  method,  and  aim  less  at 
crowding  the  memory  of  children  than  at  developing  their  mind  by  clear  and 
precise  explanations  He  should  accustom  the  children  to  express  themselves 
with  facilitjr  and  exactitude  on  things  which  have  been  explained  to  them. 

9.  Division  of  classes. 

All  the  children,  though  of  different  ages  and  sex,  who  are  to  learn  the  same 
branches,  should  be  in  one  class.  Each  class  to  comprise  three  divisions :  a 
superior,  intermediate,  and  inferior  division. 

10.  Of  school-hours. 

In  Winter,  the  hours  of  school  shall  be  from  8  to  11  in  the  morning;  in 
the  Summer,  in  the  county,  from  7  to  10;  from  2  to  4  P.  M.  during  the  year. 

In  cities,  the  course  of  the  first  term  shall  commence  on  the  3d  of  November, 
and  finish  on  Palm  Sunday  eve ;  the  course  of  the  second  term  to  begin  on  the 
second  Monday  after  Easter  Sunday,  and  last  to  St.  Michael's  day. 

In  the  country,  the  schools  begin  on  the  first  of  December,  and  remain  open 
to  the  end  of  March.  In  these  are  received  the  children  between  nine  and 
thirteen  years  of  age,  because  most  may  be  called  to  aid  their  parents  during 
the  Summer  season,  and  this  is  the  reason  that  they  are  not  obliged  to  frequent 
school  at  other  periods.  The  course  of  the  second  term  begins  on  Monday  after 
Easter  week,  and  terminates  on  St.  Michael's  day.  During  the  season  of  har- 
vest, instruction  is  suspended  for  all  children  above  eight  years ;  but  continues 
for  the  children  between  six  and  eight  years. 

As  children,  poorly  clothed,  can  not  always  come  to  school  in  Winter,  on 
account  of  the  bad  roads  and  the  rigor  of  the  season,  they  shall  not  be  forced ; 
yet  their  parents  or  guardians  are  free  to  send  the  young  children  to  school  in 
Winter  as  well  as  in  Summer.  Teachers  will  select  a  special  hour  to  instruct 
such  children,  in  order  not  to  interrupt  or  delay  the  lessons  given  to  other  pupils. 

11.   The  time  to  be  devoted  to  each  subject. 

All  subjects  must  be  thoroughly  and  suitably  explained  within  the  time  fixed 
for  the  duration  of  each  course.  Pupils  who  have  not  dexterity  for  writing,  or 
aptitude  for  other  branches,  may  double  one  or  more  courses. 

12.  Duty  of  School-attendance. 

In  cities,  all  children  of  both  sexes,  for  whom  parents  or  guardians  can  not 
or  will  not  take  a  special  teacher,  must,  without  exception,  attend  the  public 
schools  from  the  age  of  six  years  until  they  are  sufficiently  instructed  to  choose 
a  trade  or  profession.  As  they  hardly  attain  this  degree  of  instruction  before 
the  age  of  twelve  years,  we  sh  ill  see  with  satisfaction,  if  parents  send  them  to 
school  during  six  or  seven  years,  and  permit  them  to  attend  even  longer. 

Children  who  desire  to  enter  a  Latin  school  before  their  twelfth  year,  must 
submit  to  a  public  examination,  and  obtain  a  certificate  from  the  school-inspector 
that  they  possess  the  required  knowledge. 

Where  distinct  schools  exist,  girls  shall  be  taught  separately,  and  they  shall 


622  GENERAL  SCHOOL  LAW  OF   ALSTRIA-1774- 

be  instructed  also  in  sewing,  and  all  work  suitable  for  their  sex.  If  no  distinct 
schools  are  organized,  the  girls  shall  attend  the  mixed  school,  but  seated  on 
separate  benches. 

13.  Duty  of  parents  and  guardians  to  send  children  to  school. 

As  the  education  and  instruction  of  youth  has  a  very  great  influence  on  the 
general  well-being,  we  will  not  let  the  good  success  of  our  maternal  care,  in  this 
regard,  be  endangered  by  the  carelessness  of  parents  or  guardians.  Conse- 
quently we  ordain,  that  they  send  their  children  to  school  at  the  proper  age,  or 
have  them  instructed  at  home.  We  recommend  to  magistrates  arid  superiors  to 
watch  over  the  execution  of  this  ordinance,  to  reprimand,  and  if  necessary,  to 
enforce  obedience  on  the  part  of  parents  or  guardians  who  neglect  this  duty. 

After  the  necessary  measures  shall  have  been  taken  to  train  capable  teachers 
in  the  Normal  schools,  no  person  shall  be  permitted  to  follow  the  work  of 
teaching,  if  he  possesses  no  certificate  of  ability,  signed  by  the  authorities  of  a 
Normal  or  Principal  school,  and  for  the  want  of  such  certificate  he  shall  be 
excluded  from  the  profession. 

14.  Work  or  other  necessity  shall  not  dispense  from  school  attendance. 
That  the  service  of  orphans  may  not  be  an  obstacle  to  their  instruction,  it 
shall  not  be  lawful  for  magistrates  to  put  them  out  to  service  before  their  thir- 
teenth year;  or  at  least  those  who  have  not  reached  that  age  must  be  permitted 
to  attend  school  in  Winter.  Other  persons,  who  take  into  their  service  orphans 
below  thirteen  years  of  age,  will  be  obliged  to  send  them  to  school  morning  and 
afternoon,  and  if  they  are  not  insolvent,  they  shall  pay  half  tuition  fees  for  them. 

15.   Of  repetition  schools,  (schools  for  adults.) 

In  the  country,  as  well  as  in  cities,  the  young  people  who  have  ceased  to 
belong  to  primary  schools,  and  particularly  those  who  are  apprentices,  must, 
especially  in  Summer,  on  Sundajrs  after  divine  service,  if  possible,  congregate  at 
the  common  school,  where,  for  two  hours,  the  teacher  will  recapitulate  with 
them,  under  the  inspection  of  the  curate  or  vicar.  They  shall  attend  these  ex- 
ercises till  they  are  twenty  years  old.  First,  they  will  read  the  epistle  or  gospel 
of  the  day ;  then  have  an  exercise  in  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  that  they 
may  revise  the  knowledge  acquired  at  school.  For  these  repetitions,  passages 
will  be  selected  from  standard  works,  treating  on  religion,  morality,  and  all 
subjects  that  tend  to  cultivate  honest  principles  and  domestic  and  simple  tastes. 
The  young  should  be  frequently  questioned  on  various  important  themes. 

The  obligation  of  apprentices  to  take  part  in  these  repetitions  shall  be  such, 
that  their  apprenticeship  can  not  be  declared  ended,  until  they  have  obtained 
from  the  school-inspector  a  certificate,  stating  that  they  have  fruitfully  attended 
the  repetition-school,  after  making  good  progress  in  religion,  reading,  writing, 
and  arithmetic,  in  the  ordinary  course. 

16.   Of  keeping  a  school-register,  to  mark  the  industry  and  progress  of  pupils. 

With  the  two-fold  object  of  knowing  whether  all  the  children  of  school  age 
attend  school,  and  whether  the  want  of  progress  in  pupils  must  be  ascribed  to 
their  frequent  absence,  different  registers  shall  be  kept. 

In  cities,  the  magistrates,  twice  every  year,  at  P]aster  and  St.  Michael's,  shall 
revise  the  list  of  children  of  school  age,  that  is,  of  those  who  have  attained 
their  sixth  year1!  Each  time  the  list  will  be  communicated  to  the  school-teacher, 
that  he  may  know  which  children  are  obliged  to  frequent  the  school. 

In  the  country,  if  the  teacher  is  also  sacristan,  he  can  himself  ascertain,  from 
the  baptismal  register,  the  age  of  every  child  in  the  place,  and  know  what  chil- 
dren are  of  school  age. 

This  will  also  enable  him  to  control  the  assertions  of  parents,  who  often 
attempt  to  escape  the  obligation  of  sending  their  children  to  school. 

That  the  object  may  be  reached,  each  teacher  shall  keep  an  alphabetical  reg- 
ister, in  which  he  will  inscribe  the  names  of  children  from  the  list,  indicating 
their  age.  the  dates  of  their  admittance  and  promotion  from  one  class  to  an- 
other. He  will  also  note  the  absence  of  each  pupil.  At  the  commencement  or 
end  of  the  register,  the  number  of  lessons  which  the  teacher  hns  given  during 
the  month,  and  the  subjects  taught,  should  also  be  entered.  This  register  can 


GENERAL  SCHOOL  LAW  OF  AUSTRIA— 1774.  623 

be  advantageously  consulted   in  the   examinations,  especially  to  know  who 
absent  themselves. 

A  second  register  relates  to  the  degree  of  application  and  progress.  It  should 
be  examined  every  month.  Every  day,  after  prayer,  in  the  morning  as  well  as 
in  the  evening,  the  teacher  must  assure  himself  of  the  presence  of  the  pupils ; 
for  this  purpose  it  will  suffice  to  read  their  names  from  the  catalogue,  marking 
those  present  with  a  line,  the  late-comers  by  a  dot,  and  leaving  blank  the  space 
for  the  absent.  As  this  register  will  distinguish  the  idlers  from  the  diligent,  it 
should  be  kept  with  exactitude,  justice,  and  good  order.  If  by  a  sentiment  of 
animosity,  or  by  negligence,  the  teacher  fails  to  do  his  duty  in  this  respect,  he 
shall  be  punished  as  the  case  may  require.  Every  teacher  shall  transmit,  one 
week  after  vacation,  an  abstract  from  this  register  to  the  school-inspector. 

17.   Ordinary  inspectors  charged  with  examining  the  condition  of  schools. 

In  order  that  the  present  regulation  shall  be  observed,  the  authorities  shall 
appoint  in  every  village  some  special  inspectors,  whose  reports,  addressed  to 
the  Commission  of  Studies,  shall  contain  their  names.  In  the  Normal  and 
Principal  schools  the  director  has  the  superintendence ;  moreover,  a  citizen  of 
the  place,  a  friend  of  education,  shall  be  nominated  by  the  magistrate,  to  watch 
the  progress  of  the  schools,  and  to  assure  himself  that  the  regulations  are  faith- 
fully carried  out.  This  inspector  will  keep  account  of  the  children  that  are 
diligent,  and  of  those  who  are  not  regular  in  their  attendance.  He  shall  state 
whether  the  teacher  proves  zealous  or  negligent,  or  conforms  to  the  ordinance. 
The  inspectors  should  not  make  their  visits  at  stated  periods,  but  whenever 
they  think  proper,  without  notifying  the  teachers. 

In  cities,  burghs,  or  the  country,  the  curate  of  the  parish  shall  be  appointed 
inspector,  one  of  the  magistracy  and  a  prudent  man  from  the  inhabitants  of  the 
commune.  They  shall  conform  to  what  has  been  ordained  in  regard  to  the 
inspectors  in  larger  cities.  Every  inspector  addresses  a  report  to  the  Inspector- 
General  of  Normal  Schools,  on  the  condition  of  the  schools  in  his  jurisdiction. 

1 8.  Nomination  of  Inspector-  Generals. 

The  School-Commissions  shall  elect  as  Inspector-Generals  only  persons  per- 
fectly capable.  A  certain  district  will  be  assigned  to  each  Inspector-General, 
in  which  to  make  his  visits  and  institute  schools.  These  Inspectors  shall  make 
themselves  acquainted  with  the  deficiencies  of  schools ;  examine  the  children 
in  presence  of  the  teacher,  and  receive  the  reports  of  the  local  inspectors,  ren- 
dered at  Easter  and  St.  Michael's.  These  reports  the  Inspector-Generals  for- 
ward to  the  government,  which  refers  them  to  the  School-Commission.  They 
add  an  abstract  of  their  observations,  as  well  as  their  remarks  on  the  following 
objects : 

1.  In  what  place  and  point  do  magistrates,  gentry,    and  inhabitants,  act 
against  the  ordinance. 

2.  What  are  the  obstacles  to  the  success  of  schools. 

3.  In  what  places  are  school-buildings  not  in  order,  or  need  repair;  how  are 
the  school-servants  salaried. 

4.  "What  measures  should  be  taken  to  improve  instruction. 

5.  What  curates,  vicars,  catechisers,   and  schoolmasters  have  distinguished 
themselves  by  diligence  and  zeal  in  teaching,  and  deserve  to  be  rewarded. 

6.  What  teachers  neglect  their  duty  and  should  be  punished  ;  or  are  incorri- 
gible, and  should  consequently  be  discharged. 

19.   The  manner  of  introducing  reform  into  education. 

Immediately  after  the  next  Summer  season,  schools  shall  be  every  where  es- 
tablished, and  the  instruction  of  teachers  be  promptly  provided  for. 

20.   Obligation  of  ecclesiastical  candidates  and  applicants  for  the  monastic  state. 

As  it  is  of  great  importance  that  ecclesiastics  should  have  a  perfect  knowledge 
of  the  new  plans  for  schools,  that  they  may  be  able  to  practice  the  prescribed 
methods,  their  duty  being  chiefly  to  give  religious  instruction  and  to  watch  the 
progress  of  the  schools  in  the  country,  we  ordain  hereby,  by  virtue  of  our 
legislative  power,  that  no  priest  shall  be  proposed  for  a  parish,  unless  he  has 
provided  himself  with  a  certificate  from  the  catechist  of  the  prceparanden  (those 


624  GENERAL   SCHOOL  LAW  OF  AUSTRIA- 1774 

who  prepare  for  admission  to  a  clerical  seminary,)  stating  that  he  is  sufficiently 
acquainted  with  the  method  of  instruction 

It  is  our  will  that  in  future,  when  .schools  are  once  established,  no  laymen 
shall  be  admitted  into  a  convent,  unless  they  understand  the  theory  of  instruc- 
tion, and  produce  a  certificate  from  one  of  the  Normal  Schools. 

We  rely  with  confidence  on  the  zeal  of  bishops  and  curates,  in  behalf  of  the 
interests  of  religion,  and  on  the  regard  they  have  for  us,  that  they  will  seek 
to  improve  education ;  and  diligently  aid  in  the  execution  of  our  orders. 

21.  Prohibition  to  Teachers  to  leep  a  tavern. 

Though  we  are  well  disposed  to  permit  teachers  in  the  country  the  exercise 
of  an  honest  trade,  provided  it  does  not  form  an  obstacle  to  their  special  duties, 
yet  we  order  and  ordain  hereby,  that  no  teacher  who  receives  a  sufficient  salary 
and  enjoys  mi  honest  subsistence,  shall  keep  a  tavern,  under  pain  of  removal. 

Neither  can  we  permit  school  teachers  to  make  music  or  play  at  a  fair,  wed- 
ding, or  other  occasion,  in  taverns  or  similar  houses.  This  in  future  they  are 
strictly  forbidden  to  do,  likewise,  under  pain  of  removal.  We  also  forbid  curates 
to  be  accompanied  by  the  teacher  in  their  visits  to  the  sick ;  they  should  ad- 
dress themselves  to  other  persons. 

22.  Examinations  and  rewards. 

Every  year,  in  the  various  schools,  shall  be  held  an  examination  on  all  subjects 
of  instruction  during  that  year,  in  order  to  ascertain  the  progress  of  the  scholars. 

In  cities,  this  examination  shall  take  place  in  presence  of  the  deputies  of  the 
magistrate,  arid  in  the  country,  in  presence  of  the  curate,  some  of  the  gentry, 
and  some  aldermen. 

Every  pupil  can  show  his  degree  of  knowledge.  The  public  also  shall  be 
admitted,  and  may  question  the  scholars  within  the  limits  of  matters  contained 
in  the  class-books. 

In  cities  it  becomes  a  duty  to  examine  whether  young  people,  who  desire  to 
enter  the  Latin  Colleges,  and  to  devote  themselves  to  the  study  of  science,  have 
the  required  attainments  Also  it  should  be  ascertained  whether  the  parents 
approve  the  sending  of  their  sons  to  gymnasiums.  If,  as  a  result  of  the  exam- 
ination, it  is  shown  that  idle  scholars  have  not  attained  the  necessar}7  instruc- 
tion, the  inspectors  may  oblige  them  to  continue  to  attend  the  school. 

After  the  examination,  the  foundation  and  other  benefices  existing  shall  be 
distributed  to  the  most  deserving  scholars,  to  encourage  them  and  to  stimulate 
the  zeal  of  others.  For  this  should  be  chosen:  1,  scholars  who  have  given  con- 
vincing proofs  of  their  progress;  2,  those  who  surpass  others  in  good  conduct. 

23.  Reports  on  the  condition  of  schools. 

[This  paragraph  only  repeats  the  directions  of  §§  17  and  18,  concerning  the 
preparation  and  transmission  of  semi-annual  reports  ] 

24.  The  zeal  of  inspectors  and  teachers  is  the  basis  of  promotion. 

Notwithstanding  it  is  the  duty  of  all  to  fulfill,  to  the  fullest  extent,  the  obli- 
gations of  the  office  intrusted  to  them,  we  are  disposed  to  promote  to  better 
places  those  who  distinguish  themselves  by  their  zeal  and  successful  teaching. 

We  wish  school-teachers  and  all  who  teach  in  cities  to  take  rank  immediately 
after  the  magistrates ;  in  the  country,  after  the  aldermen,  so  that  during  solem- 
nities they  have  a  right  to  a  position  before  other  persons. 

Ecclesiastics,  who  give  instruction  in  the  catechism,  or  those  who  prove  their 
zeal  for  schools,  shall  have  the  preference  not  only  in  the  benefices  belonging 
to  our  patronage,  but  in  all  benefices,  of  ecclesiastical  or  lay  patronage,  it  being 
our  expectation  that  the  patrons  will  second  our  views,  and  work  with  us  for 
the  general  welfare.  We  also  hope  that  all  will  appreciate  the  maternal  care 
with  which  we  have  begun  to  regulate  the  principles  of  education  and  general 
instruction  of  youth.  We  ordain  that  all  regencies  and  governments,  subordi- 
nate to  us,  shall  execute  in  the  provinces  and  follow  faithfully  all  regulations 
prescribed.  We  command  likewise  all  superior  ecclesiastics,  and,  in  general,  all 
superior  civil  officers,  magistrates,  noblemen  and  their  employees,  schoolmasters, 
and  all  our  faithful  subjects,  to  conform  to  the  spirit  and  intent  of  this  ordinance. 

Giren  in  out  capital  and  residence,  city  of  Vienna.  December  6,  1774. 


J.  I.  VON  FELBIGER. 


JOEIANN  IGNAZ  VON  FKLBIGER  was  born  January  6,  1724,  at 
Grossglogau  in  Silesia,  of  Catholic  parents,  studied  theology  at 
Breslau,  in  1746  entered  the  princely  foundation  of  "Regular  Canons 
of  the  Order  of  St.  Augustine  of  the  Lateran  Congregation  of  our 
Dear  Lady,"  at  Sagan  in  Silesia,  in  1758  became  arch-priest  of  the 
circle  of  Sagan,  and  soon  afterwards  abbot  and  prelate  of  the  same. 

In  this  of^ce  he  had  the  oversight  of  the  churches  and  schools  of 
the  town,  and  of  a  number  of  villages  belonging  to  it:  and  his  atten- 
tion was  thus  directed  to  the  condition  of  the  Catholic  school  system 
generally,  which  the  Austrian  government  had  suffered  to  sink  in  the 
charge  of  the  priests  and  especially  of  the  Jesuits,  into  a  most  miser- 
able condition  of  inactivity  and  indifference.  Parochial  common 
schools  were  very  few,  mostly  in  the  towns,  and  of  a  very  low  grade, 
insomuch  that  many  Catholic  parents  sent  their  children  to  Protestant 
schools. 

Felbiger's  first  distinct  efforts  to  improve  the  Catholic  schools  of 
Sagan  were  made  about  1761,  and  were  much  facilitated  by  the  pas- 
sage of  Silesia  under  the  Prussian  dominion,  at  the  peace  of  Dresden 
in  1745.  But  finding  himself  hopelessly  obstructed,  for  the  time,  by 
the  incapacity  of  the  teachers,  he  became  readily  interested  in  the 
efforts  then  making  for  the  improvement  of  the  schools  throughout 
Prussia,  and  especially  in  the  annual  reports  of  the  Berlin  Real 
School,  founded  by  Hecker  in  1739,  and  with  which  a  teachers'  sem- 
inary was  connected  in  1748.  In  1763,  he  visited  this  school,  strictly 
incognito,  and  acquainted  himself  with  its  scope,  organization  and 
methods,  and  in  particular  with  the  "Tabular  and  Literal  Method" 
of  J.  F.  Hahn,  whose  systematized  mechanical  character  was  well 
adapted  to  his  views  as  a  partizan  of  the  Jesuit  principles  of  educa 
tion.  On  his  return  from  Berlin  he  at  once  commenced  an  active 
course  of  labors  for  the  extension  and  improvement  of  the  common 
schools ;  sending  young  men  quietly  at  his  own  expense  to  Berlin  for 
training  as  teachers ;  repeating  his  own  visits  there ;  founding  normal 
schools  at  Sagan,  Leubus,  Griissau  and  Rauden,  and  afterwards  at 
Breslau,  Ratibor  and  Habelschwerdt ;  himself  laboring  as  a  teacher, 

issuing  a  series  of  school-books  and  catechisms  from  a  printing  estab- 

40 


626  J.  J.  VON  FELBIGER. 

jshment  of  his  own,  providing  for  increased  salaries  to  teachers,  and 
generally  laboring  for  a  well-regulated  school  system. 

The  attention  of  the  Prussian  government  was  attracted  by  the 
efforts  of  Felbiger,  and  it  gladly  seized  the  opportunity  of  placing  so 
zealous  and  capable  a  person  at  the  head  of  the  new  school  organiza- 
tion for  the  Catholic  portions  of  the  kingdom.  In  their  place  he 
drew  up  and  put  into  operation  the  *  School  Regulations  for  Roman 
Catholics  in  the  Duchy  of  Silesia  and  County  of  Glatz,"  of  3  Nov., 
1765  ;  a  code  which  affords  a  good  view  of  his  principles  of  educa- 
tion.* The  improvements  introduced  by  Felbiger  consisted  in  pro- 
moting better  preparation  of  teachers,  the  substitution  of  subjects 
connected  with  actual  life  for  mere  memorizing,  previously  used,  the 
introduction  of  simultaneous  instruction,  in  order  to  accelerate  the 
progress  of  the  children  and  to  interest  them,  and  in  the  introduction 
of  tables  and  other  similar  systematized  collections  of  matter  intended 
to  be  learned,  as  a  mode  of  causing  uniformity  in  subjects  and 
methods  of  teaching,  where  previously  each  teacher  had  followed  hi? 
own  methods  or  suggestions.  The  leading  feature  in  these  improve- 
ments was  the  simultaneous  method.  The  tables  were  a  mode  of 
"  presenting  whatever  is  to  be  learned,  before  the  eye,  in  such  ari 
arrangement  that  the  pupil  can  see  whatever  is  to  be  learned  about 
any  one  subject,  and  also  the  order  in  which  the  parts  of  such  mate 
/ial  follow  each  other."  There  were  two  kinds  of  these ;  one  in 
which  a  scheme  of  stems  and  branches  with  braces  was  used,  and 
another,  in  which  by  using  the  initials  of  each  line,  the  chief  and 
r.ubordinate  divisions  of  the  subject  were  to  be  remembered.  They 
were  used  in  the  catechism,  writing,  reading  and  arithmetic,  and 
included  in  part  definitions  and  systematized  presentations  of  subjects, 
in  part  statements  of  rules.  They  were  to  be  written  on  the  black 
board  by  the  teacher,  and  memorized  by  the  pupils,  proper  explana 
tions  being  given.  The  second  kind  were  used  with  the  "  literal 
method"  already  mentioned;  by  writing  the  initials  on  the  black- 
board, and  making  the  children  repeat  them,  as  well  as  the  words  to 
which  they  belonged,  until  they  could  repeat  the  words  alone. 

In  the  course  of  the  reorganization  of  the  Austrian  government 
under  Maria  Theresa,  the  school  system  assumed  a  place  as  an  im- 
portant object  of  governmental  activity,  and  was  as  such  taken  out 
of  the  exclusive  control  of  the  clergy.  A  central  school  department 
was  organized  in  1770,  and  a  normal  school  established  at  Vienna. 
In  1773  the  Jesuit  order  was  extinguished,  and  the  comprehensive 

*See  Neigebaur,  "Common  School  System  of  Prussia,  (Volksschulwesen  in  den  Preussi*- 
chen  Staaten.)" 


J.  I  VON  FELBIGER 


627 


reformatory  plans  of  the  government  more  fully  put  in  operation. 
The  Prussian  government,  at  the  express  request  of  the  empress,  gave 
Felbiger  permission  to  enter  the  Austrian  service,  and  he  was  appointed 
4*  General  Director  of  the  School  System  of  the  Austrian  States,"  in 
1764. 

The  reforms  which  he  introduced  in  this  new  sphere  of  activity, 
consisted  in  the  introduction  of  the  features  of  his  system  into  the 
three  grades  of  schools  that  were  now  established,  the  use  of  pre- 
scribed text-books  and  tables,  the  regulation  of  summer  and  winter 
terms,  a  systematic  division  by  classes,  a  very  detailed  plan  of  normal 
lessons,  and  a  thorough  official  inspection  over  the  system,  which  it 
was  attempted  to  render  fixed  even  to  stiffness.  Felbiger's  plans,  at 
first  introduced  only  into  Vienna  and  Austria  proper,  were  received 
with  increasing  favor,  and  were  soon  extended  into  the  other  hered- 
itary states  of  the  empire.  Their  influence  was  in  fact  apparent 
throughout  the  whole  of  Catholic  Germany,  in  an  increased  interest 
in  the  schools. 

Felbiger's  labors  in  Austria  were  too  short.  In  1778,  when  the 
war  of  the  Bavarian  succession  threatened  to  break  out,  he  received 
orders  from  Friedrich  II.  either  to  return  to  Silesia,  or  to  resign  his 
abbacy  at  Sagan.  Desirous  of  protecting  his  favorite  enterprise 
against  its  adversaries,  he  chose  the  latter,  and  received  a  compensa- 
tory appointment  and  income  from  the  empress.  But  after  the 
accession  (in  1780)  of  Joseph  II.,  he  was  no  longer  supported  by 
government,  and  was  finally  ordered  to  retire  to  his  deanery  at  Pres- 
burg,  and  to  restrict  his  attention  to  the  improvement  of  the  Hun- 
garian schools.  Here  he  died,  May  17th,  1788. 


FERDINAND   KINDERMANN. 


FERDINAND  KINDERMANN,  whose  great  services  to  popular 
education  from  1771  to  1801,  in  Bohemia,  were  recognized  by  the 
Empress  Theresa  in  conferring  on  him  the  title  of  Von  Schulstein 
(school  stone),  and  nominating  him,  in  1779,  Bishop  of  Leitmeritz, 
was  born  in  1740  at  Koenigswalde,  near  Schluckenau,  and  educated 
at  the  University  of  Prague.  While  a  student  he  heard  lectures  on 
the  Art  of  Education  by  Prof.  Seibt,  which  so  impressed  him  that 
when  he  became  pastor  of  a  church  at  Kaplitz,  in  South  Bohemia, 
he  included  the  education  of  youth  and  the  improvement  of 
schools  in  his  clerical  duties ;  and  there  was  no  more  pressing 
demand  on  the  paternal  care  of  the  church  and  the  government 
throughout  the  whole  of  this  province,  which  had  been  swept  by 
ravages  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and  rent  by  relentless  religious 
dissensions  and  persecutions.  At  the  close  of  the  Seven  Yeara' 
War  it  was  estimated  that  not  one  in  twenty  of  the  children  ira 
Bohemia  were  in  school  of  any  kind,  or  were  in  villages  where 
the  facilities  of  school  organization  existed.  The  condition  of  the 
schools  was  deplorable.  Kindermann,  in  speaking  of  the  schools 
of  his  parish  at  Kaplitz,  in  1771,  writes:  'The  children,  big  and 
little,  old  and  young,  were  assembled  in  the  schoolroom — without 
regulation — passing  in  and  out  without  reference  to  the  wishes  of 
the  teacher — some  eating  their  bread,  and  others  complaining  that 
they  had  none — a  few  reciting,  some  learning  their  lessons,  and  all 
doing  in  their  own  way  what  each  thought  best — the  schoolmaster 
incapable  of  stopping  the  hubbub,  and  creating  order  out  of  the 
confusion.  The  methods  of  instruction  were  purely  mechanical — 
confined  to  the  repetition  of  words  without  meaning  for  the  intel- 
lect, or  emotion  for  the  heart.  The  whole  of  the  religious  instruc- 
tion was  the  literal  repetition  of  the  answers  dictated  to  the 
questions  of  the  Catechism.' 

To  fit  himself  for  his  work  of  school  reform,  Kindermann  resorted 
to  Sagan,  and  put  himself  under  the  training  of  Felbiger ;  and  on 
his  return,  he  writes  *  my  first  day  was  spent  in  the  parish  school,  and 
the  second  with  the  teacher  and  class  of  pupils  in  my  own  room, 
instructing  now  the  teacher  how  to  teach,  and  then  the  scholars 


FERDINAND  KINDERMANN.  G29 

how  to  learn  a  lesson  in  the  Catechism.'  Within  a  month  the 
pupils  learned  the  whole  Catechism  understandingly,  which  formerly 
occupied  the  whole  year,  without  any  thorough  understanding  of 
the  words  committed  to  memory.  His  work  prospered,  and  the 
school  soon  became  the  teachers  and  the  pupils  delight,  and  the 
admiration  of  parents  and  the  community.  Its  fame  went  abroad 
into  the  other  villages,  and  his  methods  were  followed  by  other 
teachers,  till  it  became  a  normal  school,  under  his  direction  and 
that  of  his  curate,  Simon  Kudler,  in  whose  heart  he  had  kindled  a 
similar  zeal.  In  his  whole  movement  he  was  guided  by  great  dis- 
cretion and  unostentatious  industry — avoiding  all  promises  and  all 
display,  in  which  he  differed  from  Felbiger,  who  was  more  demon- 
strative and  exacting — making  much  of  outward  organization, 
mechanical  methods  and  illustrations,  and  frequent  exhibitions  of 
results.  While  Kindermann  pushed  his  improved  methods  into 
every  study,  he  carefully  drew  attention  only  to  his  penmanship, 
which  people  generally  could  appreciate,  and  to  the  vocal  music, 
which  parents  were  delighted  to  have  their  children  excel  in.  His 
better  methods  in  every  study  gradually  became  the  habits  not  only 
of  his  own  village  schools,  but  of  a  wide  circle  of  schools  whose 
teachers  resorted  to  Kaplitz  for  information  and  training. 

When  Maria  Theresa,  in  1774,  had  decided  on  a  general 
reorganization  of  the  popular  schools,  and  called  Felbiger  as  director 
to  the  central  Normal  Institute  for  Teachers  in  Vienna,  she  placed 
Kindermann  at  the  head  of  a  School  Commission  for  Bohemia,  and 
Professor  of  Pedagogy  in  the  Gymnasium  of  Minor  Prague ;  subse- 
quently he  was  made  director  of  the  training  course  in  the  Real 
School  at  Prague,  founded  by  Amand  Schindler,  in  1776.  Kinder- 
mann opened  his  course  by  an  oration  on  '  the  influence  of  the 
Lower  Schools  on  Public  Life  and  Education  generally.'  In  a  cir- 
cular entitled  '  Incentives  to  the  Public  Examinations  of  the 
Scholars  in  the  Imperial  Normal  School  of  Little  Prague,'  he  gave 
publicity  to  the  school  ordinances  of  Maria  Theresa,  and  included 
an  account  of  all  the  important  improvements  introduced  into 
different  parts  of  Bohemia,  drawn  from  the  reports  of  district 
inspectors,  school  directors,  and  official  examiners. 

As  early  as  1777  Kindermann  had  sent  out  five  hundred  teachers 
trained  in  his  new  methods,  into  as  many  schools,  situated  in  cities, 
on  the  domains  of  the  nobility,  and  in  connection  with  religious 
establishments — each  of  which  became  a  model  for  the  schools  of  a 
still  wider  section,  and  the  center  of  direct  influence  on  the  people. 

One  peculiarity  of  the  training  system  of  Kindermann   was  the 


FERDINAND  KINDERMANN. 

organic  union  of  mental  activity  and  the  industrial  element  in  both 
the  normal  and  the  popular  school.  Not  only  were  teachers 
familiarized  with  practical  subjects  and  with  methods  which  dealt 
with  realities  instead  of  words,  and  called  for  the  frequent  use  of 
the  blackboard  and  visible  illustrations,  but  they  were  trained  to 
some  handicraft  with  the  special  object  of  communicating  the  same 
to  the  children  of  peasants,  whose  habits  of  industry  had  been 
broken  up  by  continuous  military  service,  and  the  destruction  of 
harvests  by  moving  troops  and  armies.  The  value  of  habits  of 
diligence,  perseverance,  neatness  and  thrift  was  constantly  inculcated 
and  demonstrated  practically.  Pupil  teachers  were  taught  at 
Kaplitz  and  Prague  how  to  occupy  a  portion  of  their  own  time, 
and  that  of  their  older  pupils,  in  and  out  of  school  hours  in  such 
in-door  industries  as  knitting,  sewing,  wool-carding  and  spinning, 
and  out-door  work  as  kitchen  gardening,  tree  culture,  and  raising 
silk-worms.  And  the  reasons  assigned  by  Kindermann  for  this 
new  curriculum  was  to  protect  society  against  beggary,  vice,  and 
crime,  and  promote  the  welfare  of  the  peasant  class. 

That  his  efforts  in  this  direction  were  followed  by  the  happiest 
results,  the  increased  prosperity  of  the  peasant  classes  in  Bohemia, 
and  the  speedy  adoption,  in  some  form,  of  the  industrial  feature  of 
his  plan  in  other  states  is  ample  proof. 

The  further  history  of  his  work  is  absorbed  in  the  general  history 
of  educational  reform  in  the  Austrian  Empire.  He  lived  a  quiet 
though  active  life,  preferring  to  work  unostentatiously  in  smaller 
circles  than  to  win  fame  as  a  great  reformer — and  his  published 
works,  besides  those  already  named,  are  '  Report  on  the  School  at 
Kaplitz?  '  Thought*  on  the  means  of  disseminating  the  Religious 
Instruction  of  the  Improved  Common  Schools  among  Adults,  with 
two  prize  themes  :  One  for  an  instructive  text-book  for  the  people,  and 
one  for  a  condensed  Explanation  of  Religious  Customs  and  Cere- 
monies.'1 

The  honors  bestowed  upon  him  by  his  sovereign  show  the  esti- 
mation in  which  his  services  were  held,  and  at  the  same  time  prove 
the  spirit  with  which  Maria  Theresa  undertook  the  work  of  reform. 
Shortly  after  his  removal  from  Kaplitz  to  Prague,  he  was  made 
Dean  of  the  Collegiate  Church  of  All  Saints  and  given  the  Abbey 
of  Petur,  in  Hungary,  in  commendam,  and  at  the  same  time  raised 
to  the  Equestrian  rank  with  the  title  of  Von  Schulstein.  In 
1779  he  was  made  Provost  of  the  Church  of  Maria  Schein,  near 
Teplitz,  and  nominated  Bishop  of  Leitmeritz,  which  dignity  he  held 
at  the  time  of  his  death  in  1801. 


RECENT  SCHOOL  LEGISLATION  OF  AUSTRIA. 


i. 

LAW  RESPECTING  COMMON  SCHOOLS. 

{Issued  by  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  with  the  agreement  of  both  Houses  of  the  Imperial 

Diet,  May  14,  1869.] 


A.-PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  OB  COMMON  SCHOOLS. 
I. — AIM  AND  ORGANIZATION  OP  THE  COMMON  SCHOOLS. 

§  1.  The  common  school  (volksschule)  has  in  view  the  religious  and  moral  edu- 
cation of  the  children,  and  aims  at  developing  their  intel  ect,  and  imparting  such 
knowledge  as  is  necessary  to  make  them  good  men  and  citizens. 

§  2.  Any  common  school  that  is  supported  or  assisted  by  the  state,  the  prov- 
ince, or  the  municipality,  is  a  public  school,  and  as  such  accessible  to  all  youth, 
without  difference  of  creed. 

All  other  schools  are  private  institutions. 

1. —  Common  elementary  Schools. 

§  3.  In  every  elementary  common  school  (allgemeine  volksschule}  at  least  the 
following  subjects  shall  be  taught :  Religion,  language,  arithmetic,  the  most  ne- 
cessary elements  of  natural  philosophy,  geography  arid  history,  with  particular 
regard  to  the  country  and  its  constitution,  writing,  geometrical  forms,  singing, 
and  gymnastics.  Girls  shall  also  be  instructed  in  needlework  and  housekeeping. 

The  extent  to  which  these  subjects  shall  be  taught,  and  additional  branches, 
depends  on  the  grade  of  the  school  and  the  number  of  teachers. 

|  4.  The  plans  of  instruction  for  t  hese  schools,  as  well  as  all  the  other  organi- 
zation, will  be  determined  by  the  Minister  of  Education,  on  the  recommendation 
of  the  provincial  school  boards. 

§  5.  Religious  instruction  is  cared  for  and  superintended  by  the  respective 
church  boards. 

The  number  of  lessons  in  religion  will  be  fixed  in  the  plan  of  insti  action. 

The  distribution  of  the  subjects  for  each  year's  course  will  be  fi^ed  by  the 
church  boards. 

Both  the  teachers  of  religion  and  the  clerical  boards  must  observe  the  school 
laws,  and  the  orders  of  the  school  boards  made  in  pursuance  thereof. 

All  directions  by  the  clerical  board  shall  be  made  known  to  the  principal  of  the 
school  ($  12)  through  the  district  school  superintendent.  Such  directions  as  are 
incompatible  with  the  general  school  order  shall  not  be  communicated. 

In  places  without  a  clergyman  who  can  regularly  give  religious  instruction,  the 
teacher  may  be  obliged,  with  the  consent  of  the  clerical  board,  to  take  part  in 
teaching  the  children  of  his  creed,  in  accordance  with  the  directions  given  by  the 
school  boards. 

If  any  of  the  denominations  should  omit  to  care  for  religious  instruction,  the 
provincial  school  board,  after  hearing  those  who  are  interested,  will  make  the 
needed  arrangements. 

$  6.  The  language  used  for  instruction,  and  whether  a  second  lancruage  shall 
be  taught  or  not,  is  determined,  within  the  limits  drawn  by  the  laws,  by  the  pro- 
vincial school  board  (landes  schulbehorde .)* 

§  7.  The  subjects  to  be  taught  shall  be  allotted  to  the  eight  years  during  which 
every  child  must  attend  school  in  a  way  that  each  year,  if  possible,  may  consti- 
tute a  grade.  The  division  of  the  children  into  sections  or  classes  depends  on  the 

*  School  hoard  of  the  country ;  meaning  not  Austria,  but  the  various  countries,  as  Bohemia, 
Tyrol,  Austria  Proper,  &c.,  called  by  the  translator  provinces. 


632  SCHOOL   LEGISLATION    OF    AUSTRIA. 

number  of  children  and  teachers.  Whether  a  separation  of  boys  and  girls  shall 
be  made  is  left  to  the  decision  of  the  local  school  committee  and  the  district  school 
superintendent. 

§  8.  A  list  of  admissible  text-books  will  be  approved  by  the  Minister  of  Educa- 
tion, after  hearing  the  provincial  school  boards. 

The  district  school  superintendent  chooses  from  among  the  admissible  text- 
books, after  hearing  the  teachers'  conference  of  the  district. 

§  9.  The  number  of  weekly  lessons  (lesson  hours)  in  the  different  years'  courses 
is  set  down  in  the  plan  of  instruction,  (§4.) 

In  the  (fabrik  schulen)  factory  sshools,  (§  60.)  instruction  shall  embrace  at 
least  twelve  hours  a  week,  and  these  hours  shall  be  only  between  7  A.  M.  and  6 
P.  M  ,  with  exception  of  the  noon  hour. 

§  10.  To  meet  the  special  wants  of  particular  localities,  institutions  for  little 
children,  who  are  not  yet  bound,  and  allowed  to  go  to  school,  (less  than  six  years 
old,)  or  special  courses  for  an  agricultural  Or  industrial  education,  may  be  joined 
to  the  school. 

§  11.  The  number  of  teachers  in  any  school  depends  on  the  number  of  children 
in  attendance. 

If  the  attendance  in  three  successive  years  reach  the  average  number  of  80,  posi- 
tively a  second  teacher  shall  be  provided;  if  the  number  of  160,  a  third  teacher 
must  be  employed,  and  so  on  in  proportion. 

The  number  of  teachers  once  employed  in  a  school  cannot  be  lowered  unless  by 
consent  of  the  provincial  school  board,  and  then  only  if,  in  five  successive  years, 
the  above  average  number  has  not  been  reach(  d. 

The  legislature  of  the  province  has  the  right  to  lower  the  above  maximum  of 
children  to  be  taught  by  one  teacher. 

§  12.  The  responsible  conductor  (letter)  of  a  school  is  the  teacher,  and  where 
several  are  employed,  the  head  master  or  principal  teacher,  (oberlehrer.) 

§  13.  If  a  school  has  two  or  three  teachers,  one  of  them  may  be  an  under  master 
or  assistant,  (unterlehrer.) 

If  there  be  four  or  five,  two  of  them  may  be  assistants. 

With  a  greater  number  of  teachers,  the  third  part  of  them  may  be  under 
masters. 

§  14.  The  §g  3—13  apply  also  to  schools  for  girls,  and  to  the  employment  of 
female  teachers  and  assistants 

With  more  than  one  teacher,  the  head  governess  of  the  school  is  called  ofar- 
lehrerin. 

$  15.  The  female  teachers  and  assistants  of  girls'  schools  must,  as  a  rule,  give 
instruction  in  needlework  and  housekeeping,  (haushaltungs-kunde,}  for  which  a 
special  section  shall  be  arranged. 

Where  the  girls  school  is  in  charge  of  male  teachers,  a  special  female  teacher 
must  be  employed  for  this  instruction. 

Where  separate  schools  for  girls  do  not  exist,  the  girls  shall  have  their  work- 
schools  (arbeits-schulen)  for  that  purpose  separate,  or  in  connection  with  the  com- 
mon school 

§  16  Whether  female  teachers  shall  be  employed  in  the  lower  classes  of  the 
common  school,  also  for  the  education  of  boys,  is  left  to  the  legislature  of  the  re- 
spective province. 

2. — Burgher  School. 

§17.  The  burgher  school  aims  at  giving  all  those  who  attend  no  secondary 
school  (mittelschule)  an  education  going  beyond  the  limits  of  the  comLav»n  element- 
ary school,  (allgemeine  volksschule.) 

The  subjects  of  instruction  are  religion,  language  and  composition,  history  and 
geography,  natural  history  and  philosophy,  arithmetic,  geometry,  book-keeping, 
free-hand  and  geometrical  drawing,  calijrraphy,  singing,  gymnastics,  with  the 
addition,  for  girls,  of  needlework  and  housekeeping. 

In  the  non-German  burgher  schools,  opportunity  shall  be  given  of  learning 
German. 

With  the  consent  of  the  provincial  school  board,  also  one  living  language  may 
be  taught  in  a  burgher  s<  hool,  without  being  obligatory. 

§  18.  Those  who  support  the  school  may  organize  the  common  elementary 
school  in  a  way  to  serve  at  ihe  same  time  the  end  of  a  burgher  school.  In  this 
case  the  school  shall  consist  of  eight  classes. 


SCHOOL   LEGISLATION    OP   AUSTRIA.  633 

An  independent  burgher  school  of  three  classes  may  be  established,  which  shall 
follow  the  fifth  year's  course  of  a  common  school. 

§  19.  The  §§  4—8  and  10—14  apply  also  to  the  burgher  school,  except  the  fol- 
lowing points : 

1.  The  separation  of  boys  and  girls,  in  a  burgher  school  of  three  classes,  must 
take  place  throughout;  in  one  of  eight  classes,  in  the -three  highest  courses. 

2.  If  practicable,  special  teachers  of  religion  shall  be  employed. 

3.  The  conference  of  teachers  chooses  from  the  admissible  text-books ;  they  may 
also  apply  to  the  provincial  school  board  for  new  readers  and  text-books. 

4.  The  responsible  conductor  of  the  school  is  called  director. 

II. — SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE. 

§  20.  Parents  or  their  substitutes  are  not  permitted  to  leave  their  children  or 
wards  without  the  instruction  prescribed  for  the  public  elementary  schools.  /• 

§  21.  The  obligation  to  attend  school  begins  with  the  sixth  year  completed,  and 
lasts  until  the  fourteenth  year  completed.  The  children  leave  school  only  when 
they  have  acquired  the  indispensable  knowledge  of  reading,  writing,  and  arith- 
metic. 

At  the  end  of  a  school  year,  such  children  as  will  complete  the  fourteenth  year 
of  age  in  the  next  six  months,  and  have  completely  mastered  the  subjects  of  the 
elementary  school,  may  be  permitted  by  the  district  school  superintendent  to  leave 
school,  if  there  be  important  reasons  for  doing  so. 

§  22.  The  children  are  admitted  only  at  the  commencement  of  the  school  year, 
except  when  parents  move  to  the  place  in  the  mean  time. 

The  district  school  superintendent,  and,  in  urgent  cases,  the  local  committee, 
may  admit  children  exceptionally  during  the  course  of  the  school  year. 

§23.  Children  may  be  relieved  from  the  obligation  to  attend  the  common 
school  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period,  viz  :  boys  who  attend  a  higher  school ;  chil- 
dren who  suffer  from  a  mental  or  a  severe  corporeal  infirmity  ;  finally,  such  as 
are  instructed  at  home  or  in  a  private  school.  In  the  last  case,  the  parents  or 
their  substitutes  are  responsible  that  at  least  the  instruction  prescribed  for  the 
public  school  is  imparted  to  their  children  in  a  satisfactory  manner.  If  there  be 
a  doubt  in  this  regard,  the  district  school  inspector  is  obliged  to  convince  himself 
whether  the  doubt  be  well  grounded  or  not.  The  parents  must  submit  to  the 
measures  taken  for  that  purpose. 

§  24.  Parents  or  their  substitutes,  as  well  as  the  owners  of  factories  and  indus- 
trial establishments,  are  responsible  for  the  attendance  of  the  children,  and  may 
be  compelled  by  coercive  measures  to  their  duty  in  this  regard.  The  particulars 
will  be  fixed  by  the  legislature  of  the  province. 

§  25.  Parents  and  their  substitutes  must  provide  their  children  with  the  neces- 
sary books  and  other  implements  of  instruction. 

III. — EDUCATION  AND   QUALIFICATION   OP  TEACHERS. 

§  26.  Teachers  are  trained  in  seminaries  separate  for  the  two  sexes. 

§  27.  For  the  practical  education  of  the  teacher  pupils,  each  seminary  has  joined 
with  it  a  school  of  practice.  (Hbungs-und  musterschule, )  and  in  seminaries  for  female 
teachers  also  a  "kindergarten,"  (a  children's  garden  or  infant  school  ) 

For  teaching  and  practising  agricultural  work,  a  suitable  lot  of  land  in  the 
neighborhood  shall  be  joined  to  each  seminary  for  male  teachers. 

§  28.  The  course  embraces  four  years. 

|  29.  In  the  seminaries  for  male  teachers  are  taught  religion  ;  pedagogy,  with 
its  history  and  auxiliary  sciences  ;  grammar,  composition,  and  history  of  litera- 
ture ;  mathematics,  (arithmetic,  algebra,  and  geometry  ;)  natural  history,  (zoolo- 
gy, botany,  and  mineralogy;)  natural  philosophy  and  elements  of  chemistry; 
geography  and  history;  agriculture,  with  special  regard  to  the  cultivation  of 
fruit  and  vegetables,  and  to  the  breeding  of  silkworms  and  bees  ;  the  constitution 
of  the  coun'ry,  caligraphy,  free-hand  and  geometrical  drawing,  music,  and  gym- 
nastics. The  pupils  must  be  made  acquainted,  wherever  there  may  be  an  oppor- 
tunity, with  the  method  of  instructing  blind  and  deaf  mute  children,  and  also  with 
the  organization  t)f  a  well-managed  kindergarten,  (infant  school.) 

g  30.  In  the  seminaries  for  female  teachers  are  taught  religion  ;  pedagogy  and 
its  history  ;  grammar,  composition,  and  history  of  literature :  geography  and  his- 
tory; arithmetic;  natural  history  and  philosophy;  caligraphy,  drawing,  sing- 


634  SCHOOL    LEGISLATION    IN    AUSTRIA. 


ing,  and  housekeeping.  The  pupils  must  also  be  made  acquainted,  whenever 
there  is  an  opportunity,  with  the  organization  of  a  well-managed  kindergarten. 

Teachers  of  female  industries  are  trained  either  in  the  seminaries  or  in  separata 
courses. 

§  31.  The  language  of  instruction  is  determined  by  the  Minister  of  Education, 
on  the  recommendation  of  the  provincial  school  board,  so  far  as  the  law  of  the 
province  does  not  fix  it  otherwise. 

Where  it  should  be  desirable  for  teachers  to  know  also  a  second  language  of  the 
country,  the  pupils  shall  have  opportunity  to  acquire  the  same,  to  enable  them 
eventually  to  teach  it. 

§  32.  For  admission  to  the  first  year's  course,  the  fifteenth  year  completed,  bod- 
ily fitness,  moral  integrity,  and  suitable  education  are  required. 

This  education  is  tested  by  a  severe  examination,  which  in  general  embraces 
the  subjects  taught  in  an  under  real  school  or  an  under  gymnasium,  except  for- 
eign languages. 

The  public  seminaries  are  accessible  to  all,  without  difference  of  creed. 

§  33.  The  number  of  pupils  in  one  year's  course  shall  not  exceed  40. 

|  34.  The  teacher  pupils  having  finished  their  four  years'  course  shall  be  sub- 
jected to  a  rigid  examination,  in  the  presence  of  a  deputy  of  the  provincial  school 
board,  in  all  the  subjects  taught  in  the  seminary,  and  if  they  pass  the  same  satis- 
factorily, they  shall  receive  a  certificate  of  maturity,  (zeugniss  der  reife.) 

§  35.  Teachers  employed  in  the  seminary  are  the  principal,  (director, )  who  is  at 
the  same  time  head  master  of  the  school  of  practice;  two  to  four  head  teachers, 
(hauptlehrer ;}  the  teachers  of  religion,  and  the  needed  assistants,  who  are  all 
nominated  by  the  Minister  of  Education,  after  hearing  the  provincial  school  board. 

Teachers  of  the  school  of  practice  are  bound  to  assist  in  training  the  teacher 
pupils. 

§36.  The  salaries  are  fixed:  of  principals,  1,200  to  1,800  florins;  of  teachers, 
1,000  to  1,200/2 ,  with  an  addition  of  100/Z.  every  five  years,  until  the  twentieth 
year  of  service. 

The  principals  in  Vienna  and  Trieste  receive,  moreover,  free  lodgings,  or  300^., 
and  teachers  150.$.  a  year  each. 

g  37.  Instruction  in  the  seminaries  is  gratuitous.  Poor  and  talented  pupils  may 
receive  stipends,  but  must  oblige  themselves  to  teach  in  a  public  school  at  least 
for  six  years. 

§  38.  The  certificate  of  graduation  (§  34)  qualifies  only  for  an  employment  as 
under  master  or  assistant. 

For  a  definitive  appointment  a  certificate  of  qualification  is  requisite,  to  be 
gained  by  a  second  examination  after  an  experience  of  at  least  two  years. 

For  this  examination  special  committees  will  be  established  by  the  Minister  of 
Education,  to  be  composed  of  principals  and  teachers  in  seminaries,  school  inspect- 
ors, and  able  teachers  of  common  schools.  Deputies  of  clerical  boards  will  assist 
to  examine  the  candidates  in  religion. 

The  certificate  acquired  by  this  examination  sets  forth  the  qualification  for 
teaching  either  in  elementary  and  burgher  schools,  or  only  in  the  former. 

§  39  This  examination  may  be  repeated  if  the  first  trial  was  not  successful,  but 
not  oftener,  unless  authorized,  on  proposal  of  the  committee,  by  the  Minister  of 
Education. 

g  40.  Such  candidates  as  have  passed  this  examination,  but  have  since  then,  for 
more  than  three  years,  not  been  employed  in  a  public  school,  (§  2,)  have  to  pass 
the  examination  once  more  before  this  definitive  appointment.  In  special  cases, 
the  Minister  of  Education  may  dispense  with  this. 

§  41.  Such  young  men  as  have  not  made  the  full  course  in  a  public  seminary, 
if  19  years  old,  may  be  examined  in  a  seminary  for  acquiring  the  certificate  of  ma- 
turity. (§§  34  and  38,  al.  1.) 

§  42.  For  a  more  comprehensive  education  of  teachers,  special  teachers'  courses 
(pedagogical  seminaries)  shall  be  established  in  the  universities  or  technical  high 
schools,  (poly technical  schools.) 

The  particulars  will  be  prescribed  by  the  Minister  of  Education. 

IV. — PROFESSIONAL  IMPROVEMENT   OP  TEACHERS. 

§  43.  The  pedagogical  and  scientific  (literary)  improvement  of  teachers  shall  be 
furthered  by  means  of  educational  journal,  libraries  for  teachers,  periodical  con- 
ferences for  teachers,  and  special  courses  for  professional  improvement. 


SCHOOL    LEGISLATION    IN    AUSTRIA.  535 

§44.  In  each  school  district,  a  library  for  teachers  shall  be  established.  Tts 
administration  will  be  entrusted  to  a  committee  chosen  by  the  district  conference. 

g  45.  A  conference  of  teachers  shall  bo  held  in  each  school  district  at  least  once 
a  year,  and  conducted  by  the  school  superintendent  of  the  district.  They  shall 
deliberate  and  debate  on  school  affairs,  particularly  on  subjects  taught  in  the 
common  schools,  on  methods,  means  of  instruction,  discipline,  etc.  All  teachers 
of  the  common  schools  and  of  the  teashers'  seminary  in  the  district  are  obliged 
to  take  part.  Teachers  of  private  schools  are  at  liberty  to  attend. 

§  46.  In  every  province,  deputies  of  the  district  conference  will  assemble  every 
third  year  in  conference,  (landesconferenzen,)  with  the  school  superintendent  of 
the  province  as  chairman. 

§  47.  Special  courses  for  the  professional  improvement  of  teachers  (fortbildungs- 
curse)  will  be  held  in  the  seminaries,  generally  during  the  autumn  vacation. 
Teachers,  if  summoned  by  the  school  board  of  the  province,  must  attend. 

V. — LEGAL  SITUATION  OP  TEACHERS. 

§  48.  Service  in  public  schools  is  a  public  office,  (offentlichesamt,}  and  access- 
ible to  all  Austrian  citizens  without  difference  of  creed. 

To  be  employed  as  teacher  or  under  master,  besides  the  Austrian  citizenship, 
evidence  of  qualification  is  required.  ($  38.) 

Those  are  excluded  who  by  a  penal  verdict  have  lost  their  eligibility  to  the 
common  council  of  their  village  or  town. 

§  49.  To  fill  vacant  places  provisorily  and  for  a  limited  time  is  the  prov- 
ince of  the  district  school  superintendent ;  in  the  teachers'  seminary  and  their 
schools  of  practice,  that  of  the  provincial  board. 

§  50.  Principals,  teachers  and  under  masters  in  public  schools  are  definitely  ap- 
pointed by  the  provincial  school  board,  with  the  concurrence  of  those  who  support 
the  school.  This  concurrence  consists  in  the  right  either  of  proposing  (vorschlagen] 
or  of  presenting  (frnennen)  candidates. 

The  particulars  respecting  appointments  and  promotions  will  be  fixed  by  the 
legislature  of  the  province.  The  appointment  of  ' '  presented  ' '  teachers,  (see  al.  2, ) 
who  have  the  requisites,  ($  48,)  cannot  be  refused,  unless  they  can  be  charged 
with  such  moral  deficiencies  or  such  actions  as  would  cause  the  removal  of  a 
teacher  already  appointed. 

§  51.  The  number  of  lessons  which  a  teacher  may  be  obliged  to  give  depends 
on  the  wants  of  the  respective  school.  But  for  any  time  exceeding  thirty  lesson 
hours  a  week,  the  teachers  must  receive  additional  compensation. 

§  52.  What  sidework  shall  be  incompatible  with  the  office  of  teacher  will  be 
determined  by  the  legislature  of  the  p.ovince. 

§  53.  Teachers  who  do  not  give  satisfaction,  and  who,  having  been  referred  to 
the  special  course  for  improvement,  (§  47,)  are  by  the  body  of  teachers  in  that 
seminary  declared  not  qualified  to  continue  their  profession,  may  be  compelled 
by  the  provincial  school  board  to  pass  once  more  the  second  examination.  (§  38 
al.  2.)  If  the  result  be  not  satisfactory,  the  right  gained  by  the  former  examination 
will  be  lost,  and  the  provincial  school  board  shall  determine  whether  he  may  be 
henceforth  employed  as  under  master,  or  removed  entirely. 

Under  masters,  who  have  not  made  the  second  examination  (§  38,  al.  2)  within 
the  first  five  years  of  their  practical  service,  after  they  got  the  certificate  of  matu- 
rity, and  such  as  are  not  permitted  to  repeat  their  second  examination,  (§39,)  must 
surrender  their  certificate  of  maturity  and  retire  from  the  service. 

§  54.  Improper  deportment  of  teachers  is  followed  by  disciplinary  measures, 
which  do  not  exempt  from  an  eventual  penal  prosecution. 

§  55.  The  amount  and  mode  of  drawing  the  legal  income  shall  be  regulated  by 
the  legislature  of  the  province  in  the  following  principles  : 

1.  The  minimum  shall  not  be  reduced  by  any  school  community,  and  shall  be 
so  adjusted,  that  teachers  and  under  masters  can  be  free  from  interruption  by 
work,  and  can  devote  their  whole  strength  to  their  profession,  and  that  the  former 
will  be  able  to  support  a  family  respectably. 

2.  Teachers  must  receive  their  salary  directly  from  the  school  committee,  and 
shall  not  be  charged  with  collecting  it. 

3.  The  school  committees  shall  see  that  the  salary  is  paid  regularly  and  punc- 
tually. 

§  56.  All  definitively  appointed  teachers  and  such  under  masters  as  have  thecer 


636  SCHOOL   LEGISLATION    OF    AUSTRIA. 

tificate  of  qualification,  (§  38,  al.  2. )  and  their  widows  and  orphans,  are  entitled  to 
receive  &  pension,  and  in  this  regard  must  be  treated  like  civil  state  officers.  In 
determining  his  period,  the  time  which  a  teacher  after  the  second  examination  has 
spent  in  a  provisory  employment  at  a  public  school  shall  be  counted. 

§  57.  For  defraying  these  expenses  for  superannuated  teachers  or  their  widows, 
pension  funds  shall  be  established  in  each  province  by  the  contributions  of  teachers, 
of  communities,  and  of  the  province,  and  also  by  assigning  to  these  funds  appro- 
priate revenues.  These  funds  shall  be  administered  by  the  provincial  school  board . 
Communities  caring  independently  and  suitably  for  the  pensioning  of  their 
teachers  shall  be  free  from  the  obligation  of  contributing  to  the  common  pension 
fund.  The  legislature  of  the  province  will  determine  the  particulars. 

§  58.  Teachers  paid  by  the  state  receive,  themselves  and  their  families,  the  legal 
pensions  from  the  state  funds. 

VI. — ESTABLISHING    OP  SCHOOLS. 

§  59.  The  obligation  to  establish  schools  shall  be  regulated  by  the  provincial 
legislature,  on  the  principle  that  a  school,  under  any  circumstances,  must  be  es- 
tablished in  every  locality  where,  in  a  circuit  of  one  hour's  walk,  on  an  average 
of  five  years,  more  than  forty  children  can  be  found  who  have  now  to  attend  a 
school  more  distant  than  one  hour's  walk. 

§  60.  For  children  in  factories  and  other  manufacturing  establishments  who 
may  be  prevented  from  attending  the  common  school,  the  proprietors  of  such  fac- 
tories, &c.,  shall  establish,  either  by  themselves  or  in  connection  with  other  manu- 
facturers, separate  schools  of  the  same  grade  as  the  public  schools. 

§  61.  Where  and  by  what  means  burgher  schools  shall  be  established  will  be 
determined  by  the  legislature  of  the  province. 

VII. — DEFRAYING   OP   EXPENSES. 

\  62.  The  common  schools  needed  are  provided  for  by  the  school  communities, 
which  must  regard  the  legal  obligations  of  private  persons  and  corporations 

How  far  the  districts  shall  participate  in  supporting  them  will  be  decided  by 
the  legislature  of  the  province. 

§  63  Every  school  shall  have  such  school  rooms  as  the  instruction  and  health 
of  the  pupils  require. 

Special  laws  of  the  respective  provinces  will  regulate  the  building  and  mainte- 
nance of  the  school-house,  as  well  as  the  lodgings  needed  for  the  teacher. 

Every  school  shall  have  a  gymnastic  ground,  and  in  villages,  as  far  as  possible, 
*  garden  for  the  teacher,  and  facilities  for  agricultural  experiments.  The  expenses 
qf  the  same  shall  be  provided  for  by  the  legislature  of  the  province. 

\  64.  It  is  left  to  the  legislatures  to  establish  provincial  or  district  school  funds 
for  such  expenses  of  the  common  schools  as  are  not  met  by  special  resources.  In 
this  connection,  the  respective  legislatures  will  decide  whether  the  paying  of 
school  money  and  the  rights  of  presenting  teachers  (g  50,  al.  2)  shall  be  continued 
or  not. 

§  65.  Parents  who  have  their  children  instructed  at  home  or  in  a  private  school 
are  exempt  from  paying  tuition  fees,  but  not  from  other  legal  contributions  for 
the  common  school. 

§  66.  So  far  as  the  means  of  the  school  community  in  each  district  respectively 
will  not  suffice  to  cover  the  expenses  of  the  school,  the  province  shall  pay. 

The  • '  normalschul fond. "  with  their  actual  capital,  and  with  all  private  obliga- 
tion's, shall  be  devoted  exclusively  to  the  purposes  of  common  schools.  The  civil 
authority  of  the  province  (landes-ausschuss]  will  be  charged  with  the  administra- 
tion, and  the  school  board  of  the  province  with  disposing  of  the  income,  on  the 
basis  of  a  preliminary  settlement  by  the  legislature. 

Those  provinces  which  have  hitherto  received  from  the  state  assistance  to  their 
school  fund  shall  receive  the  same,  to  the  average  amount  granted  1866 — 1868, 
from  general  state  funds  to  the  respective  ^normalschul fond." 

In  estimating  that  amount,  all  sums  must  be  deducted  which  were  paid  for- 
merly for  purposes  henceforth  to  be  provided  for  immediately  by  the  state.  (§#  58 
and  67.) 

£  67.  The  expenses  for  teachers'  seminaries  and  their  schools  of  practice,  and 
the  "  stipends"  mentioned  in  §  37,  as  well  as  the  higher  courses  for  teachers, 
(§  42,)  will  be  paid  by  the  state. 


SCHOOL    LEGISLATION    OF    AUSTRIA. 


637 


When  the  school  of  practice  is  at  the  same  time  a  common  school,  the  stale,  on 
sharing  the  nominatiou  of  teachers,  will  contribute  to  supporting  the  same,  but 
the  amount  in  each  case  shall  be  settled  by  special  agreement. 

The  courses  for  the  improvement  of  teachers  ($  47)  will  be  at  the  expert  of  the 
state. 

B.— PRIVATE  INSTITUTIONS. 

§  68.  Private  seminaries  for  male  or  female  teachers  cannot  be  established  but 
on  the  following  conditions  : 

1.  Statutes  and  plans  of  instruction,  as  well  as  any  change  of  the  ^ame,  must 
be  sanctioned  by  the  Minister  of  Education. 

2.  Only  such  persons  shall  be  principals  or  teachers  as  are  fully  qualified  to  in- 
struct teacher  pupils.     For  this  purpose,  at  least  a  certificate  is  required  that  the 
teacher  is  entitled  to  teach  in  burgher  schools,  and  has  taught  in  public  schools 
at  least  for  three  years.     Except  ons  can  be  allowed  only  by  the  Minister  of  Edu 
cation,  if  the  qualification  be  proved  otherwise.     On  the  same  conditions,  such 
seminaries  in  which  ihe  pupils  Live  board  and  lodgings  may  be  established. 

§  69.  Private  seminaries  may  receive  from  the  Minister  of  Education  the  right 
of  giving  valid  certificates,  (like  the  public  ones.)  on  the  further  condition  that 
the  organization  does  not  essentially  differ  from  that  in  public  seminaries,  that 
the  principals  find  teachers  are  sanctioned  by  the  provincial  school  board,  and  that 
the  final  examination  has  been  held  in  presence  of  a  deputy  from  that  board,  with- 
out whose  consent  a  certificate  of  maturity  cannot  be  given. 

§  70.  Private  schools  for  children  of  school  a^e,  and  private  institutions  in 
which  such  children  have  board  and  lodging,  may  be  established  on  the  follow- 
ing conditions : 

1 .  Principals  and  teachers  must  procure  evidence  of  those  qualifications  which 
are  required  from  teachers  of  public  schools  of  the  same  grade.     Exceptions  may 
be  allowed  by  the  Minister  of  Education,  if  the  requisite  qualification  be  otherwise 
shown. 

2.  Their  moral  conduct  must  be  unobjectionable. 

3.  The  plan  of  instruction  must  answer  at  least  the  claims  made  upon  a  public 
school  of  the  same  grade. 

4.  The  whole  arrangement  must  be  such  that  no  injury  to  the  children's  health 
may  be  feared. 

5.  Any  change  op  teachers,  of  the  plan  of  lessons,  and  of  the  school-rooms,  must 
be  made  known  to  the  school  boards  before  being  attempted. 

For  opening  such  schools  the  consent  of  the  provincial  school  board  is  needed, 
which  cannot  be  denied  whenever  the  conditions  1 — 4  are  fulfilled. 

§  71.  The  private  schools  are  subject  to  the  supervision  of  the  state.  Their  prin- 
cipals are  responsible  to  the  school  authorities  for  the  orderly  and  regular  state 
of  the  schools. 

§  72.  Private  schools  may  get  from  the  Minister  of  Education  the  right  of  giv- 
ing certificates,  valid  throughout  the  state,  if  their  organization  and  the  aim  be 
equal  to  those  of  public  schools  of  the  same  grade. 

If  such  a  private  school  satisfies  the  educational  wants  in  a  community,  the 
latter  may  be  released  from  the  obligation  to  found  a  new  school. 

Such  private  schools  lose  this  said  right  when  they  answer  no  longer  the  de- 
mands for  a  public  school. 

§  73.  Private  schools  where  the  laws  are  not  observed,  or  where  moral  deficien- 
cies become  evident,  shall  be  closed  by  the  piovincial  school  board. 

FINAL   DIRECTIONS. 

§  74.  The  determinations  of  competence  [of  boards,  &c.]  contained  in  this  law 
shall  be  applied  but  where  the  same  have  not  been  fixed  already  by  the  legislature 
of  the  province.  The  regulation  of  June  25,  1867,  concerning  a  provincial  school 
council  for  the  kingdom  of  Galicia  and  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Krakow  is  not  al- 
tered by  this  law. 

§  75.  In  regard  to  the  particular  circumstances  in  Dalmatia,  Galicia,  Krakow, 
Krain,  Bukowina,  Istria,  and  G5rz,  it  shall  be  left  to  their  legislatures  to  admit 
a  departure  from  the  principles  set  down  in  §§  21,  22,  28,  and  38. 

§  76.  The  present  law,  so  far  as  new  provincial  laws  will  be  needed,  shall  be 
brought  into  operation  at  the  same  time  with  those  laws,  but  in  all  other  respects 
with  the  beginning  of  the  new  school  year  following  the  publication  of  this  law. 


638  SCHOOL   LEGISLATION    IN    AUSTRIA 

g.  77.  Beginning  from  that  time,  all  other  laws  and  ordinances,  so  far  as  they 
are  at  variance  with  this  law  or  replaced  by  it,  shall  be  null  and  void. 

g  78.  The  Minister  of  Education  is  charged  with  carrying  out  this  law,  and  with, 
issuing  all  requisite  ordinances  and  instructions. 


II. 

LAW  RESPECTING  THE  INSPECTION  OF  SCHOOLS,  AND  THE  CHURCH. 
[Promulgated  May  26, 1868.] 


g  1.  The  supreme  inspection  of  all  instruction  and  education  belongs  to  the 
state,  and  is  executed  by  boards  and  officers  appointed  according  to  law. 

g  2.  Without  detriment  to  this  right  of  inspection,  the  conducting  and  imme- 
diate inspection  of  religious  instruction  and  religious  exercises  in  the  primary  and 
secondary  schools  (volks-und  mittelschulen}  remain  with  the  respective  church  or 
denomination. 

g  3.  All  schools  and  educational  institutions,  founded  or  supported  wholly  or 
entirely  by  the  state,  by  a  province,  or  by  municipalities,  are  accessible  to  all  citi- 
zens of  the  state,  without  regard  to  creed. 

g  4.  All  denominations  are  at  liberty  to  found,  and  to  support  at  their  own 
expense,  schools  for  the  instruction  of  youth  of  their  respective  creeds.  They  are, 
however,  subject  to  the  school  laws,  and  cannot  be  acknowledged  as  public 
schools  unless  they  comply  with  all  the  legal  conditions  of  such  schools. 

g  5.  The  schools  and  educational  establishments  for  any  one  denomination  may 
be  attended  by  members  of  any  other  denomination. 

g  6.  All  citizens  of  the  state  who  possess  the  le*al  qualifications  may  be  teach- 
ers in  the  schools  defined  in  g  3. 

Teachers  of  religion  must  have  been  declared  qualified  by  their  respective  cleri- 
cal board. 

In  other  schools  (g  4)  this  point  is  decided  by  the  statutes  of  foundation.  The 
choice  of  private  teachers  is  not  limited  by  any  regard  to  the  religious  creed. 

g  7.  The  text-uooks  used  in  primary  and  secondary  schools,  as  well  as  in  teach- 
ers' seminaries,  require  only  the  consent  of  the  boards  called  into  existence  by 
this  law. 

Text-books  for  religious  instruction  cannot  receive  that  consent  unless  they 
have  been  declared  admissible  by  the  respective  clerical  board. 

g  8.  The  revenues  of  the  "normalschulfonds,"  of  the  "  studienfond, "  and  of  all 
other  funds  for  educational  purposes,  shall  be  applied  without  regard  to  de- 
nominations, so  far  as  they  are  not  proved  to  be  founded  for  the  adherents  of  a 
particular  creed. 

g  9.  The  state  exercises  the  supreme  administration  and  inspection  of  all  edu- 
cation through  the  Minister  of  Education. 

g  10.  For  the  administration  and  inspection  of  all  educational  affairs,  other 
than  of  the  common  schools  and  teachers'  seminaries,  in  each  province  shall  be 
established — 

a — &  provincial  school  board,  (council,)  as  the  highest  school  board  of  the  re- 
spective province,  (landes-schulralh  ;) 

b — a  district  school  board  for  each  school  district,  (bezirks-schuhath  ;}* 

c — a  local  school  committee  for  each  school  community,  (orts-schulrath.) 

The  division  into  school  districts  is  made  by  the  provincial  legislature. 

g  11.  The  func  ions  of  the  previous  clerical  and  secular  school  boards  is  hereby 
transferred  to  the  boards  mentioned  in  §  10,  except  what  is  determiued  in  g  2. 

g  *2.  The  provincial  school  board  shall  consist  of  the  Governor  or  Vice-Gov- 
ernor, as  chairman,  of  members  of  the  provincial  government,  of  deputies  of  the 
civil  authority  of  the  province,  (landes-ausschuss,)  of  clergymen  selected  from 
the  different  denominations  in  the  province,  and  of  professional  educators. 

•  In  the  school  law  of  1869  generally  the  word  "  bezirks-schulaufsicht"  is  used,  which  the 
translator  thought  b<-st  to  render  by ''  district  school  superintendent,"  taking  "  inspector"  for 
"inspection,"  as  "  Minister"  for  "  Minister  ium." 


SCHOOL    LEGISLATION    IN    AUSTRIA. 


639 


$  13.  The  legislature  of  the  province  shall  fix  the  particulars  concerning  the 
composition  and  organization  of  the  provincial,  district,  and  local  school  coun- 
cils j  then  the  limits  of  their  operation;  finally,  the  particulars  regarding  the 
transition  from  the  previous  school  boards  to  the  present  school  councils.  A  pro- 
vincial law  will  determine  whether  and  how  far  deputies  from  important  school 
communities  may  exceptionally  enter  the  provincial  school  board. 

§14.  Sections  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  8,  and  9  come  into  operation  the  same  day  on 
which  this  law  is  published,  and  all  former  laws  and  ordinances  at  variance  with 
these  provisions  shall  be  abolished  henceforth.  The  regulation  of  June  25,  1867, 
sanctioned  by  the  Emperor,  concerning  a  provincial  school  council  in  Galicia  and 
Krakow,  is  not  altered  by  this  law. 

§  15.  My  Minister  of  Education  is  charged  with  bringing  this  law  into  ope" 
ation. 

FRANZ  JOSEPH 

HASNBB. 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  GERMANY 

GENARAL   SUMMARY  AND   STATISTICS 


PUBLIC   INSTRUCTION   IN   GERMANY. 

GENERAL  SUMMARY  AND   STATISTICS. 


ORGANIZATION    OF    PUBLIC    INSTRUCTION. 

In  every  German  State,  the  supervision,  and  in  most  States  the  direction 
of  all  institutions  of  an  educational  character,  is  exercised  by  the  Gov- 
ernment, generally  through  a  responsible  Minister — acting  with  the  co- 
operation of  a  central  council,  and  a  provincial  corps  of  inspectors.  In 
every  State  there  are,  at  least,  three  degrees  of  instruction,  provided  for 
by  special  legislation  and  aided  by  governmental  appropriations. 

I.     ELEMENTARY    INSTRUCTION. 

THE  system  of  public  elementary  instruction  in  Germany  did  not 
originate  in  any  one  State,  and  is  not  the  growth  of  any  one  period. 
In  its  primitive  form,  it  is  as  old  as  the  Christian  Church,  whose  offi- 
cers are  still  recognized  in  the  administration  of  the  public  school  in 
nearly  every  German  State,  although  the  present  movement  every- 
where is  to  separate  the  school  from  all  ex-officio  ecclesiastical  authority. 

The  cardinal  features  of  the  system  are  : 

First.  The  right  and  duty  of  the  State,  through  municipal  and  pa- 
rental cooperation,  to  establish  at  least  one  elementary  school  within  walk- 
ing distance  of  every  child  of  the  legal  school  age,  and  to  authorize  and 
aid  educational  institutions  of  a  higher  and  special  character,  adapted  to 
the  wishes  and  wants  of  different  localities. 

Sec-ond.  The  recognition  and  enforcement  of  the  obligation,  on  the  part 
of  parents,  to  secure  the  regular  elementary  instruction  of  every  child 
between  the  ages  of  6  and  14  years,  in  some  school,  public  or  private. 

Third.  The  special  preparation  of  teachers,  as  far  as  practicable,  for 
each  grade  of  school,  with  opportunities  for  professional  improvement 
and  promotion,  and  the  guaranty  of  a  living  salary,  including  pecuniary 
aid  when  sick,  infirm,  or  aged,  and  for  their  families  in  case  of  death. 

Fourth.  Subjects  of  instruction,,  selected  in  reference  to  their  being  im- 
mediately and  permanently  useful  as  knowledge,  and  so  arranged  as  to 
aid  the  natural  development  of  the  faculties. 

Fifth.  A  system  of  inspection,  variously  organized,  but  intelligent, 
frequent,  constant  and  responsible,  reaching  every  school  and  every 
teacher,  and  pervading  the  whole  system,  by  which  parents  and  the  gov- 
ernment are  assured  that  the  aim  of  the  law  is  realized  in  respect  to  the 
qualifications  of  teachers,  and  the  health  and  profitable  labor  of  the  pupils. 

With  this  system  of  universal,  scientific  and  thorough  elementary  in- 
struction, carried  on  sufficiently  long  to  have  molded  the  habits  of  fam- 
ilies and  communities,  the  following  statistics,  studied  in  connection 
with  the  subjects  and  methods  of  education,  are  significant.  „  ... 

41 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  GERMANY.  643 

The  political  and  territorial  distribution  of  the  German  States  as  de- 
nned and  settled  by  the  Treaty  of  Vienna,  and  the  establishment  of  the 
German  Confederation  in  1815,  continued  until  1866.  On  that  organiz- 
ation as  it  existed  from  1856  to  1866,  the  following  account  of  the  sys- 
tem and  statistics  of  Public  Instruction  in  the  several  States  of  Ger- 
many is  based.  In  consequence  of  the  Schleswig  and  Holstein  diffi- 
culty, and  the  war  of  1866,  six  of  the  thirty-nine  States  recognized 
by  the  Confederation  of  1815  became  extinct.  Austria  was  excluded 
from  Germany,  Luxemburg  was  dissevered  from  its  old  political  rela- 
tions, the  sovereign  States  of  Hanover,  Hesse-Cassel,  Holstein,  Nassau, 
and  Frankfort  were  annexed  to  Prussia.  Of  the  remainder,  twenty-one 
States  north  of  the  River  Maine,  and  part  of  Hesse-Darmstadt,  formed, 
under  the  leadership  of  Prussia,  the  North  German  Confederation ; 
while  four  States,  Bavaria,  Wurtemberg,  Baden,  and  the  larger  portion 
of  Hesse-Darmstadt  were  designated  by  the  collective  name  of  South 
German  States.  Leichtenstein  has  no  organic  connection  with  either  of 
the  above  distribution  of  States,  although  in  statistical  tables  it  is  gene- 
rally classed  with  South  Germany.  These  changes  have  not  disturbed 
essentially  the  systems  of  public  instruction  even  in  the  States  which 
have  become  provinces  of  Prussia,  and  the  statistical  results  under  the 
new  territorial  and  political  organization  have  not  yet  been  published. 

Although  the  public  schools  of  the  different  German  States  are  desig- 
nated by  different  names,  the  principles  on  which  they  are  organized 
and  classified,  and  the  aims  and  methods  of  administration  are  so  nearly 
alike,  as  to  admit  of  uniform  treatment.  We  shall,  therefore,  review  the 
entire  field  of  public  instruction  in  each  State,  and  in  the  whole  of  Ger- 
many, under  the  following  heads,  so  far  as  our  material  will  enable  us 
to  do  so : 

I.  Primary  or  Elementary  Schools — meaning  thereby  not  the  lowest 
grade  of  city  schools,  as  classified  and  designated  generally  in  this  coun- 
try, but  the  Common  Schools,  the  District  Schools, — the  main  reliance  of 
all  the  rural  and  a  vast  majority  of  the  urban  population  of  each  State. 

II.  Secondary  or  High  Schools — which,  under  various  names,  have 
existed  in  the  several  German  States  from  the  earliest  dawn  of  Christian 
civilization,  and   are  now  developed   into  a  system  of  elementary  and 
higher  instruction,   which,  in    its  aims  and  methods  for  the  purposes 
designed,  is  worthy  of  the  profound  study  of  the  statesmen  and  edu- 
cators of  this  country. 

III.  Universities   or   Superior  Schools — which,  resting  on   the  firm 
basis  of  the  Gymnasia  and  other  institutions  of  secondary  instruction, 
have  received  a  development  not  now  attained  in  any  other  country. 

IV.  Special  Schools — designed  to  meet  the  wants  of  particular  classes 
of  the  community,  or  prepare  for  the  different  professions,  occupations, 
and  services  of  the  State. 

V.  Supplementary  Schools,  Societies,  and  other  agencies  for  the  supply 
of  educational  deficiencies,  and  the  investigation  and   advancement  of 
education,  science,  and  art. 


644  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  GERMANY. 

The  general  aims  and  different  degrees  of  elementary  instruction  in 
the  several  States  of  Germany  are  substantially  the  same,  although  the 
classification  and  nomenclature  of  the  schools,  and  the  importance  at- 
tached to  different  studies  and  methods  will  be  found  to  differ  on  close 
examination. 

The  attendance  of  children  in  the  different  grades  of  elementary 
schools  is  governed  by  their  future  destination — whether  for  the  learned 
professions,  the  higher  industrial  occupations,  or  for  the  common 
walks  of  life. 

I.  PRIMARY  SCHOOLS. — These  are  divided  into  the  common  or  peoples7 
schools,  and  the  burgher  schools.  The  common  schools — the  main  re- 
liance of  all  the  rural  and  a  vast  majority  of  the  city  population,  proposes 
the  development  of  the  human  faculties,  though  those  branches  of  knowl- 
edge which  are  indispensable  to  every  person,  both  of  town  and  country, 
and  are  distributed  into  four  equal  periods  of  two  years  each,  as  follows: 

1.  First  period — two  years,  between  the  ages  of  six  and  eight.     Four  prin- 
cipal subjects: — viz.,  (1)  Logical  exercises,  consisting  of  oral  instruction,  in  the 
exercise  of  the  faculties  of  observation  and  expression.     This  branch  includes 
religious  instruction  and  singing  by  ear.     (2)  Elements  of  reading.     (3)  Ele- 
ments of  writing.     (4)  Elements  of  arithmetic. 

2.  Second  period — two  years,  from  eight  to  ten  years  of  age.     Seven  chief 
subjects: — viz..  (1)  Reading.'      (2)  Writing.      (3)  Religious  and  moral  lessons, 
select  Bible  histories.     (4)  German  grammar.     (5)  Arithmetic.     (6)  Elements  of 
geometry.     (7)  Elements  of  music,  singing  by  notes. 

3.  Third  period — two  years,  from  ten  to  twelve  years  of  age.     Eight  prin- 
cipal subjects: — viz.,  (1)  Lessons  in  reading  and  elocution.     (2)  Ornamental 
writing,  preparatory  to  drawing.      (3)  Religious  instruction  in  the  connected 
Bible  history.     (4)  German  grammar  and  analysis.     (5)  Elements  of  natural 
history  and  science,  technical  science,  geography  and  history.     (6)  Arithmetic, 
including  fractions  and  proportion.     (7)  Geometry,  theory  of  magnitudes  and 
proportion.     (8)  Singing,  and  science  of  vocal  and  instrumental  music. 

4.  Fourth  period— two  years,  from  twelve  to  fourteen  years  of  age.     Six 
chief  subjects: — (1)  Religion  and  morals.     (2)  General  geography  and  history, 
with  special  regard  to  civilization,  agriculture,  mechanical  arts,  manufactures, 
&c.     (3)  German  language,  exercises  in  composition.     (4)  Application  of  arith- 
metic and  mathematics  to  the  business  of  life,  including  elements  of  surveying 
and  civil  engineering.     (5)  Elements  of  drawing.     (6)  Science  of  music,  singing. 

The  Burgher  School  provides  for  an  extension  of  all  these  studies,  and  par- 
ticularly of  the  German  and  modern  languages,  ph}Tsics  and  natural  history,  the 
geography,  history  and  industries  of  Prussia,  drawing,  singing  and  gymnastics. 

II.  SUPPLEMENTARY  (FortMldungs)  AND  SPECIAL  SCHOOLS  AND  CLASSES. 

(1.)  Evening  classes,  twice  a  week,  where  young  persons,  who  have  completed 
their  fourteenth  year,  may  continue  their  studies. 

(2.)  Sunday  classes  which  young  persons,  who  have  completed  their  primary 
school  course,  and  do  not  proceed  to  a  secondary  school,  are  required  to  attend. 

(3.)  Industrial  classes,  in  which  girls  are  instructed  in  sewing,  knitting,  hem- 
ming, darning,  skirt-making,  stitching,  &c. 

(4.)  Factory  schools  for  children  employed  in  any  manual  occupation,  be- 
fore the  completion  of  their  twelfth  year. 

(5.)  Technical  schools,  in  towns,  established  by  the  local  authorities,  and  sup- 
ported by  the  State.  Attendance  at  these  is  voluntary,  but  a  master  may  not 
prevent  his  apprentice  from  attending  them  The  number  of  lessons  is  six  per 
week;  comprising  free-hand  drawing,  arithmetic,  geometry,  special  kinds  of 
drawing,  ceconomics,  natural  sciences,  mechanics  and  modeling. 

(6.)  Infant  Schools  and  Kindergarten,  mostly  after  Frobel's  plan. 

(7.)  Rescue  Institutes,  Reform  Schools,  and  Orphan  Homes,  after  Wichern's  plan. 


PUBLIC   INSTRUCTION  IN  GERMANY.  645 

3.    TEACHERS   AND    THEIR   QUALIFICATIONS. 

From  the  foregoing  account  of  public  elementary  instruction  in  the 
several  States  of  Germany,  it  appears,  that  in  each,  the  smallest,  as  well 
as  the  largest,  in  those  with  the  most  liberal  as  well  as  those  with  the 
most  arbitrary  administration,  provision  is  made  for  the  professional 
training  and  improvement  of  teachers.  The  institutions  in  which  this 
training  is  given,  are  organized  and  conducted  with  special  reference  to 
the  work  to  be  done  by  the  teachers  in  the  schools,  the  pupils  are  com- 
posed of  candidates  for  teaching  as  a  profession,  and  efforts  are  made  to 
test  their  natural  aptitude  for  the  work  before  they  enter  the  institutions, 
and  by  frequent  examinations  to  get  rid  of  those  on  whom  this  profes- 
sional training  will  be  lost,  and  at  the  same  time,  to  ascertain  the  class 
and  department  of  instruction  in  which  each  will  excel.  After  leaving 
the  institutions  the  appointment  to  a  position  is  strictly  guarded,  anc] 
every  precaution  is  taken  to  protect  the  incumbents  of  office  against  the 
danger  of  a  monotonous  occupation  and  to  surround  them  with  aids  to  self 
and  professional  improvement  through  life.  Books  and  periodicals, 
frequent  conferences  and  associations  by  which  the  young  and  obscure 
teacher  is  made  partaker  in  all  the  improvements  of  the  most  experienced 
and  eminent  members  of  the  profession,  living  or  dead,  in  his  own  and 
other  countries,  are  provided  in  every  State.  Exemption  from  military 
service  in  time  of  peace,  legal  recognition  as  members  of  the  civil  service, 
permanent  employment,  a  residence  with  a  garden,  or  its  equivalent, 
pecuniary  allowance  when  sick,  and  provision  for  years  of  infirmity  and 
old  age,  and  for  their  families  in  case  of  death,  give  to  the  profession  of 
teaching  in  Germany  a  respect  which  does  not  attach  to  it  in  any  other 
country.  To  illustrate  these  points  more  in  detail  than  could  be  done  in 
our  account  of  the  system  of  any  one  State,  we  present  in  the  following 
Table  the  number  and  location  of  the  Teachers  Seminaries  in  the  different 
German  States,  together  with  the  legal  provision  made  in  the  most 
advanced  State,  for  the  education,  improvement  and  support  of  teachers, 
with  the  results  of  this  policy,  as  set  forth  by  disinterested  and  competent 
observers  from  other  countries. 

We  think  a  disastrous  blow  has  been  struck  at  the  profession  of 
elementary  teaching  by  limiting  the  attainments  and  aspirations  of  its 
members  to  the  standard  fixed  by  Prussia  in  the  regulations  of  the 
Ministry  of  Public  Instruction  October  1, 1854,  which  have  been  generally 
adopted  in  other  German  States. 

This  whole  subject  of  the  professional  training  of  teachers,  for  higher 
as  well  as  elementary  schools,  for  the  infant  as  well  as  the  reform  school, 
will  be  treated  in  detail  in  "  Normal  Schools,  or  Institutions,  Classes  and 
Agencies  for  the  professional  Training  of  Teachers  for  schools  of  different 
grades  and  kinds"  which  will  be  issued  in  1872. 


646 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION   IN   GERMANY. 


PROFESSIONAL  SCHOOLS  FOR  TEACHING. 

ELEMENTARY  TEACHERS'  SEMINARIES. 


Location. 

Date  when  estab- 
lished. 

Religious  denom- 
ination.* 

Sex  of  pupils. 

Professors. 

.2 

'a. 

£ 

Graduates,  1869. 

ANHALT: 
Bernburg  ...                      .... 

p 

M. 

8 

27 

Cothen  

p. 

M. 

7 

45 

Total 

2 

13 

70 

AUSTRIA,  (German  Provinces  :) 

1848 

c 

M 

9 

1C9 

Bitinn 

1832 

c 

M. 

Eeer 

c 

M 

Gorz 

c 

M. 

13 

30 

Graz 

c. 

M. 

c 

M 

c 

M. 

c. 

M. 

c 

M 

Lai  bach 

c 

M. 

c. 

M 

10 

89 

Linz 

c 

M 

9 

" 

Marburg.                               ...    ......... 

c. 

M. 

Oluiiitz 

c 

M 

Pilsen 

c 

M. 

c. 

M. 

16 

Do 

c 

M. 

Do                                                

c 

M. 

13 

70 

Do 

c 

F 

7 

39 

Do 

c 

M. 

Do                              

c. 

P. 

Do 

c 

F 

Salzburg 

1812 

c 

M. 

23 

St.  Polten  

1864 

c. 

M. 

32 

Teschen 

1777 

(J 

M. 

50 

Trient 

c. 

M. 

Trieste 

c 

M 

c. 

M. 

Vienna  

1775 

c. 

M. 

Totalt 

29 

AUSTRIA  •  Galicia  8  seminaries                

239 

49 

14 

843 

71 

29 

Total  (in  112  seminaries)    ........   .. 

BADEN  : 
Ettlingen  ..            

1788 

c. 

M. 

4 

71 

29 

1824 

p 

M 

8 

61 

Meersburg                          ...          ........ 

1839 

c. 

M. 

58 

Total           .                                .   . 

3 

190 







*  The  letter  P  denotes  the  Protestant  sect ;  C,  Catholic  ;  J,  Jewish ;  S,  Simultaneous, 
t  Besides  the  foregoing,  there  are  a  number  of  smaller  seminaries,  which,  added  to  tho^e 
here  given,  make  a  total  of  68  seminaries  in  German  Austria. 


PUBLIC   INSTRUCTION  IN  GERMANY. 
ELEMENTARY  TEACHERS'  SEMINARIES— Continued. 


(547 


Location. 

Date  when  estab- 
lished. 

•i§ 

3? 

.2  o 

bo'" 

"3 
H 

Sex  of  pupils. 

Professors. 

d 

i 
1 

Graduates,  1869. 

BAVARIA: 
Altdorf                           -            

1824 

p 

M 

g 

103 

53 

1806 

C. 

M. 

Eichrtt&dt                                           ...   . 

1834 

c 

M 

Freising                 ..  

1812 

C. 

M. 

9 

78 

33 

18  k8 

p 

M 

g 

101 

43 

1823 

C. 

M. 

1843 

p 

M 

9 

96 

53 

Speier                      

1839 

C. 

M. 

5 

56 

26 

1823 

c 

M 

10 

90 

37 

1771 

C. 

M. 

11 

108 

51 

Total  

10 

BRUNSWICK  : 

p. 

M 

5 

20 

Do 

J868 

p 

F 

3 

9 

Wolfenbtittel                           

1754 

p 

M. 

g 

44 

Total                         ..........         .... 

3 

73 

HANNOVER  : 
Alfeld             

1813 

p. 

M. 

5 

65 

Auricb                                     .   ..........  ... 

1852 

p 

M 

5 

26 

1751 

p 

M 

10 

58 

Do                                             .   . 

1856 

p 

F 

9 

28 

g 

Do                   

1848 

J. 

M. 

11 

J7 

15 

HildeBheim 

1838 

C 

M 

4 

12 

1851 

p. 

M. 

4 

40 

40 

1851 

p 

M 

2 

15 

Osnabriick       

1824 

p. 

M. 

5 

27 

6 

Do 

1838 

c 

M 

5 

28 

31 

Stade                         ........................ 

1822 

p 

M. 

11 

60 

Total                    

11 

HESSE-CASSEL: 
Cassel 

J 

M 

4 

6 

3 

1805 

c. 

M. 

5 

53 

9 

1783 

p 

M 

7 

62 

Schliichtern                     

1805 

p. 

M. 

6 

70 

22 

Total          

4 

191 

HESSE-DARMSTADT  : 

1804 

C. 

M 

7 

37 

10 

1817 

P. 

M. 

10 

92 

55 

Total      

2 

129 

LlPPE-DETMOLD: 
Detmcld                               .... 

1789 

p. 

M 

9 

19 

5 

Total           .  .  ... 

1 

19 

LIPPE-SCHAUMBURQ  : 
Biickeburg 

1783 

p 

M 

4 

9 

Total 

1 

9 









MECKLENBURG-SCHWERIN  : 

1782 

p 

M 

14 

Total 

1 







048 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION    IN   GERMANY. 
ELEMENTARY  TEACHERS'  SEMINARIES— Continued. 


Location. 

Date  when  estab- 
lished. 

Religious  denom- 
ination. 

^ 

'E, 
p 

EX 

<8 

1 

Professors. 

QQ 

'a 
| 

Graduates,  18fi9. 

MECKLENBURG-STRELITZ  : 
Mirow  

1820 

p. 

M. 

3 

19 

Total  

1 

19 

NASSAU: 

c 

M. 

5 

60 

Usingen 

1851 

p 

M 

5 

86 

°6 

Total  

o 

146 

OLDENBURG: 
Oldenburg 

1808 

p 

M 

7 

79 

03 

Vechta.  

1860 

c 

M 

3 

29 

Total  

2 

208 

" 

PRUSSIA,  (including  Holstein,  Lauenburg,  and 
Schleswig  :) 
Aix-la-Chapelle  

c 

F 

Alt-Dobern 

1819 

P 

M 

5 

69 

33 

Angerburg  ......          ... 

1829 

P 

M 

5 

84 

25 

Berent  

1866 

c 

M 

5 

60 

Berlin  

1831 

p 

M 

g 

60 

" 

Do  

1832 

p 

M 

g 

36 

...... 

Do  

1859 

p 

M 

Do  

1811 

P 

F 

10 

46 

Do  

p 

F 

10 

22 

Do  

p 

F 

Do.  -.  

1859 

j 

M 

11 

30 

1] 

Bartin  

p 

M 

Barby  

1823 

P 

g 

79 

27 

Breslau...  

1765 

c 

M 

g 

89 

30 

Do  

1863 

c 

F 

Braunsberg 

1811 

c 

2 

58 

Bromburg  

1820 

p 

F 

6 

45 

15 

Do  

1842 

p 

Do  

1866 

p 

M 

1868 

c 

M 

4 

24 

Briiul 

1823 

(3 

7 

10o 

1816 

p 

M 

7 

76 

27 

Biiren  

1825 

c 

M 

7 

75 

25 

Biitow     

1859 

p 

7 

51 

26 

1838 

p 

M 

5 

44 

25 

Coblenz  

c. 

F 

Cologne  

c 

M 

30 

1748 

p 

M 

6 

100 

31 

Co.^liu 

1816 

p 

M 

5 

50 

22 

Creuzburg  

1858 

p 

M 

6 

46 

11 

Dramburg 

1867 

p 

3 

25 

Drossen  

1864 

p 

M 

Q 

80 

30 

Droyssig  

1852 

p 

F 

13 

32 

Diisseldorf  

p. 

F 

Dusselthal  

p. 

M 

28 

Eckernforde,  (in  Schleswig)  

1857 

p. 

M 

8 

59 

17 

Eisleben  

1826 

p 

M 

g 

46 

Elberfeld  

1845 

p 

F 

6 

Do.. 

p 

F 

2 

Elsterwerda  

1857 

p 

M 

5 

60 

20 

Erfurt  .  .  . 

1820 

p. 

M 

g 

70 

21 

Exin  

1865 

c 

M 

| 

3? 

1? 

Eylau  :  . 

1774 

p. 

\t 

| 

(Hi 

?/ 

Frankfurt-on-the-Oder  

*. 

P 

Franzburg  

17^1 

p 

M 

^ 

Priedland.. 

IRf  I 

7>. 

•*' 

"% 

is 

PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  GERMANY. 

ELEMENTARY  TEACHERS'  SEMINARIES — Continued. 


649 


Location. 

Date  when  estab- 
lished. 

1  Religious  denom- 
ination. 

Sex  of  pupils. 

I 

«2 

t 
S 

Graduates,  1869. 

PRUSSIA  —  Continued. 
Friedrichshoff 

1866 

p 

M 

3 

30 

g 

Ging8t      

1867 

p. 

M 

2 

10 

Gorlitz 

1851 

p 

P 

Do          

p. 

F. 

4 

1816 

C 

M 

5 

67 

19 

Grandenz        

1849 

p. 

F. 

g 

30 

9 

Halberstadt 

1778 

]>. 

M 

5 

66 

1836 

(1 

M 

g 

36 



1806 

p 

M 

g 

72 

1854 

p 

F 

.   .  . 

p' 

F 

9 

60 

1811 

p 

M 

g 

87 

.... 

1840 

C 

M. 

5 

100 

50 

Do  

C. 

M. 

Kozmiu      .         

1865 

p 

M 

g 

38 

16 

Kyritz 

1866 

p 

M 

6 

71 

25 

Konigsberg          

1701 

p 

M. 

10 

78 

Do 

1853 

p 

F 

4 

61 

17 

Do                  

p 

P. 

12 

1854 

p 

P 

Langenborst            

1830 

c 

M 

5 

40 

Lebbin 

p 

M 

Liebenthal     

1863 

c 

M 

5 

76 

29 

Liegnitz 

p 

P 

Marienburg    

1813 

p. 

M 

5 

78 

Do 

1823 

p 

F 

M.mel             

1836 

p 

P. 

Mtinster 

1832 

c 

P 

g 

30 

14 

Miiusterberg  

1847 

p. 

M 

6 

80 

25 

Miinstereifel 

c 

F 

Mora      

1820 

p. 

M 

4 

50 

25 

1819 

p 

M 

5 

72 

NeuzeJle  

1817 

p 

M. 

g 

95 

31 

Ober-Glogan  
Oranienburg  

1802 
1861 

c. 

p. 

M. 
M. 

! 

86 
90 

28 
32 

Osterburg 

1821 

p 

M 

5 

62 

20 

Paderborn  

1832 

c. 

F. 

3 

22 

22 

Paradies 

1836 

c 

M 

6 

49 

18 

Perleberg  

p. 

F. 

13 

] 

Petershagen  

Pilchowitz 

1831 
1867 

p. 
c 

M. 
M 

6 
4 

60 
46 

Plat  he 

p 

M 

Politz  

1811 

p. 

M. 

7 

75 

25 

Posen 

1840 

g 

F 

12 

43 

15 

Do  

18D4 

c. 

M. 

7 

52 

14 

Potsdam 

1860 

p 

F 

Preiskretscham  .  .  . 

1849 

c 

M 

6 

75 

32 

Pyritz 

1827 

p 

M 

5 

20 

Ratzeburg,  (in  Lauenburg)    

p 

M. 

2 

18 

Reichenbach 

1858 

p 

M 

g 

71 

25 

Segeberg,  (in  Holstein)  

1781 

p 

M. 

7 

79 

26 

Soest  

1806 

p 

M 

6 

72 

Stettin 

p 

F 

5 

17 

Steinau  

1849 

p 

M. 

9 

82 

27 

Thorn  .... 

1820 

p 

F 

Tondern,  (in  Schleswig)  

1787 

p. 

M. 

11 

90 

42 

Traben  

p 

M 

Do 

o 

M 

Trarback  

p 

M 

3 

18 

Treves 

c 

M 

Weis»enfels  

1784 

p. 

M. 

9 

75 

20 

Wesel 

1852 

p 

F. 

Total  

*104 

I 



m 



72  male  and  32  female  seminaries. 


650 


PUBLIC   INSTRUCTION    IN    GERMANY. 

ELEMENTARY  TEACHERS'  SEMINARIES -Continued. 


Location. 

Date  when  estab- 
lished. 

Religious  deuom 
ination. 

Sex  of  pupils. 

Professors. 

£ 

Graduates,  1869.  ' 

REIJSS-GREITZ  : 
(jreitz                                      

1793 

p 

M 

6 

35 

10 

Total  

1 

35 

REUSS-SCHLEIZ: 
Schleiz                                              

1820 

p. 

M. 

7 

51 

7 

Total 

1 

51 

SAXE-ALTENBURG  : 

p. 

M. 

Total 

1 

SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA  t 

p. 

M 

1780 

p. 

M. 

9 

58 

14 

Gotha 

p. 

F 

g 

30 

Total 

3 

_ 

SAXE-MEININGEN: 

1795 

P. 

M. 

11 

58 

16 

Total  

1 

58 

SAXE-WEIMAR  : 

1783 

P. 

M. 

9 

65 

7 

Weimar                                   

1726 

p. 

M. 

89 

Total 

2 

154 

SAXONY  : 

1842 

p. 

M. 

11 

356 

23 

1863 

p. 

M. 

1817 

P. 

M. 

13 

126 

18 

DO                                                                                                

1851 

C. 

M. 

Calle  nberg                       

1856 

p. 

F. 

10 

65 

19 

1785 

p 

M 

9 

134 

Dresden  (  Fletcher  Seminary)     .... 

1825 

p. 

M. 

8 

118 

16 

P. 

M. 

10 

116 

19 

Do              

1855 

P. 

M. 

4 

30 

10 

1856 

p. 

M. 

7 

126 

20 

P. 

M. 

10 

156 

Waldenburg                                        ......... 

p. 

M. 

8 

83 

Total 

12 

SCHWARZBURO-RUDOLSTADT  : 
Rudolgtadt                                             ........ 

1747 

P. 

M. 

12 

p 

M 

g 

r  ranKennausen  

Total  

2 

SCHWARZBURG-SONDERHOUSEN  : 

1844 

P. 

M. 

~7 

!16 

H 

Total                     .-          

1 

16 

WURTEMBURG: 

1811 

P. 

M. 

8 

75 

1824 

C. 

M. 

7 

94 

1843 

p. 

M. 

8 

77 

Total  

3 

246 



; 

PRUSSIAN  SCHOOLS  AS  THEY  WERE  651 

That  the  art  of  teaching,  as  now  practiced  in  the-  primary  schools  ol 
Prussia,  was  but  imperfectly  understood  by  her  schoolmasters  only  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago.  and  that  a  knowledge  of  good  methods  was 
diffused  throughout  the  kingdom  only  by  the  well  directed  efforts  of  the 
government,  sustained  by  the  self-denying  and  persevering  labors  of 
school  officers  and  educators,  in  various  directions,  is  evident  from  the 
following  note  appended  to  Prof.  Stowe's  address  on  Normal  Schools 
and  Teachers'  Seminaries.  The  noble  sentiment  of  Dinter,  quoted  by 
Prof.  Stovve  at  the  opening  of  his  address,  "I  promised  God.  that  I 
I  would  look  upon  every  Prussian  peasant  child  as  a  being  who  could 
complain  of  me  before  God.  if  I  did  not  provide  for  him  the  best  educa- 
tion, as  a  man  and  a  Christian,  which  it  was  possible  for  me  to  provide," 
shows  the  spirit  with  which  some  of  the  school  officers  of  Prussia  have 
acted.  We  append  a  brief  notice  of  this  excellent  man.  and  model 
school  officer,  together  with  many  excellent  suggestions  by  other  emi- 
nent teachers  arid  officers  from  other  sections  of  Germany. 

PRUSSIAN  SCHOOLS,  A  FEW  YEARS  AGO. 

The  following  questions  and  answers  are  from  Dr.  Julius's  testimony,  before 
the  Committee  of  the  British  House  of  Commons,  in  1834,  respecting  the  Prus 
sian  School  System. 

"  Do  you  remember,  from  your  own  knowledge,  "what  the  character  and  attain 
ments  of  the  schoolmasters  were  previous  to  the  year  1819  ?" 

"  I  do  not  recollect ;  but  I  know  they  were  very  badly  composed  of  non-com- 
missioned officers,  organists,  and  half-drunken  people.  It  has  not  risen  like  a 
fountain  at  once.  Since  1770,  there  has  been  much  done  in  Prussia,  and  through- 
out Germany,  for  promoting  a  proper  education  of  teachers,  and  by  them  ol 
children." 

"  In  your  own  observation  has  there  been  any  very  marked  improvement  in 
the  character  and  attainments  of  schoolmasters,  owing  to  the  pains  taken  to  'which 
you  have  referred  ?" 

"  A  very  decided  improvement." 

Dinter,  in  his  autobiography,  gives  some  surprising  specimens  of  gross  incapa- 
city hi  teachers,  even  subsequent  to  1819.  The  following  anecdotes  are  from 
that  interesting  work,  Dinters  Lebcn  von  ihm  selbst  beschrieben. 

In  the  examination  of  a  school  in  East  Prussia,  which  was  taught  by  a  subal- 
tern officer  dismissed  from  the  army,  the  teacher  gave  Dinter  a  specimen  of  his 
skill  in  the  illustration  of  Scripture  narrative.  The  passage  was  Luke  vii,  the 
miracle  of  raising  the  widow's  son  at  Nain.  "  See,  children  (says  the  teacher), 
Nain  was  a  great  city,  a  beautiful  city  ;  but  even  in  such  a  great,  beautiful  city 
there  lived  people  who  must  die.  They  brought  the  dead  youth  out.  See,  chil 
dren,  it  was  the  same  then  as  it  is  now — dead  people  couldn't  go  alone — they 
had  to  be  carried.  He  that  wan  dead  began  to  speak.  This  was  a  sure  sign  that 
lie  was  alive  again,  for  if  he  had  continued  dead  he  couldn't  have  spoken  a  word." 

In  a  letter  to  the  King,  a  dismissed  schoolmaster  complained  that  the  district 
was  indebted  to  him  200705  dollars.  Dinter  supposed  the  man  must  be  insane, 
and  wrote  to  the  physician  of  the  place  to  nquire.  The  physician  replied  that 
the  poor  man  was  not  insane,  but  only  ignorant  of  the  numeration  table,  writing 
200  70  5  instead  of  275.  Dinter  subjoins.  '  By  the  help  of  God,  the  King,  and 
good  men,  very  much  has  now  been  done  to  make  things  better." 

In  examining  candidates  for  the  school-teacher's  office,  Dinter  asked  one  where 
the  Kingdom  of  Prussia  was  situated.  He  replied,  that  he  believed  it  was  some- 
where in  the  southern  part  of  India.  He  asked  another  the  cause  of  the  ignis- 
fatuus,  commonly  called  Jack-with-the-lantern.  He  said  they  were  specters 
made  by  the  devil  Another  being  asked  why  he  wished  to  become  a  school- 
teacher, replied,  that  he  must  get  a  living  somehow. 


652  SCHOOL  COUNSELOR  DINTER. 

A  military  inan  of  great  influence  once  urged  Dinter  to  recommend  a  disabled 
soldier,  in  whom  he  was  interested,  as  a  school-teacher.  "  I  will  do  so,"  says  Din- 
ter, "  if  he  sustains  the  requisite  examination."  "  0,"  says  the  Colonel,  "  he  doesn't 
know  mu  ft  about  school-teaching,  but  he  is  a  good,  moral,  steady  man,  and  1 
hope  yo»  will  recommend  him  to  oblige  me."  D.  — 0  yes,  Colonel,  to  oblige  you, 
if  you  i  your  turn  will  do  me  a  favor.  Col. — What  is  that  ?  D. — Get  me  ap- 
pointe  Jrum-major  in  your  regiment.  True,  I  can  neither  beat  a  drum,  nor  play 
a  fife  jut  I  am  a  good,  moral,  steady  man  as  ever  lived. 

A  »  h  landholder  once  said  to  him,  "  Why  do  you  wish  the  peasant  children 
to  b  educated  ?  it  will  only  make  them  unruly  and  disobedient."  Dinter  re- 
plie(  *  If  the  masters  are  wise,  and  the  laws  good,  the  more  intelligent  the  peo- 
ple, ne  better  they  will  obey." 

I\nter  complained  that  the  military  system  of  Prussia  was  a  great  hinderance 

to  *,he  schools.     A  nobleman  replied  that  the  young  men  enjoyed  the  protection 

of  the  government,  and  were  thereby  bound  to  defend  it  by  arms.     Dinter  asked 

i'  every  stick  of  timber  in  a  house  ought  first  to  be  used  in  a  fire-engine,  because 

be  house  was  protected  by  the  engine  ?  or  whether  it  would  be  good  policy  to 

at  down  all  the  trees  of  an  orchard  to  build  a  fence  with,  to  keep  the  hogs  from 

ating  the  fruit  ? 


SCHOOL-COUNSELOR   DINTER. 

GUSTAVUS  FREDERICK  DINTER  was  born  at  a  village  near  Leipsic,  in  1760.  He 
first  distinguished  himself  as  principal  of  a  Teachers'  Seminary  in  Saxony,  whence 
he  was  invited  by  the  Prussian  government  to  the  station  of  School-Counselor 
for  Eastern  Prussia.  He  resides  at  Konigsberg,  and  about  ninety  days  in  the 
year  he  spends  in  visiting  the  schools  of  his  province,  and  is  incessantly  employed 
nearly  thirteen  hours  a  day  for  the  rest  of  his  time,  in  the  active  duties  of  his 
office ;  and  that  he  may  devote  himself  the  more  exclusively  to  his  work,  he  lives 
unmarried.  He  complains  that  his  laborious  occupation  prevents  his  writing  as 
much  as  he  wishes  for  the  public,  yet,  in  addition  to  his  official  duties,  he  lectures 
several  times  a  week,  during  term-time,  in  the  University  at  Konigsberg,  and 
always  has  in  his  house  a  number  of  indigent  boys,  whose  education  he  superin- 
tends, and,  though  poor  himself,  gives  them  board  and  clothing.  He  has  made 
it  a  rule  to  spend  every  Wednesday  afternoon,  and,  if  possible,  one  whole  day 
in  the  week  besides,  in  writing  for  the  press ;  and  thus,  by  making  the  best  use 
of  every  moment  of  time,  though  he  was  nearly  forty  years  old  before  his  ca- 
reer as  an  author  commenced,  he  has  contrived  to  publish  more  than  sixty  origi- 
nal works,  some  of  them  extending  to  several  volumes,  and  all  of  them  popular. 
Of  one  book,  a  school  catechism,  fifty  thousand  copies  were  sold  previous  to  1830 ; 
and  of  his  large  work,  the  School-Teacher's  Bible,  in  9  volumes  8vo,  thirty  thou- 
sand copies  were  sold  in  less  than  ten  years. 

He  is  often  interrupted  by  persons  who  are  attracted  by  his  fame,  or  desire 
his  advice  ;  and  while  conversing  with  his  visitors,  that  no  time  may  be  lost,  he 
employs  himself  in  knitting  ;  and  thus  not  only  supplies  himself  with  stockings 
and  mittens,  suited  to  that  cold  climate,  but  always  has  some  to  give  away  to 
indigent  students  and  other  poor  people.  His  disinterestedness  is  quite  equal  to 
his  activity,  and  of  the  income  of  his  publications,  he  devotes  annually  nearly 
five  hundred  dollars  to  benevolent  purposes.  Unweariedly  industrious,  and 
rigidly  economical  as  he  is,  he  lays  up  nothing  for  himself.  He  says,  "  I  am  one 
of  those  happy  ones,  who,  when  the  question  is  put  to  them,  *  Lack  ye  any  thing  ?' 
(Luke  xxii  35),  can  answer  with  joy,  'Lord,  nothing.'  To  have  more  than  one 
can  use  is  superfluity ;  and  I  do  not  see  how  this  can  make  any  one  happy. 
People  often  laugh  at  me,  because  I  will  not  incur  the  expense  of  drinking  wine, 
and  because  I  do  not  wear  richer  clothing,  and  h' ve  in  a  more  costly  style.  Laugh 
away,  good  people ;  the  poor  boys,  also,  whose  education  I  pay  for,  and  for  whom 
besides,  I  can  spare  a  few  dollars  for  Christmas  gifts,  and  new-year's  presents 
they  have  their  laugh  too." 

Toward  the  close  of  his  autobiography,  he  says  respecting  the  King  of  Prus 
sia,  "  I  live  happily  under  Frederick  William  ;  he  has  just  given  me  one  hundrec 


EXAMINATIONS  FOR  TEAHEKS  IN  PRUSSIA.  ^5 

and  thirty  thousand  dollars  to  build  churches  with  in  destitute  places ;  ne  has 
established  a  new  Teachers  Seminary  for  my  poor  Polanders,  and  he  has  so  ful- 
filled my  every  wish  for  the  good  of  posterity,  that  I  can  myself  hope  to  live  to 
see  the  time  when  there  shall  be  no  schoolmaster  in  Prussia  more  poorly  paid 
than  a  common  laborer.  He  has  never  hesitated,  during  the  whole  term  of  my 
office,  to  grant  me  any  reasonable  request  for  the  helping  forward  of  the  school- 
system.  God  bless  him  I  I  am  with  all  my  heart  a  Prussian.  And  now,  my 
friends,  when  ye  hear  that  old  Dinter  is  dead,  say, '  May  he  rest  in  peace ;  he 
was  a  laborious,  good-hearted,  religious  man ;  he  was  a  Christian.' " 

A  few  such  men  in  the  United  States  would  effect  a  wonderful  change  in  the 
general  t™°  of  our  educational  efforts. 


EXAMINATIONS  FOR  THE  OFFICE  OF  TEACHER 

IN  Prussia,  the  Government  not  only  provides  every  facility  for  the  pro- 
fessional education  of  all  the  teachers  of  her  public  schools,  but  prohibits 
any  person  from  teaching  as  master  or  assistant,  in  any  public  school, 
who  does  not  hold  a  certificate  of  fitness  obtained  by  passing  tbe  exam- 
inations instituted  by  itself.  These  examinations  are  two.  The  first  is 
for  the  position  as  assistant,  and  the  second  as  principal. 

I.  The  first  examination  takes  place  when  the  candidate  has  completed 
his  seminary  course,  and  is  called  JEntlassungsprufung.     It  is  conducted 
by  the  director  and  teachers  of  the  seminary,  each  in  his  own  branch,  and 
superintended  by  the  school  committee  of  the  province,  assisted  by  the 
councilor  of  the  department. 

The  certificates  are  of  three  grades,  or  degrees  of  merit :  No.  1.  "  Very 
well  qualified."  No.  2.  "Well  qualified."  No.  3.  "Sufficiently  quali- 
fied." As  this  classification  is  of  great  consequence  to  the  future  pros- 
pects of  the  candidates,  the  greatest  care  is  taken  to  fix  exactly  the 
amount  of  performance  which  shall  entitle  the  candidates  to  each  of  the 
grades  respectively. 

The  subjects  of  examination  are  :  1.  Religion.  2.  German  language. 
3.  Art  of  School-keeping.  4.  Knowledge  of  our  Country.  5.  Arithmetic 
and  Geometry.  6.  Natural  Knowledge.  7.  Writing.  8.  Drawing. 
9.  Singing  and  Theory  of  Music.  10.  Organs. 

The  performance  of  the  candidates  under  each  of  these  heads  is  valued 
as  "very  good,"  "good,"  "sufficient;"  and  upon  the  aggregate  of  these 
separate  valuations  the  grade  of  his  certificates  depends.  No  candidate 
can  obtain  a  certificate  No.  1,  who  has  not  obtained  a  "very  good"  in  at 
least  the  three  subjects,  religion,  German  language,  and  arithmetic. 
Possessing  the  certificate  of  a  first  examination,  the  candidate  can  accept 
any  appointment  as  assistant ;  and  any  time  within  three  years,  he  is  at 
liberty  to  throw  up  his  place  and  quit  the  profession,  by  refunding  the 
whole  cost  of  his  training  in  the  seminary. 

II.  The  second  examination  takes  place  at  the  end  of  the  third,  and  be- 
fore the  expiration  of  five  years  from  the  time  of  passing  the  first  exam- 
ination.    The  assistant  teacher  must  not  wait  to  receive  notice,  but  at 
the  time  and  place  appointed,  with  his  first  certificate  in  hand,  must  pro- 


654  EXAMINATIONS  FOR  TEACHERS  IN  PRUSSIA. 

sent  himself  to  the  board  of  examiners,  of  which  the  departmental  coun- 
cilor is  president.  The  examination  turns  wholly  upon  professional 
skill,  and  such  subjects  as  the  candidate  was  marked  defective  in,  in  his 
former  examination.  It  is  more  a  review  of  conduct  than  a  test  of  at- 
tainment. So  far  as  it  is  oral,  it  is  dialogic ;  and  each  examiner  fol- 
lows out  his  own  topic. 

The  examinations  are  both  oral  and  written,  and  are  not  public,  al- 
though the  superintendent  and  any  of  the  clergy  of  the  department  have 
a  right  to  be  present,  and  strangers  may  be  introduced  by  the  presi- 
dent 

III.  Besides  these  two  official  examinations,  which  are  obligatory,  the 
trustee^  or  school  board  of  particular  schools  or  localities  are  authorized 
to  institute  further  examinations,  or  to  select  from  a  number  of  candidates 
applying  for  a  situation. 

PROFESSIONAL   IMPROVEMENT   OF  TEACHERS. 

After  the  teacher  has  pursued  his  seminary  course,  and  passed  his 
first  and  second  examinations,  he  must  improve  such  opportunities  as  are 
provided  for  extending  his  practical  knowledge. 

I.  There  are  a  series  of  periodical  meetings,  systematically  arranged 
and  constituted,  which  the  public  teacher  must  attend: 

1.  Parochial  Conference — for  all  the  elementary  teachers  of  a  parish, 
held  once  a  month  in  the  winter  season,  and  presided  over  by  the  pastor 
of  the  parish. 

2.  District  Conference — for  the  teachers  of  several  neighboring  par- 
ishes, combined  into  districts,  held  every  two  months  in  the  summer 
season — under  the  presidency  of  a  pastor  nominated  by  the  superinten- 
dent. 

3.  Circle  Conference — for  all  the  teachers  of  a  circle,  held  twice  a  year, 
by  the  superintendent. 

4.  Departmental  Conference — held  once  a  year,  under  the  presidency 
of  the  schulrath  of  the  department. 

5.  The  Seminary  Conference — held  annually  for  all  the  teachers,  who 
live  within  six  miles  of  a  seminary,  under  the  presidency  of  the  director. 
Besides  the  other  purposes  of  the  conference,  this  meeting  is  intended  to 
keep  alive  the  connection  between  the  schools  and  the  seminary.     And 
the  same  object  is  sought,  by  assigning  to  the  director  the  duty  of  in- 
specting a  certain  number  of  schools  in  the  department  every  year. 

II.  There  are  Boole  Societies  or  Unions,   to  which  subscriptions  are 
compulsory,  and  on  the  list  of  yearly  purchases  are  placed  at  least  a  cer- 
tain number  of  professional  periodicals  and  treatises. 

III.  Repetition  Courses  are  established  in  connection  with  several  of 
the  Normal  Schools,  for  teachers   who  wish  to  return  to  develop  and 
strengthen  their  training. 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  GERMANY.  655 


II.      SECONDARY     INSTRUCTION. 

Secondary  Instruction  in  Germany  is  not  a  continuation  of  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  elementary  schools,  but  exists  independent  of  it,  and  forms 
part  of  the  system  of  superior  instruction.  By  degrees  the  Burgher 
School,  the  highest  grade  of  the  primary  system,  is  being  merged  into  the 
Real-schulen,  or  Real  gymnasia,  the  lowest  grade  of  the  secondary  sys- 
tem, and  thus  prepares  pupils  for  the  special  schools  of  agriculture, 
building,  engineering,  and  other  departments  of  practical  life.  But  as 
yet,  preparation  for  the  universities  can  only  be  made  in  the  Gymnasium. 

Admission. — The  pupils  are  not  admitted  into  a  gymnasium,  or  other  estab- 
lishment for  secondary  education,  under  ten  years  of  age ;  and  the  following 
qualifications  are  required: — (1)  Facility  in  reading,  correct  spelling,  and  the 
rudiments  of  grammar ;  (2)  Writing  from  dictation  ;  (3)  Readiness  in  the  four 
fundamental  rules  of  arithmetic,  and  acquaintance  with  the  properties  of  num- 
bers and  simpler  parts  of  fractions;  (4)  Elements  of  geography  (Europe  in  par- 
ticular) ;  (5)  Narrative  parts  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  life  of  Christ ;  (6) 
Elementary  notions  of  form  (drawing). 

Studies. — The  subjects  of  instruction  in  the  gymnasium: — (1)  Singing  and 
music;  (2)  Gymnastics;  (3)  Calligraphy  and  drawing;  (4)  Religion  and  Biblical 
history;  (5)  Arithmetic;  (6)  Mathematics^-applied  mechanics,  and  statics  in 
the  higher  classes;  (7)  Geography,  ancient  and  modern;  (8)  German  language, 
historical  grammar;  (9)  German  literature,  ancient  and  modern ;  (10)  Rhetoric; 
(11)  Latin  (Tacitus  and  Cicero  in  the  higher  classes) ;  (12)  Greek  (Xenophon, 
Plato,  &c.,  in  the  higher  classes):  (13)  French  or  English  (in  some  gymnasia, 
both  optional,  in  some  English  is  voluntary;  obligatory  in  others);  (14)  He- 
brew (optional,  except  for  future  theological  students) ;  (15)  Natural  History ; 
(16)  History,  ancient  and  modern;  (17)  Philosophy — logic,  anthropology,  psy- 
chology. 

Terms  and  Examination. — The  scholastic  year  is  divided  into  two  terms,  at 
the  close  of  each  of  which  there  is  an  examination.  At  the  end  of  the  second 
half,  the  examinations  for  passing  them  from  one  class  to  another  are  held 
under  supervision  of  a  government  inspector.  The  six  classes  should,  in  the 
ordinary  way,  be  passed  through  in  nine  years.  Thus  a  pupil  entering  at  ten 
would  leave  the  gymnasium  and  enter  the  university  at  nineteen. 

Final,  or  Leaving  Examination. — Before  proceeding  from  the  gymnasium  to 
the  university,  an  examination  must  be  undergone,  called,  Abiturienten,  or  Ex- 
amination of  Maturity.  Those  who  have  received  their  education  in  a  private 
school  must  pass  the  same  examination  before  being  admitted  to  the  university, 
and  to  professional  life.  In  their  case,  this  examination  is,  in  some  States,  to 
be  undergone  before  inspectors  of  the  Supreme  Council ;  in  Prussia,  in  any 
gymnasium  they  may  select.  The  candidates  are  to  be  examined  separately, 
and  are  required  to  produce  the  certificates  of  their  masters  as  to  moral  conduct 
and  proficiency. 

The  conduct  of  this  examination  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Committee  of  the 
Gymnasium,  consisting  of  the  head  master,  the  teachers  of  the  higher  classes, 
one  or  two  members  of  the  clergy  or  authorities  of  the  place,  and  in  Prussia  a 
member  of  the  Provincial  Consistory,  in  Baden  the  Mayor,  elected  by  universal 
suffrage.  In  Prussia,  the  member  of  the  Provincial  Consistory  presides,  but 
his  appointment  must  be  approved  by  the  Ministry  of  Public  Instruction.  The 
clerical  delegate  must  be  approved  by  the  Consistory  of  the  Province.  Besides 
the  above,  members  of  the  Supreme  Council  of  Education  have  the  practical 
direction  of  the  examination.  In  Prussia,  there  is  moreover  a  Royal  Commis- 
sion, appointed  by  the  Ministry,  and  consisting  of  professors  of  universities  or 
secondary  schools,  who  attend  the  examination  as  inspectors.  The  teachers  of 
the  gymnasium  and  the  local  authorities  of  the  school  are  also  present  at  the 
oral  examination,  which,  in  certain  States,  takes  place  in  public. 

The  examination  is  both  oral  and  by  writing,  and  comprises  the  following 


656  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  GERMANY. 

bUbjects: — German,  Latin,  Greek,  French  or  English,  Hebrew  (obligatory  for 
future  students  of  theology  only),  Religion,  General  History,  Geography,  Mathe- 
matics, Physics,  Natural  History,  and  the  elements  of  Mental  Philosophy.  The 
following  is  an  abstract  of  the  regulations  in  Prussia  for  the  final  examination: 

Written  Examination. — The  subjects  of  the  written  examination  are  selected 
by  the  Commissary  of  the  Government,  who  is  present,  from  a  list  furnished  by 
the  director  and  head-master  of  the  gymnasium.  They  must  be  such  as  have  not 
been  specially  treated  in  the  class-room,  though  not  beyond  the  range  of  instruc- 
tion of  the  pupils.  The  written  exercises  embrace  the  following: — (1)  A  Ger- 
man prose  composition ;  (2)  A  Latin  composition,  and  so-called  extempore  exer- 
cise, in  which  the  master  speaks  or  reads  in  German  to  the  pupil,  who  must 
write  down  the  same  in  Latin;  (3)  Translation  from  a  Greek  author,  which  has 
not  been  read  in  the  school  course,  as  well  as  from  Latin  into  Greek;  (4)  Trans- 
lation from  German  into  a  modern  language ;  (5)  The  solution  of  two  questions 
in  Geometry,  and  ">f  two  in  analysis,  within  the  limits  of  the  course  in  those 
subjects.  Candidates  may  also,  if  they  please,  be  examined  beyond  the  re* 
quirements  for  passing.  Those  who  intend  to  apply  themselves  to  theology  or 
philology  have  to  translate  a  portion  of  one  of  the  historical  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  or  a  Psalm,  into  Latin,  adding  a  grammatical  analysis.  The  ex- 
amination extends  over  four  days. 

Oral  Examination. — The  subjects  of  the  oral  examination  are  the  following: 
— (1)  General  grammar  and  prosody  of  the  German  language,  the  chief  epochs 
of  natural  history  and  literature,  and  the  national  classics ;  (2)  Translation  and 
analysis  of  extracts  from  Cicero,  Sallust,  Livy,  Virgil  and  Horace ;  parts  of  the 
examination  are  conducted  in  Latin ;  (3)  Translation  and  analysis  of  Greek 
prose,  and  of  portions  of  Homer,  with  questions  on  Greek  grammar,  history, 
arts,  and  mythology;  (4)  Translation  from  French  or  English  classics,  with 
conversation;  (5)  Questions  on  Christian  doctrines,  dogmas,  or  morals,  church 
history,  and  the  Bible ;  (6)  Arithmetic,  the  simpler  parts  of  algebra  and  geom- 
etry, logarithms,  and  plane  trigonometry ;  (7)  History  and  geography,  ancient 
(especially  Greek  and  Roman)  and  modern  history,  and  geography  (physical, 
mathematical,  and  political);  (8)  Natural  history,  classification;  (9)  Those  por- 
tions of  physics  which  can  be  treated  by  elementary  mathematics;  (10)  The 
elements  of  moral  philosophy,  psychology  and  logic.  The  future  theological 
student  has  also  to  translate  and  analyze  a  portion  of  one  of  the  historical 
books  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Certificate  of  Final  Examination. — After  the  examination,  the  commission 
that  has  conducted  it  proceeds,  on  a  comparison  of  notes  taken  during  its  course 
by  the  different  members  (each  member  having  a  vote),  to  a  selection  of  those 
students  who  may  be  deemed  qualified  to  receive  a  certificate  called  a  certifi- 
cate of  maturity  (Maturitdtszeugniss.}  Those  who  have  not  satisfied  the  exam- 
iners are  remanded  to  their  class,  but  may  again  present  themselves,  after  an 
interval  of  six  months,  for  another  trial,  unless  they  are  judged  entirely  unfit 
to  pursue  a  literary  career.  The  certificate  of  maturity  is  indispensable  for 
matriculation  in  either  of  the  faculties  of  theology,  law,  medicine  or  philosophy, 
in  one  of  the  national  universities,  for  admission  to  the  examination  for  an  aca- 
demical degree,  to  compete  for  one  of  the  bursaries  at  the  universities,  or  to  the 
government  examination,  by  which  alone  he  can  be  appointed  to  an  office  in 
State  or  Church,  or  to  practice  as  a  medical  man  or  lawyer. 

Teachers  of  Gymnasium. — The  teachers  of  the  gymnasium  must  all  have  at- 
tended a  university,  in  which  they  enter  one  of  the  philological  or  pedagogical 
seminaries  attached  to  the  universities.  To  qualify  for  the  different  master- 
ships in  a  gymnasium  in  Prussia,  the  following  special  examinations  have  to  be 
passed — (1)  The  general  government  examination,  pro  facultate  docendi,  on 
leaving  the  university ;  (2)  For  a  special  post ;  (3)  For  every  step  of  promotion  ; 
(4)  For  a  rectorship. 

Statistics. — According  to  the  following  Tables,  compiled  from  Dr.  Wiese's  Re- 
port on  the  High  Schools  of  Prussia,  (Berlin,  1869.)  and  the  School  Kalendar  of 
Dr.  Mushacke  for  1869,  there  were  for  all  the  German  population,  (72,233,147,) 
947  institutions  for  Secondary  Ftducation,  with  12,469  teachers  and  213,976 
students.  !L 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  GERMANY.  G57 

III.    SUPERIOR  AND  PROFESSIONAL  INSTRUCTION. 

Superior  instruction  is  given  either  in  the  Universities,  or  in  Polytech- 
nic schools  of  the  highest  grade.  The  latter  are  usually  classed  and 
will  be  described  with  Special  Schools. 

The  high  standard  of  University  instruction  is  maintained  (1)  by  the 
Certificate  of  Maturity — the  evidence  of  having  completed  in  a  satisfac- 
tory manner  the  eight  years'  course  of  a  Gymnasium ;  and  (2)  by  the 
government  examination  of  all  candidates  for  employment  in  any  depart- 
ment of  the  public  service,  or  who  aspire  to  practice  as  a  lawyer  or 
physician,  pastor,  or  teacher — to  be  admitted  to  which,  the  candidate 
must  produce  certificates  of  having  attended  a  University  for  at  least 
three  years.  The  examinations  are  conducted  by  government  commis- 
sions, composed  of  scientific  and  practical  men.  The  following  summary 
is  specially  applicable  to  Prussia,  but  generally,  to  all  the  German  States. 

(1.)  Jurisprudence. — To  obtain  a  license  to  practice  as  a  solicitor  or  barrister, 
or  to  fill  a  State  appointment  in  the  Civil  Service,  the  candidate  must  have  at- 
tended at  a  University,  for  the  space  of  three  and  a  half  years,  the  lectures  on 
the  following  subjects: — Roman  Law,  German  and  French  Civil  Law;  Statute 
Law  and  Common  Law  of  Prussia ;  Civil  and  Criminal  Law  and  Procedure ;  In- 
ternational Law ;  German  State  History  and  History  of  German  Law ;  Canon 
Law ;  Philosophy  of  Law ;  Feudal  Law ;  Civil  Bar-practice,  and  the  Art  of  Re- 
porting; Forensic  Medicine;  and  National  Economy.  Besides  the  above,  he 
must  attend  three  courses,  at  his  choice,  in  the  faculty  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 

The  State  examination  is  both  written  and  oral.  The  former  comprehends 
all  the  above-named  branches;  and  the  Corpus  juris  civilis  Romani  is  the  onty 
book  allowed  him  for  reference.  The  oral  examination  is  on  Roman  Law,  the 
Common  Law  of  Baden,  Criminal  Law  and  Civil  Pleadings,  and  National 
Economy.  The  examination  commission  is  appointed  jointly  by  the  Ministries 
of  Justice,  and  Home  Affairs,  and  consists  usually  of  "Ministerial  Councilors." 

This  is  the  first  stage.  The  candidate,  who  has  passed  this  examination,  is 
called  Richtepraktikant ;  has  now  to  serve  for  two  years  in  district  courts,  in 
courts  of  justice  of  different  grades,  and  in  government  offices;  and  after  having 
thus  gained  the  necessary  practice  in  these  departments,  he  is  admitted  to  the 
second  practical  examination,  before  another  commission  of  lawyers.  This 
second  examination  embraces — Constitutional  Law  of  the  State,  Common  Law, 
Criminal  Law  and  Procedure,  the  Rules  observed  in  Civil  Pleadings.  This  is  a 
written  examination,  followed  by  an  oral  exposition  of  some  subject  relating  to 
judicial  administration,  the  conduct  of  a  prosecution  or  defense.  The  candidate 
has  placed  in  his  hands,  a  week  previous  to  his  discourse,  the  documents  with 
which  the  latter  is  to  deal.  An  oral  examination  on  the  above  subjects  accom- 
panies the  practical  test.  The  candidate  is  now  called  Referendarius,  and  can 
accept  a  public  appointment,  or  practice  as  a  solicitor  or  barrister. 

(2.)  Finance.— The  students  in  this  department  are  called  Cameralisten,  and 
are  all  destined  for  the  public  service.  It  comprehends  public  debt,  taxes,  ad- 
ministration of  public  property,  mines,  &c.  They  are  obliged  to  attend,  during 
three  years  and  a  half,  lectures  at  a  University  on  the  following  subjects : — 
Mathematics  (arithmetic,  algebra,  geometry,  plane  trigonometry,  elements  of 
applied  geometry,  and  mechanics,  actuarial  and  other  calculations) ;  Zoology ; 
Botany;  Geognosy;  Physics;  Chemistry;  Agriculture;  Care  of  Forests ;  Min- 
ing-; Technology;  Commercial  Science;  National  Economy;  Finance  (theoreti- 
cal and  practical);  Police  Regulations;  Public  Right.  Besides  the  above 
course,  the  student  must  attend,  during  the  first  two  years,  one  philological, 
philosophical,  or  historical  course  of  lectures,  and  is  expected  to  continue  the 
study  of  modem  languages. 

The  State  examination  takes  place  under  the  direction  of  the  Ministry  of 
Finance:  it  is  conducted  by  councilors  of  this  department,  and  by  specially  ap- 
pointed examiners,  and  is  both  written  and  oral.  The  written  examination 


658  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  GERMANY. 

embraces  all  the  branches  just  enumerated ;   the  oral  examination,  only  such  as 
are  deemed  appropriate  for  the  special  appointment  aimed  at  by  the  candidate. 

(3.)  ProtfMant  Tiiwloyy. — The  students  of  Protestant  Theology  must  reside  at 
the  University  for  about  two  and  a  half  years,  and  attend  the  following  course: 
— Introduction  to  the  Old  and  New  Testament;  Exegesis  of  the  same;  History 
of  the  Church  and  Dogmas ;  Dogmatics  and  Morals ;  Homiletics  and  Catechetics. 

The  student  must  then  pass  examination  before  the  director  of  the  theological 
seminary  connected  with  the  University  and  special  commissioners.  The  suc- 
cessful candidates  are  admitted  into  the  theological  seminary  in  Wittenberg,  and 
attend  in  the  latter,  as  in  the  University,  the  following  gratuitous  lectures,  and 
receive,  besides,  a  bursary  (i.  e.,  free  board  and  lodging  i.  The  course  of  lec- 
tures extends  over  twelve  months,  and  comprises: — Instruction  in  preaching 
and  catechising;  Liturgies;  Pastoral  Doctrine  (comprising  primary  education ); 
Church  Law;  Practical  Exposition  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments;  Practice 
in  discussion  and  argument. 

The  student  now  presents  himself  for  the  State  examination,  the  first  test 
being  the  delivery  of  a  sermon.  This  examination  consists  of  two  parts,  a  pre- 
liminary and  a  principal  one.  The  preliminary  examination  includes  the  fol- 
lowing subjects: — Oral  translation  and  explanation  of  Roman  and  Greek  au- 
thors ;  Latin  composition  ;  Translation  from  Hebrew  and  exposition :  General 
History ;  Mathematics  and  Physics.  The  principal  examinat  ion  includes :— Church 
History;  Hermeneutics,  criticism  and  exegesis;  Dogmatics;  Morals;  Homi- 
letics; Catechetics;  Philosophy  (logic,  psychology,  anthropology,  philosophy  of 
religion,  practical  philosophy).  Having  passed  this  examination,  the  candidate 
must  first  serve  two  years  as  a  curate,  before  he  can  be  appointed  a  pastor. 

(4.)  Hainan  Catholic  Theology. — Students  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faculty  in 
Germany  must  have  already  passed  their  examination  of"  maturity  "  before  State 
commissioners.  The  law  prescribes  a  residence  of  three  years  at  the  University. 
The  number  and  kind  of  theological  lectures  to  be  attended  by  the  student 'is 
appointed  by  the  bishop ;  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  and  the  government  being 
at  all  times  engaged  in  a  vigorous  contest  for  supremacy.  But  the  State  requires 
that  a  student  of  Roman  Catholic  theology  shall  have  received  a  general  literary 
education  before  he  is  admitted  to  any  office  in  his  church ;  all  church  appoint- 
meats  in  Germany  being  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  secular  government.  Be- 
sides the  theoretical  lectures,  attendance  on  the  courses  of  Latin,  Greek,  phi- 
losophy and  history  is  enjoined ;  and  the  State  prescribes  also  a  general  literary 
examination,  common  both  for  Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic  candidates  of 
theology,  in  the  following  subjects : — Latin  Composition ;  Explanation  of  easier 
Greek  authors ;  History  of  Philosophy :  General  History  and  German  History ; 
History  of  German  Literature ;  Constitution  and  Administrative  Law. 

(5.)  Instructors  in  Secondary  Schools. — Teachers  in  a  gymnasium  or  Hohere 
Burgerschuk,  must,  in  addition  to  a  theoretical  examination,  after  two  years' 
practice,  also  pass  a  practical  one.  There  are  two  classes  of  teachers — viz.,  (1) 
philological,  and  (2)  mathematical  and  scientific.  Both  classes  must  spend  three 
years  at  a  university.  The  mathematical  and  scientific  teacher  may  also,  after 
two  years'  university  study,  attend  in  the  third  year  a  Polytechnic  school.  The 
Philological  Students  have  to  attend  the  following  lectures: — Archaeology; 
Grammar  and  Prosody;  Roman  and  Greek  authors,  six  at  least;  Roman  and 
Greek  antiquities,  history  and  literature;  Arithmetic;.  Physics;  Pedagogy. 
Besides  these  lectures,  the  students  are  to  read  accurately  the  following  au- 
thors:— Homer,  Herodotus,  Sophocles,  Horace,  Caesar,  Xenophon,  Virgil,  Livy, 
Cicero,  Tacitus,  and  others. 

At  Berlin,  Breslau,  Stettin,  Halle,  and  Magdeburg,  there  is  a  pedagogical  sem- 
inary, in  which  candidates  can  attend  exercises  during  two  years.  There  is 
also  a  historical  seminary  for  special  students  and  teachers  of  history  at  Ber- 
lin, Bonn  and  Konigsberg. 

The  Mathematical  and  Scientific  Students  and  Teachers  attend  the  following  lec- 
tures:— Arithmetic,  Algebra,  Plane  and  Solid  Geometry,  Plane  and  Spherical 
Trigonometry,  Analytical  Geometry  and  Mechanics,  Differential  and  Integral 
Calculus,  Surveying,  &c.,  Physics,  Chemistry,  Zoology,  Botany.  Besides  these 
professional  lectures,  they  are  obliged  to  attend,  at  their  option,  three  philologi- 
cal and  historical  courses.  Both  the  philological  and  the  mathematical  and 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  PRUSSIA.  659 

scientific  candidates  have  first  to  pass  a  common  examination ;  subsequently 
each  of  the  two  classes  has  special  examinations. 

The  special  examination  for  philologists  consists  again  of  three  grades : — 
(1)  Formalexamen,  (2)  /feafexamen,  and  (3)  .Fac/iexamen,  in  History,  German, 
French,  and  English  or  Philosophy,  according  to  choice.  Optional  subjects : 
Mathematics,  Natural  History,  French,  English,  Hebrew.  All  is  accurately 
prescribed  in  detail. 

The  special  examination  for  mathematical  and  scientific  candidates  is  of  three 
grades:  (1)  Mathematics,  (2)  Natural  Sciences,  (3)  Optional  examination  in  cer- 
tain branches.  All  details  minutely  prescribed.  The  Commission  of  Examin- 
ers is  appointed  by  the  minister  in  cooperation  with  the  Supreme  Council  of 
Education. 

To  the  universities  of  Berlin,  Bonn,-  Breslau,  Griefswald,  Konigsberg  and 
Munster,  a  philological  seminary  is  attached,  consisting  of  two  sections,  a  lower 
and  an  upper.  The  lower  is  devoted  to  exercises  in  writing  and  speaking  Latin, 
to  Greek  composition  and  current  reading  of  authors.  The  upper  seminary  is 
devoted  to  practice  in  the  interpretation  of  Latin  authors,  in  methodical  and 
paedagogical  exposition,  philological  and  critical  exercises. 

(6.)  Medicine. — The  medical  student  must  attend  the  university  for  four  years. 
His  course  of  studies  is  divided  into  two  parts,  the  preliminary  and  the  purely 
medical.  At  the  end  of  two  years,  he  is  admitted  to  his  preliminary  examina- 
tion (fee  40  florins.)  The  preliminary  course  includes  the  following  obligatory 
lectures: — Botany,  Zoology,  Mineralogy.  Geognosy,  Physics,  Chemistry  (theo- 
retical and  practical,)  Anatomy  witli  dissections,  Physiology,  and  three  sub- 
jects, at  his  option,  in  the  faculty  of  Philosophy  and  Art. 

Having  passed  the  preliminary  examination,  the  medical  student  has  to 
attend,  during  the  remaining  two  years  of  his  university  course,  the  following- 
lectures: —  General  and  special  Pathology  and  Therapeutics,  Comparative, 
Pathological;  and  Chirurgical  Anatomy ;  Opthalmics;  Chirurgy,  with  exercises 
in  operations,  application  of  machines,  and  dressing;  Obstetrics,  Pharmacy. 
Materia  Medica,  Public  Hygiene,  Diseases  of  domestic  animals,  History  of 
Medicine. 

Besides  these  lectures,  the  stwdent  must  attend  a  clinical  course  in  Medicine. 
Chirurgery  and  Obstetrics,  and  obstetrical  clinics,  and  practice  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  professor.  Having  thus  gone  through  the  prescribed  course,  he  is 
admitted  to  the  chief  examination  (fee,  sixty  florins.)  The  examination  is  both 
oral  and  written — in  the  examination  hall,  in  the  dissecting-room,  and  at  the 
sick-bed.  The  license  to  practice  is  not  granted  until  the  candidate  has  passed 
his  examination  in  medicine,  in  surgery,  and  in  midwifery ;  and  not  for  one  of 
these  branches  only. 


THE  GERMAN  UNIVERSITIES 


662 


THE    GERMAN    UNIVERSITIES. 


II.  LIST  OF  LECTURES  IN  THE  FACULTY  OF  ABIS. 
Prague,  1366.t 


Honorarium 
Groschen.     Months. 

Metaphysics,* 8  6 

Physics,* 9 

On  the  heavens,* 5  4 

Generation,* 8  2 

Sense  and  sensation,* 

Memory  and  recollection,* 

Sleep  and  waking,* 

Length  and  shortness  of  life,* 

Vegetables,* 

Ethics  and  Ph)'sics,* 9 

Politics  and  Physics,* 6 

Rhetoric  and  Physics,* 9 

(Economics,* 

Boethius  de  consolatione, 4  3 

The  old  logic, 3  4 

Prior  (ethics?)*  4  4 


Honorarium 
Groschen. 

Posterior  (ethics  ?)* 3 

Topics,* 4 

Treatise  of  Peter  Hispanus, 2 

Material  Sphere,  1 

Algorism, 

Theory  of  the  planets, 2 

Six  books  of  Euclid 8 

Almagest. Ifl 

Almanach, 10 


Months. 
3 
4 
3 
1* 

li 


Priscian  (major), 
De  Gnecismo, 


6 
Poetria  nova,  ....................  2 

Labyrinth  ........................  1 

Boetius  on  the  discipline  of  schools, 
Doctrinale,  2d  part,  ............... 


Erfurt,  14494 


Months. 

Physics, 8 

On  the  soul 3 

On  heavens  and  earth, 3 

On  meteors, 3 

Lesser  natural  philosophy,* 2 

Ethics 8 

Politics 6 

Economics, 1 

Metaphysics, . .  6 

Euclid 6 

Theory  of  the  planets, 1$ 

Music 1 

Art  of  metrical  composition, 1 

Perspective, 8 

Material  sphere 1$ 

Old  logic 84 

Prior  (ethics ?) 8* 

Posterior  (ethics?) 8J 

Topics 4 


Month 


Elenchi,* „ 

Peter  Hispanus, 

Suppositions,  amplifications,  restrictions,  and 

appellations, 

Consequences, 

Bilisam  ? 

Obligatory  and  insoluble  propositions, 

Priscian  (minor), 

Donatns, 

Alexander,  part  1st  (Doctrinale), 

Same,  part  2, 

Same,  part  3, 

Boetius  on  the  consolations  of  philosophy,... 

Lovca  Heysbri, 

Poetria, 


Computus,. 
Algorism, . . 
Labyrinth, 


Ingolstadt,  1472.§ 


Honorarium. 
Groschen. 

Lesser  lojric,  and  exercises, 

Old  logic,  and  exercises, 24 

Elenchi 8 

Obligatory  propositions, 1 

Physics,  and  exercises, 

Material  sphere 3 

Euclid,  1st  book, 1 

Algorism,  integers, 1 

Some  book  on  rhetoric, 1 

Alexander,  1st  part  (Doctrinale), 3 

Same,  2d  part. 8 

Prior  (ethics  ?)  exercises, . .  10 


Honorarium 
Groschen. 

(The  preceding  examined  on  for  baccalaureate; 
the  following  for  the  master's  degree.) 

Ethics 

Metaphysics, 9 

On  meteors, 11 

On  generation  and  corruption, 3 

On  heavens  and  earth 6 

Lesser  natural  philosophy, 3 

Theory  of  the  planets, 3 

Common  arithmetic, 2 

To 


>pics, 


On  the  soul 

Posterior  (ethics?). 


,11 


Vienna,  1889.1 


Honorarium. 

Groschen. 

Physics, 3 

Metaphysics 9 

Heavens  and  earth, 5 

On  generation  and  corruption, 3 

On  meteors, 5 

On  the  soul, 5 

Lesser  natural  philosophy 8 

Ethics : 12 

Politics, 10 

(Economics, 2 


Honorariui 
Grose  he 

Boetius  on  the  consolations  of  philosophy,.. 

Euclid,  5  books 

Theory  of  the  planets, 

Perspective, 

Bragwardinus  on  proportionate  lengths, 

On  breadth  of  forms, 

Albertus  Magnus'  summary  of  nat.  phil...... 

01.1  logic 

Peter  Hispanus, 

Prior  (ethics  ?) 


t  From  "  Monwnenla  Universitatis  Pragemis,"  i.  1,  76.  I  give  these  lists  as  in  the  origi 
nal  sources,  with  their  characteristic  errors. 

t  Motschmann,  i.  §  Mederer,  iv.  93. 

J  Zeisl,  138.  This  list  is  headed,  "  We  now  assign  the  books  ordinarily  to  be  read,  with  th» 
fees  of  the  same,  which  no  master  may  presume  to  augment"  These  fees  will  sufficiently  indi 
cate  those  for  the  other  ordinary  lectures. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  BERLIN. 


663 


COURSES   OF   LECTURES   FOR   WINTER   TERM    OF    1865-6. 
I.    FACULTY  OF   THEOLOGY. 


Full  Professors. 

1 .  Special  Dogmatics,  6  hours  a  week. 

2.  Theology  of  new  Testament  and 
Life  of  Christ,  5  h.       [Christ,  1  h. 

3.  God's  Kingdom  till  the  Coming  of 

4.  Introd.  to  books  of  old  Test.,  5  h. 

5.  Explanation  of  the  Psalms,  5  h. 

6.  Life  of  Christ  and  Critical  Hist,  of 
the  Gospels,  2  h.  [6  h. 

7.  Hist.  Church  of  the  Reformation, 

8.  Exercises   in    Catechization    and 
Preaching,  2  h. 

9.  The  same,  2  h. 

10.  Practical  Theology,  5  h. 

11.  The  Creeds,  1  h. 

12.  Symbolical  Theol.,  and  Introd.  to 
Criticism  of  New  Test.,  5  h. 

Assistant  Professors. 

13.  The  book  of  Judges,  1  h. 

14.  The  book  of  Genesis.  5  h. 

15.  Life  and  Doctrine  of  St.  Paul,  1  h. 

16.  The  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  5  h. 


17.  Circle  of  Knowl.  and  Method.,  2  h. 

18.  Church  History,  part  1,  5  h. 

19.  Archa3ol.  and  Patristic  Study.  1  h. 

20.  Homiletics,  theoret.  and  pract.,  2  h. 

21.  Biblical  History,  4  h. 

22.  Dogmatics,  1  h. 

23.  The  book  of  Isaiah,  6  h. 

24.  Introd.  to  books  of  Old  Test.,  5  h. 

Privatdocenten. 

25.  The  book  of  Genesis,  5  h. 

26.  Prophetical  Inspiration,  2  h. 

27.  The  book  of  Isaiah,  5  h. 

28.  History  of  Jewish  Worship,  2  h. 

29.  The  book  of  Isaiah,  5  h. 

30.  Chaldaic  and  Syriac  Grammar,  2  h. 

31.  3  of  St.  Paul's  Epist.  explained,  2  h. 

32.  Hist,  of  the  Christian  Dogmas,  5  h. 

33.  Symbolical  Theology,  1  h. 

34.  Dogmatical  Passages  in  Old  and 
New  Testament  explained,  5  h. 

35.  Church  History,  part  1,  5  h. 

36.  History  of  Christian  Dogmas,  5  h. 


II.    FACULTY    OP   LAW. 


Full  Professors. 
Psychology  of  Crimes,  1  h. 
Natural  Law,  Philos.  of  Law,  4  h. 
Criminal  Law,  4  h. 
Criminal  Procedure,  2  h. 
Law  of  Nations,  2  h. 
Private  German  Law,  Commercial 
Law,  5  h. 

Practical  Exercises,  1  h. 
The  Pandects,  1  h. 
Practical  Law  of  the  Pandects,  6h.  j 
History  of  English  Law,  1  h. 
Roman  Law  of  Inheritance,  2  h.    j 
Com.  and  Pruss.  Civil  Process,  4  h.  \ 
Germ,  and  Pruss.  Public  Law,  4  h.  ' 
Canon  Law,  4  h. 
Prussian  Law,  1  h. 
Methodology  of  Law,  3  h. 
Prussian  Civil  Law,  4  h. 
Hist  German  Empire  and  Germ. 
Law,  4  h.  [3  h. 

Hist.  Provincial  Estates  in  Germ., 
Fourth  b'k  of  Gains  explained,  2  h. 
History  of  Roman  Law,  5  h. 
Instit.  and  Antiq.  of  Ro.  Law,  5  h. 

Assistant  Professors. 

23.  History  and  actual  state  of  the 
German  Confederation,  3  h. 

24.  Common  Law  of  Prussia,  4  h. 

25.  French  Civil  Law,  4  h.  [1  h. 

26.  Cath.  and  Prot.  Law  of  Marriage, 

27.  Prussian  Civil  Law,  4  h. 

28.  Cath.  and  Prot.  Canon  Law,  4  h. 


29.  Ecclesiastical  and  Canon  Law,  4h. 
3i).  Pract.  of  Eccle.  and  Can.  Law,  1  h. 

31.  Capital  Punishment,  1.  h. 

32.  Com.  and  Pruss.  Grim.  Law,  4  h. 

33.  French  Criminal  Procedure,  2  h. 

34.  German  Public  Law,    Rights  of 
Sovereigns,  2  h. 

35.  Law  of  Nations,  3  h. 

36.  Pract.  Exerc.  on  Grim.  Law,  1  h. 

Privatdocenten. 

37.  Prussian  Law,  1  h. 

38.  History  of  Roman  Law,  1  h. 

39.  Instit.  and  Antiq.  of  Ro.  Law,  4  h. 

40.  Prussian  Civil  Law,  4  h. 

41.  Feudal  Law,  1  h. 

42.  Private  German  Law,  4  h. 

43.  Commercial  Law,  Maritime  Law, 
and  Law  of  Exchange,  4  h. 

44.  Hist,  of  Ro.  Law  in  Germany,  1  h. 

45.  History  of   the   Empire,    and  of 
German  Law,  4  h. 

46.  Prussian  Law  of  Succession,  1  h. 

47.  Practical  P]xerc.  on  the  Jurispru- 
dence of  the  Pandects,  1  h.     [5  h. 

48.  Instit.  and  Antiq.  of  Roman  Law, 

49.  Relations   between    Church    and 
State,  1  h.  [4  h. 

50.  Ecclesiastical  and  Marriage  Law, 

51.  German  Pub.  Law,  Private  Rights 
of  Sovereigns,  2  h. 

52.  Prussian  Public  Law,  3  h.      [1  h. 
53   Prac.  Exer  on  Pub.  and  Can.  Law, 
54.  Private  Justice  among  Roms.,  2  h. 


664 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  BERLIN. 


55.  Roman  Law  of  Succession,  3  h. 

56.  Modern  Law  of  Exchange  in  Ger- 
many, 1  h.  [Germany,  4  h. 

57.  Private  Law  and  Feudal  Law  in 

58.  Com.  and  Marit.  Law  in  Ger.,  4  h. 


59.  Speculum  Saxonicum  explain.,  2  h. 

60.  Hist,  of  the  Empire  and  of  German 
Law,  4  h.  [the  Digests,  1  h. 

61.  Interpretation  of  the  Solutions  in 

62.  Methodology  of  Law.  3  h. 


III.    FACULTY    OF    MEDICINE. 


Full  Professors. 

On  certain  Discoveries  of  the  Nat- 
uralists, 1  h. 

Experimental  Physiology,  5  h. 
Practical  Exerc.  in  Experimental 
Physiol.  1  h.  [Microscope,  1  h. 
Comparative  Physiology  with  the 
General  History  of  Medicine,  1  h. 
Pathology  and  Therapeutics,  3  h. 
Clinical  Medicine,  6  h.  f5  h. 

Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System, 
Medical  Practice,  6  h. 
History  of  Popular  Maladies,  1  h. 
General  History  of  Medicine.  3  h. 
Pathology  and  Therapeutics,  5  h. 
Hernia,  2  h 

General  and  Special  Surgery,  4  h. 
Clinical  Surgery  and  Clinical  Oph- 
thalmics, Clinical  Surgery,  5  h. 
Experiments  in  Surgery  and  Anat- 
omy, [thalmics,  6  h. 
Clinical  Surgery  and  Clinical  Oph- 
Midwifery,  4  h. 
Clinical  Midwifery,  6  h. 
Pract.  Exercises  in  Midwifery,  1  h. 
Excitant  Drugs  in  Medicine,  2  h. 
Materia  Medica,  6  h. 
Osteology,  1  h.          [Marrow,  1  h. 
Anatomy  of  the  Brain  and  Spinal 
General  Anatom}',  6  h. 
Structure  of  the   Human    Body, 
with  the  Microscope,  1  h.      [24  h. 
Practical  Exercises  in    Anatomy, 
Methodology  of  Medicine,  2  h. 
General  Pathology  and  Therapeu- 
tics, and  their  History,  4  h.     [6  h. 
Haterta  Medica,w\t\\  Experiments, 
Pathological  Anatomy,  4  h. 
Practical  Course  of  Anatomy  and 
Pathology,  with  Microscope,  6  h. 
Practical  Course  of  Pathological 
Osteology,  6  h. 

Assistant  Professors. 
34  Spectacles,  1  h. 

35.  Ophthalmology,  2  h. 

36.  The  same,  2  li. 

37.  Clinical  Ophthalmics,  6  h. 

38.  Practical  Course  of  Ophthalmics, 
with  Experiments,  1  h. 

39.  General  Surgery,  6  h. 

40.  Surg.  Operations  on  Dead  Bodies. 

41.  Diseases  of  Children,  6  h. 

42.  Errors  of  Modern  Medicine.  1  h. 


2. 
3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
15. 

16. 

17. 

18. 
19. 
20. 
21. 
22. 
23. 
24. 
25. 
26. 

27. 

28. 
29. 

30. 
31. 
32. 

33. 


43.  Hygiene,  1  h.  [Diseases  of  Eye,4h. 

44.  Theory  and  Pract.  of  Treatment  of 

45.  Anat  of  the  Organs  of  Sense,  1  h. 

46.  Osteology  and  !>yndesmology  of 
the  Human  Body,  3  h. 

47.  Public  Hygiene,  1  h. 

48.  Legal  Medicine,  3  h. 

49.  Medico-legal  Dissection,  6  h. 

50.  The  Nerves,  2  h.        [Nerves,  6  h. 

51.  Clinical  Study  of  Diseases  of  the 

52.  Toxicology,  2  h. 

53.  Legal  Medicine,  3  h. 

54.  Medico-legal  Dissection,  6  h. 

55.  Pathology  and  Therapeutics,  1  h. 

56.  Auscultation,  4  h. 

57.  Clinical  Lectures  on  Auscultation 
and  Percussion,  6  h. 

58.  Wounds,  1  h. 

59.  Fractures  and  Dislocations,  2  h. 

60.  Application  of  Bandages,  3  h. 

Privatdocenten. 

61.  Diseases  of  the  Teeth  and  Mouth, 
2  h.  [Cure,  with  Experiments,  6  h. 

62.  Diseases  of  the  Teeth  and  their 

63.  Surgical  and  Ophthalmological  Ex- 
periments. 

64.  Drawing  up  of  Prescriptions,  2  h. 

65.  Special  Patholo.  and  Therap.,  6  h. 

66.  Venereal  Diseases,  2  h. 

67.  Cutaneous  Diseases,  2  h. 

68.  Clinical   lectures  on  Diseases  of 
Children,  2  h. 

69.  Diseases  of  the  Ear,  1  h. 

70.  Moral  Responsibility,  1  h.       [1  h. 
71   Pathology  of  Venereal  Diseases. 

72.  Surgery,  '6  h. 

73.  Legal  Medicine,  2  h. 

74.  Diseases  of  Women.  2  h.        [4  h 

75.  Theory  and  Practice  of  Midwifery 

76.  Baths  and  Thermal  Waters,  2  h. 

77.  Drawing  up  of  Prescriptions,  3  h. 

78.  Physiologi.  Effects  of  Gasses,  3  h 

79.  Toxicology,  3  h. 

80.  Going  over  previous  Lectures  ii 
Physiology  and  Osteology,  1  h. 

81.  Theory  and  Practice  of  Midwifery 
4h. 

82.  Operations  in  Midwifery,  1  h. 

83.  Clinical  Study  of  Cutaneous  am 
Venereal  Diseases,  3  h. 

84.  Use  of  the  Laryngoscope,  1  h. 

85.  Diseases  of  the  Heart,  1  h. 

86.  Percussion,  Auscultation,  &c.,  3  1 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  BERLIN. 


665 


87.  Auscultation,  Percussion,  and  use 
of  the  Laryngoscope,  4  h. 

88.  General  and  Special  Surgery. 

89.  Physiol.  of  Animal  Generation,  1  h. 

90.  Physiology    of   the   Nerves    and 
Muscles,  4  h. 

91.  Hernia,  1  h. 

92.  Puncture  with  experiments,  1  h. 

93.  Hereditary  vices,  1  h. 

94.  General  and  Special  Surgery,  4  h. 

95.  Auscultation,  Percussion,  &c.,  1  h. 

96.  Diagnostics,  2  h. 

97.  Use  of  Electricity  in  Medicine,  1  h. 

98.  Experimental  Physiology,  2  h. 

99.  Going  over  previous  lectures  on 
different  points  of  Physiology,  1  h. 


100.  Ophthalmology,  3  h. 

101.  Use  of  the  Ophthalmoscope,  1  h. 

102.  Diagnostics  of  abnormal  states  of 
the  Eye,  1  h.  [4  h. 

103.  Theory  and  Practice  of  Midwifery, 

104.  Operations  in  Midwifery,  1  h. 

105.  Thermal  Waters,  2  h. 

106.  Going  over  previous  lectures  on 
Pharmacology,  1  h. 

107.  Position   of   the    Viscera    in    the 
Human  Body,  1  h. 

108.  The  Laryngoscope,  1  h. 

109.  The  Laryngoscope,   Auscultation, 
Inhalations,  &c.,  1  h. 

110.  Cure  of  Insanity;  the  Diseases  of 
the  Brain,  2  h. 


IV.    FACULTY   OF   PHILOSOPHY. 


1. 
2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

1 

8. 

9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
15. 
16. 
17. 
18. 
19. 
20. 
21. 
22. 
23. 
24. 

25. 

26. 
27. 
28. 
29. 

30. 
31. 
32. 
33. 

34. 

35. 
36. 
37. 
38. 


Full  Professors. 

^Eschines  in  Ctesiphontem,  2  h. 
Paleontology,  5  h. 
Greek  Antiquities,  6  h. 
Botany,  1  h. 
Special  Botany,  4  h. 
Cryptogama,  tfcc.,  1  h. 
Meteorology,  1  h. 
Experimental  Physics,  4  h. 
Grecian  History,  4  h.  [5  h. 

Modern  Hist.,  from  1780  to -1815, 
Archeology,  2  h. 
Greek  Mythology,  1  h. 
National  Economy,  4  h. 
Science  of  Finance,  4  h. 
The  Persce  of  ^Eschylus,  4  h.   [4  h. 
The  Niks   Gloriosus  of   Plautus, 
Politics  and  Polit.  Economy,  1  h. 
Principles  of  Polit.  Economy,  4  h. 
Logic  and  Metaphysics,  4  h.    [4  h. 
Polit.  Econ. ;  Theory  of  Finance, 
Organic  Chemistry,  1  h. 
Experimental  Chemistry,  3  h. 
The  Speeches  of  Lysias,  2  h. 
The  Homeric  Poems,  and  particu- 
larly the  Odyssey,  4  h. 
Surfaces  of  the  Fourth  Order,  1  h. 
Analytical  Mechanics,  4  h. 
History  of  Egypt,  1  h. 
Grammar  of  Hieroglyphics,  3  h. 
Explanation   of  Egyptian  Monu- 
ments, 1  h. 

Physical  Experiments.  1  h.      [1  h. 
The  41st  book  of  Livy,  and  onward, 
Latin  Inscriptions,  4  h. 
Monuments  of  the  Ancient  German 
Language  explained,  1  h. 
History" of  the  Ancient  Poetry  of 
Germany,  4  h. 

The  Germany  of  Tacitus,  4  h.  [3  h. 
Analysis  of  Determinate  Numbers, 
General  and  Special  Geology,  6  h. 
Zootomy,  4  h. 


39.  Historical  Exercises,  1  h. 

40.  Modern  History  of  England  and 
of  her  Parliament,  4  h. 

41.  History  of  Politics,  1  h. 

42.  The  Syriac  Language,  1  h.      [1  h. 

43.  Gramm.  of  the  Semitic  Languages, 

44.  Explanation  of  the  Psalms,  5  h. 

45.  Principles  of  Arabic  Grammar,  3  h. 

46.  Comparison  of  Persian  with  San- 
scrit, 1  h. 

47.  Crystallography,  1  h. 

48.  Mineralogy,  6  h.     [mach.  Eth.,  2  h. 

49.  The  sixth  book  of  Aristotle's  Nico- 

50.  Psychology,  4  h. 

51.  History  of  Philosophy,  5  h. 

52.  Theory  of  Analyti.  Functions,  6  h, 

53.  Algebraical  Equations,  6  h. 

Assistant  Professors. 

54.  Hist,  of  Modern  Philosophy,  2  h. 

55.  Logic,  4  h.  [17th  cent.,  4  h. 

56.  General  History  of  Philosophy  in 

57.  Theory  of  Determinants,  2  h. 

58.  Algebra,  4  h. 

59.  Differential  Calculus,  4  h. 

60.  Physical  Geography,  and  History 
of  the  Mediterranean,  3  h. 

61.  Simple  Drugs  examined  with  the 
Microscope,  1  h. 

62.  Botany  of  Medical  Plants,  6  h. 

63.  Pharmacognosy,  4  h.  [1  h. 

64.  Certain  Arabic  Authors  explained, 

65.  Arabic  Grammar,  3  h. 

66.  The  book  of  Genesis,  5  h.       [3  h. 

67.  Theory  of  Geographi.  Phenomena, 

68.  Analytical  Mechanics,  1  h. 

69.  History  of  Astronomy,  2  h. 

70.  Theory  of  the  Motion  of  Planets 
and  Comets,  4  h. 

71.  Exercises  in  Archeology,  1  h. 

72.  History  of  Greek  Sculpture,  3  h. 

73.  National  Economy,  4  h. 

74.  The  Epidicus  of  Plautus,  2  h. 


666 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  BERLIN. 


75.  Roman  Antiquities,  4  h. 

76.  History  of  Greek  Philosophy,  2  h. 

77.  Esthetics,  2  h. 

78.  Select  Epistles  of  Cicero,  1  h. 

79.  Philological  Exercises,  1  h. 

80.  Greek  Mythology,  3  h. 

81.  Exercises  in  Palaeography,  1  h. 

82.  Latin  Palaeography,  1  h. 

83.  National  History  of  Glumaceous 
Plants,  1  h. 

84.  Systems  of  Medical  Plants,  6  h. 

85.  Exerc.  in  Anat.  and  Physiol.,  4  h. 

86.  Ancient  Geography.  3  h. 

87.  Botany,  Diseases  of  Plants,  4  h. 

88.  Agronomical  Science,  1  h. 

89.  Historical  Exercises,  1  h. 

90.  Hist,  of  Germany,  4  h.  [Sing.,  2  h. 

91.  Art  of  Singing,  especially  Church 

92.  Musical  Composition,  4  h. 

93.  Pedagogy,  2  h. 

94.  The  Nibelungen,  6  h.    [scripts,  1  h. 

95.  Exercises   in  deciphering  Manu- 

96.  Logic;  Encyclopaedia  of  Philoso- 
phical Sciences,  4  h. 

97.  History  of  Philosophy,  4  h. 

98.  History  of  the  New  World,  2  h. 

99.  Geog.  and  Ethnog.  of  Europe,  4  h. 

100.  The  Chaldee  Language,  1  h. 

101.  History  of  the  Armenians,  3  h. 

102.  General  History  of  Physics  since 
Galileo,  2  h. 

103.  Theory  of  Electricity,  1  h. 

104.  Physics  applied  to  Mathematics, 
Acoustics,  4  h. 

105.  Chemical  Metallurgy,  3  h. 

106.  Principles  of  Qualitative  and  Quan- 
titative Analysis,  1  h. 

107.  Experimental  Chemistry,  6  h. 

108.  Pharmacy,  3  h. 

109.  Chemical  Experiments,  8  h.  daily. 

110.  Turkish  Language,  3  h.  [1  h. 

111.  Principles  of  National  Psychology, 

112.  Philoso.  of  Lang.;  General  Gram-- 
mar, 4  h.  [Languages,  4  h. 

113.  Character  of  the  Tndo-Germanic 

114.  Universal  Hist,  of  the  Arts,  5  h. 

115.  The  Sacontala  of  Calidasa,  2  h. 

116.  Sanscrit  Grammar,  3  h. 

117.  Zend  or  Pali  Grammar,  2  h. 

118.  The  Rigveda  or  the  Atharvaveda 
explained,  1  h.  [1  h. 

119.  Course  of  Sanscrit,  Zend,  or  Pali, 

120.  The  Dramatic  Art,  1  h.  [3  h. 

121.  Psychology    and     Anthropology, 

Privatdocenten. 

122.  Experimental  Organic  Chem.,  4  h. 

123.  Experiments  in  Organic  Chem.,  6h 

124.  Schleiermacher,  1  h. 

125.  Logic,  and  Encyclopaedia  of  the 
Philosophical  Sciences,  4  h. 


126.  The  Limits  between  Poetry  and 
Philosophy,  1  h.       [Henry  Care;  -. 

127.  The  American  Politic.  Economise, 

128.  Logic  and  Metaphysics. 

129.  Political  Economy. 

130.  History  of  Modern  Civilization. 

131.  Agronomical  Zoology,  3  h. 

132.  Entomology,  3  h. 

133.  The  Koran,  2  h. 

134.  The  Semitic  Dialects,  1  h. 

135.  Differential  Calculus,  4  h. 

136.  Analytical  Geometry,  4  h. 
137..  The  Bhagvatgita,  1  h. 

138.  Panini's  Sanscrit  Grammar,  3  h 

139.  Hindustani  or  Pali  Grammar,  2  h. 

140.  Indian  Philosophy,  1  h. 

141.  The  Satires  of  Juvenal,  2  h.    [<  h. 

142.  Syntax  of  the  Latin   Langua  ?e, 

143.  Lucretius,  De  Rtrum  Natura,  1  h. 

144.  Rhetoric  arid  Rhetor.  Exerc.,  1  h. 

145.  Aristotle,  and  the  Natural  Phi  os- 
ophy  of  the  Ancients,  4  h. 

146.  Hist,  of  German  Universities,      h. 

147.  Syst.of  Mod.  Phil,  since  Kant,     h. 

148.  Experimental  Chemistry,  6  h. 

149.  The  Olynthiac  Orations  of  Der  os- 
thenes,  1  h. 

150.  The  Epistles  of  Horace,  4  h. 

151.  Physics  applied  to  Mathema  ics 
Acoustics,  Optics,  &c.,  3  h. 

152.  General  Geology. 

153.  Natural  History  of  Entozoa,  1  h. 

154.  General  Zoology. 

155.  The  Climate  of  Italy,  1  h. 

156.  Medical  Climatology,  2  h.         1  b 

157.  Con  versa  tional  Lect.  on  Chemi  try 

158.  History  of  Chemistry,  1  h. 

159.  Qualitative  and  Quantitative  )ar 
of  Analytical  Chemistry,  3  h. 

160.  Medico-Legal  Chemistry,  3  h. 

161.  Chemical  Experiments,  8  h.  ( 

162.  Theory  of  Irriga.  and  Drainag    1 

163.  Principles  of  Agriculture,  3  1 

164.  Management  of  Cattle,  3  h. 

165.  Book-keeping,  1  h. 

Readers  (for  Modern  Language  .) 

166.  Lects.  in  Italian  on  Ital.  Lit.    2  1 

167.  Ital.  Grammar,  2  h.     fguage    2  11 

168.  Lects.  on  Italian  and  Freud: 

169.  German  Short-hand,  2  h. 

170.  German,    English,    French,     ar< 
Italian  Short-hand.  2  h. 

171.  Lects.  in  Polish  on  Persian  <  rar 
mar  and  the  Zend  Languag'    2 

172.  Turkish  Lang.;  KirkVezirre:  1,3 

173.  Practical  Lectures  on  the  I  rsi* 
and  Turkish  Languages,  2  h 

174.  Lects.  in  English  on  Engli   i  L 
down  to  the  16th  century,  1  h. 

175.  Lects.  on  English  Language    2  1 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  LEII'SIC.  667 


PROGRAMME   OF   STUDIES    FOR   WINTER    TERM,   1872-3.* 

I.  THEOLOGY.     1.  Full  Professors. 

Fr.  Delitsch — Biblical  Theology  of  the  0.  T.  (4  h.) ;  Interpretation  of  the  Minor 

Prophets  (4  h.);  Grammar  of  Biblical  Chaldee  (2  h.);  Hebraicum  (1  h.) 
Kahnis — History  of  Dogma  (6  h.);  Eccles.  Hist,  of 'the  Later  Middle  Ages  (2 

h.);  Symbolic  (4  h.);  Practical  Exercises  of  Theol.  Soc'y  (3  h.) 
Luthardt — Dogmatics  (6  h.) ;  Interpret,  of  St.  John's  Gospel  (4  h.) ;  Introd.  to 

Dogmatics  (2  h.) ;  Exercises  of  the  Soc'y  for  Dogmatics  (2  h.) 
Lechler — Church  History  since  Gregory  VII.  (6  h.) ;  Interpretation  of  Ep.  of  St. 

Peter  (2  h.);  Practical  Exerc.  in  Church  History  (2  h.) 
Fricke — Life  of  Christ  accord,  to  Four  Gospels,  with  Prefatory  Criticism  of  the 

Gospels  (4  h.);  Interpret,  of  the  Messianic  Proph.  of  0.  T.  (3  h);  Interpret. 

of  Paul  to  Galatians  (2  h.);  Soc'y  for  Exegesis  of  0.  T.  and  N.  T.  (2  h.) 
Tischendorf — Interpret,  of  Epistle  to  Romans  (4  h.);  Interpret. of  the  Parenetic 

Parts  of  Ep.  to  Romans  (2  h.) 
Baur — Practical  Theology  (1  h.);  German  Lit.  from  Klopstock  to  Present  Day, 

in  its  Relations  to  Religion  and  the  Church  (3  h.);   Exercises  of  Homiletic 

Seminar  (2  h.) 
Hofmann — Practical  Theology  (6  h.) ;  Evangelical  Pedagogic  and  its  History 

(4  h.);  Exerc.  of  Seminar  for  Catechetic  and  Pedagogic. 
Holemann — Interpret,  of  Job  (4  h.) ;  Soc'y  for  Exegesis  of  0.  T.  and  N.  T. 

Disputations,  etc.,  in  Latin  (2  h.) 

2 .  Assistant-  Professors. 
W.  Schmidt— Interpret,  of  I.  and  II.  Corinth.  (4  h.) ;  Hermerieutics  of  N.  T.  (2 

h.) ;  for  Catechetic  (2  h.) 
Cl.  Brockhaus — Archeology  of  Christian  Art  (2  h.) 

3.  Privatdocenten. 

Schurer—Ufe  and  Teachings  of  St.  Paul  (2  h.) 
Joh.  Delitsch — History  of  the  Doctrine  concerning  the  Person  of  Christ  (2  h.) 

ii.  JURISPRUDENCE.     1.  Fall  Professors. 

Mulkr — Common  and  Statute  Law  of  Saxony  (10  h.);  Practicum  for  Saxon 

Law  (2  h.):  Exegeticum  (2  h.) 

Wdchter— Pandects  (10  h.);  Theory  of  Possession  (2  h.) 

Hand— Sources  of  the  Rom.  Law  (2  h.):  Grim.  Procedure  accord,  to  R.  L.  (2  h.) 
Osterloh — Civil  Procedure  accord,  to  Comm.  Law  of  Germany  and  Saxony  (10 

h.);  Practicum  in  Procedure  (2  h.);  Kdatorium  (2  h.) 
Heinze — German  Grim.  Law  (7  h.) ;  History  and  System  of  Legal  Philos.  (4  h.); 

Internal.  Law  (2  h.);   Seminar  for  Crim.  Law  Practice  (2  h.) 
A.  Schmidt — Pandects  (12  h.);  Institutes  and  Hist,  of  Rom.  Law  (6  h.) 
Friedberg — Hist,  of  German  Law  (4  h.);  German  Const.  Law  (4  h  )•  Commer- 
cial Law  (3  h.) 
Kuntze — History  of  Rom.  Law  (6  h.) ;  Commercial  Law  (incl.  Insurance)  (4  h.) ; 

Exegesis  of  Passages  from  Digest  (2  h.) 
Stobbe — German  Common  Law,  excl.  of  Commercial  Law  (7  h.) ;  Eccles.  Law 

(4  h.);  Exercises  in  Germ.  Law  (2  h.) 
Schletter—Crim.  Procedure  accord,  to  Comm.  Law  of  Germany  and  Saxony  (4 

h.) ;  Law  relating  to  Public  Officials  (4  h.) 

2.  Assistant- Professors. 
Weiske — Mining  Law. 

Hock— History  of  German  Const.  Law  (6  h.) ;  Commercial  Law  (6  h.) ;  Obliga- 
tions, accord,  to  Germ.  Law  (2  h.) 
Gotz — Commercial  Law  (2  h.);  Property  Law  (2  h.) 

Voigt— Institutes  and  Hist,  of  Rorn  Law  (10  h.);  Encyciopaedy  of  Law  (3  h.) 
Nissen— Practicum  for  Civil  Procedure  (2  h.) ;  for  Crim.  Procedure  (3  h.) 
Lueder— Criminal  Law  (7  h.);  Agricult.  Law  (?>  h.) 

*  From  Hart's  German  Universities.    The  figures  in  (  )  denote  the  number  of  hours  per  week. 


668  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  LEIPSIC. 

in.  MEDICINE.     1.  Fall  Professors. 

Radius — Pharmacy  (4  h.);  Public  and  Private  Hygiene  (2  h.) 

Weber — Organs  of  Hearing  in  the  Amphibia  (3  h.) 

Wunderlich — Med.  Clinic  (9  h.);  Pathol.  and  Therap.  of  Acute  Constit.  Dis.  (4  h.) 

Crede — Gynecological  and  Obstetrical  Clinic  (7  h.) ;  Practical  Exercises  in  Ob- 
stetrics, with  Manikin  (4  h.);  Obstetrical  Demonstrations  (2  h.) 

Wagner — Spec.  Pathol.  Anatomy  (7£  h.);  Pathologic-liistological  Exercises  (5 
h.);  Exerc.  in  Pathol.  Institute  (4  h.  daily);  Medical  Polyclinic  (5  h.) 

Liidwig — Physiol.  of  Organs  of  Sensation  and  Locomotion  (5  h.);  Physiol.  Con- 
sultat.  (2  h.);  Exercises  in  Physiol.  for  Advanced  Students. 

Tuiersch— Surgical  Clinic  (9  h.) ;  Surgery  (4  h.) 

Coccius— Ophthalm.  Clinic  (6  h.) ;  Pathol.  Optics  (2  h.) ;  Inter.  Inflam.  of  Eye  (2  h.) 

His — Systemat.  Human  Anat.  (10  h.);  Dissecting  (8  h.  daily.) 

Braune — Army  Practice  (2  h.);  Operations  (4  h.) ;  Dissecting  (for  those  attend- 
ing Clinics)  (4  h.  daily);  Topograph.  Anatomy  (2  h.) 

Czermak — Introduction  to  Physiology  (Public  Lecture.) 

2.  Assistant-Professors. 

Sock — Diagnostic  Phenomenology. 

SonnenkaW — Practicum  for  those  entering  State  Service  (3  h.);  Medical  Juris- 
prudence (4  h.) 

Carus— Comparat.  Anatomy  of  Vertebrates  (4  h.);  Comparat.  Osteology  (2  h.); 
Comparat.  Anat.  and  Physiol.  of  Domest.  Animals  (4  h.) 

Germann — Diseases  of  Women  (2  h.) 

Hennig — Examinatorium  in  Obstetrics  (6  h.) ;  Pediatric  Clinic  (2  h.) 

Reclam — Med.  Jurispr.  (2  h.) ;  Alimentary  Substances  (2  h.) ;  Exercises  in  Hy- 
gienic Investigations  (2  h.) 

Merkel — Physiol.  of  Human  Voice  (principally  for  Philologists)  (2  h.):  Laryn- 
giatric  Polyclinic  (3  h.) 

B.  Schmidt — Surgical  Polyclinic  (6  h.) ;  Vivisection  (2  h.) ;  Hernia  (1  h.) 

Thomas — Exercises  in  Physical  Diagnosis  (2  h.);  Polyclinic  (3  h.) 

Schwatte—'Use  of  Microscope  (1  h.);  Anat.  of  Brain  and  Spine  (2  h.);  Exer- 
cises with  Microscope  (courses  of  6  h.  each.) 

3.   Privatdocenten. 

Meissner— Obstetrics  with  Reference  to  Jurispru.  (2  h.);  Pract.  Exerc.  in  Obst 
ffaake — Exerc.  in  Obstetrics,  with  Manikin  (3  h.) ;  Intra-uterine  Therapeut.  (1  h. 
Naumann— Pharmaco-dynamics  (2  h.) ;  Medical  Baths. 
Hagen — Otiatric  Polyclinic  (12  h.);  Laryngoscopy,  Pharyngoscopy,  and  Rhinos 

copy  (2  h.);  Galvanism  Applied  to  the  Ear  (2  h  ) 
Wendt— Polyclinic  for  Diseases  of  Ear  (9  h.) 
Friedlandcr— Constitut  Diseases  (4  h.) 

Kormann— Examinatorium  for  Obstetrics  (courses  of  36  h.  each.) 
Wenzel — Eepetitorium  for  Human  Anat.  (6  h.);  Anat.  for  Non-med.  Students  (2  h. 
Siegel— Public  Hygiene  (2  h.);  Medical  Jurisprud.  (2  h.) 
Seubner— Clinical  Propaedeutics  (3  h.);  Special  Pathology  and  Therap.  (6  h.) 

Electro-diagnosis  and  Electro-therapeut.  (2  h.) 

Hufner Physiol.  Chemistry  (2  h.):  Analysis  of  Animal  Tissues  and  Humors. 

L.  'Furst— Diseases  of  Children  (2  h.);  Propasdeutics  of  Obstetrics  (1  h.) ;  Pedi 

atric  Polyclinic  (3  h.) 

IV.  PHILOSOPHY.     1.  Full  Professors. 
Overbeck— Greek  Mythology  in  Art  (5  h.) ;  Explanation  of  Select  Spec,  of  Ar 

tique  Art  (3  h.) ;  Exerc.  of  Archasol.  Soc'y. 
Drobisch— Pyschology  (5  h.) ;  Outlines  of  Perception  (3  h.) 
Fechner— The  Interrelations  of  Body  and  Soul  (2  h.) 
Fleischer— Interpret,  of  the  Koran  (2  h.);  Introd.  to  Study  of  Mod.  Arabic  P< 

riodicals  (2  h.);  Interpret  of  the  Beharistan  of  Djami  (2  h.);  Turkish  Synta 

(2  h.) ;  Exerc.  of  the  Arabic  Soc'y. 

Roscher— Polit.  Econ.  (4  h.);  Finance  (3  h.);  Nat.  Econ.  and  Statistics  (2  h.) 
Brockhaus — Interpretation  of  Epic  Passages  in  the  Ramayana  (2  h.):  Interpre 

of  Select  Hymns  from  the  Rigveda  (4  h.) 


THE   UNIVERSITY  UF  LEIPSIC.  669 

Wtittke — Hist,  of  French  Revol.  (4  h.);  Histor.  Seminar ;  Exam,  of  Essays,  and 
Review  of  Sources  for  Hist,  of  Saxon  Dynasty  (3  h.) 

IRutkd — Magnetism,  Electr.,  Heat  (6  h.);  Terrestrial  Magnetism  (2  h.) 

Zuriti-ke — Grammar  and  Lit.  Hist,  of  Old  Norse  (4  h.) ;  Interpret,  of  Nibelung- 
enlied  (6  h.);  Exerc.  of  Germauistic  Soc'y. 

Alin.as — Logic  (4  IK);  Fuudam.  Doctr.  of  Ethics  (2  h.);  Theories  of  State  and 
Administr.  (4  h.) ;  Exerc.  of  Soc'y  for  Study  of  Government. 

Curtius — Greek  Grammar  (4  h.);  Grammat.  Soc'y  (2  h.);  Exerc.  of  Philol.  Sem- 
inar in  Interpret,  of  Odyssey,  etc.  (2  h.) 

Afasius— Hist,  of  Pedagogic  (4  h.);  Schools  and  School  Regul.  of  16th  and  17th 
Cent.  (1  h.) ;  Pedag.  Seminar  (2  h.) 

Ebert — Introd.  to  Compar  Philol.  of  Romance  Lang.  (3  h.);  Provenzal  Gram, 
and  Interpret,  of  Bartsch's  Chrest.  Prov.  (2  h.) 

RitscM — Greek  and  Roman  Metres,  Hist,  of  Greek  Lyric  Poetry  (4  h.);  Inter- 
pret, of  JEschylus(in  Latin),  in  Philol.  Stminar  (2  h.);  Interpret,  of  Terence, 
and  Lat  Disput.  in  Philol.  £oc'y  (2  h.) 

Kottte—  Organic  Chemistry  (4  h.);  Laborat.  Practice  (7  h.  daily.) 

G.  Voigt — History  of  German  Empire  from  Charlemagne  down  to  Downfall  of 
the  Hohenstaufen  (4  h.);  Age  of  Luther  and  Charles  V.  (2  h.);  Histor.  Soc'y. 

Scfmbner— Functions  of  the  Ellipse  (5  h.);  Differ,  and  Integral  Calc.  (4  h.) 

Schenk — Botan.  Physiol.  (3  h.) ;  Fossil  Plants  (2  h.);  Laborat.  Practice. 

Brulms — Comets  and  Determ.  of  Courses  (3  h.);  Spher.  Trig,  and  Progr.  in  Ap- 
plic.  to  Astron.  (2  h.) 

Neumann — Electrodynamics  (4  h.);  Discuss,  of  Mathem.  Exerc.  (1  h.) 

Lcuckhart— Compar.  Anat.  (6  h.);  Zoology  of  Vertebrates  and  Origin  of  Species 
(4  h.) ;  Labor.  Practice  (daily.) 

Blomeyer — Agricul.  (4  h.);  Plants  of  Commerce  (2  h.);  Law  of  Farming  (1  b.) 

Zirkel—  Chem.  Geology  (1  h.) ;  Mineralogy  (6  h);  Laborat,  Practice. 

Wit'demann — Inorgan.  Chem.  (6  h.);  Laborat.  Practice. 

Lange — Legal  Antiq.  of  Greece  (4  h.) ;  Seminar,  Interpret,  of  Epistles  of  Hor- 
ace, Lat.  Disputat.  (2  h.) ;  Roman  Archseol.  Soc'y  (2  h.) 

Peschd — Physical  Geography  (4  h.) 

Zollmr — Astron.  Physics  (4  h.) ;  Principles  of  Perception  in  their  Relations  to 
Nat.  Sciences  (2  h.) 

Krchl—  Encyclopa3dy  of  Semitic  Philol.  (4  h.) ;  Interptet.  of  Arnold's  Arabic 
Chrestom.  (2  h.) 

Strumpell — Logic  (4  h.);  Problems  of  Relig.  Phil.  (2  h.);  Pedagog.  Exercises. 

2.  Assistant-Professors. 

Nobbe—Odes  of  Horace  (2  h.);  Lat.  Disputat.  (2  h.) 

Marbach — Geom.  and  Trigonom.  (4  h.) 

Jacobi — Agriculture  (2  h.) ;  Cameralia  (1  h.);  Discuss,  of  Geogr.  and  Topograph 

Nomenclature  (1  h.) 
Wenck — Hist,  of  Germany  from  Westphalian  Peace  to  Accession  of  Frederick 

the  Great  (4  h.) ;  Hist,  of  Germany  from  Accession  of  Rudolph  of  Hapsburg 

to  End  of  14th  Cent.  (2  h.) 

Fritzsche — Frogs  of  Aristophanes  (2  h.) ;  Latin  Style  (2  h.);  Greek  Soc'y  (Aris- 
totle's Metaphysics) ;  Lat.  and  Greek  Disputat. 
Hermann— Introd.  to  Phil,  and  Logic  (4  h.);  ^Esthetics  (4  h.);  Criticism  of 

Leading  Mod.  Systems  of  Philosophy  (2  h.) 
Knop — Agricul.  Chem.  (4  h.) ;  Labor.  Practice. 
Mvnckwitz — Origin  and  Development  of  German  Lyric  Poetry  (2  h.);  Origin  of 

Homer.  Poems  (2  h.) 

Zilkr— Pyschology  (4  h.) ;  Phil,  of  Religion  (2  h.) ;  Pedagog.  Seminar. 
Eckstein — Odes  of  Horace  explained  in  Latin  (3  h.) ;  Pedagog.  Seminar. 
///Y/,,(/es— Hist,  of  Central  Europe  in  Reformation  (2  h.);  Hist,  of  France  (2  h.); 

Germanistic  Soc'y  (1  h.) 
!;>'-'/>, •mann— German  Hist.  (1806-1871)  (2  h.);  Hist,  of  Germ.  Lit.  in  18th  and 

19th  Cent.  (4  h.);  Nature  and  Hist,  of  Drama  (2  h.) 
Hirzel — Pharmacy  of  Inorganic  Preparat.  (2  h.) 
Seydel— Hist,  of  Mod.  Philos.  (4  h.) ;  Relations  of  Philos.  and  Religion,  especially 

since  Kant  (2  h.) ;  Philosoph.  Soc'y. 


670  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  LEIPSIC. 

Pockert— Saxon  Hist.  (2  h.);  German  Hist,  since  Westphalian  Peace  (2  h.) 
Birnbaum — Cattle  Raising  (3  h.);  Adrainistr.  of  Estates  (5  h.);  Import.  Ques- 
tions of  the  Day  (2  h.) 
Hildebrand—Germ.  Lit.  of  the  18th  Cent.  (4  h.) ;  Interpretation  of  M.  H.  G. 

poem  Meier  Helrribrecht  (2  h.) 
Knapp — Labor  Question  in  England,  France,  Germany  (4  h.) ;  Pract.  Exerc.  in 

Statistics  (2  h.) 

Lipsius— Thucydides,  Bk  II.  (4  h.) ;  Exerc.  of  Greek  Archseol.  Soc'y  (2  h.) 
Ebers — Old  Egypt.  Grammar  (3  h.) ;  Interpret,  of  Passages  in  Genesis  and  Ex- 
odus relating  to  Egypt  (2  h.) 

Leskein— Gram,  of  Church  Slavonic  (4  h.);  Hist  of  Serbic-Croatic  Lang.  (2  h.) 
Credner — General  Geology  (5  h.);  Labor.  Practice  (2  h.) 
Stohmann — Chem.  Technology  (3  h.) 
Mayer — Analyt.  Geom  (4  h.);  Mathem.  Exerc.  (1  h.) 

Zurn — Anatomy  of  the  Horse  (2  h.) ;  Veterinary  Surgery  (4  h.) ;  Hygiene  of 
Domestic  Animals  (1  h.) 

3.  Privatdocenten. 
Weiske—  Meteorology  (2  h.) 

0.  Delitsch — Methodology  of  Geogr.  Instruc.  (2  h.) ;  Relatorium  in  Geog.  (2  h.) 
Paul— Mus.  Art  of  Greek  Drama  (2  h.);  Harmonics  of  Mod.  Music,  etc.  (2  h.) 
Frank — Natural  History  of  Fungi  (2  h.) ;  Seeds  in  Agriculture  (2  h.) 
Muhll — Theory  of   Elasticity  (4  h.);    Potential  and  Conic  Functions  (2  h.) 

Mathem.  Exerc. 

Loth — Persian  (2  h.) ;  Encyclopaedy  of  Arabic  (2  h.) 
Carsianjen — Analyt.  Chem.  (4  h.) 
Schuchardt — Span.  Grammar  (3  h.);  Ariosto  (1  h.) 
Englemann — Planetary  Orbits  (2  h.);  Mechanical  Quadrature  (1  h.) 
Nitsche—Nat.  Hist,  and  Palaeontol.  of  Molluscs  (2  h.) ;  Developm't  of  Inverte- 
brates (2  h.) 

Philippi— Thucydides  (3  h.);  Hist,  of  Athens  (1  h.) 
fflrzelr—TList.  of  Greek  Philos.  (4  h.);  Interpret,  of  Plato's  Phaedrus;  Pract, 

Exerc.  in  Aristotle's  Ethics. 

Sachsse — Gen.  Agricult.  Chem.  C4  h.) ;  Repetitorium  for  Analyt.  Chem.  (1  h.) 
Luerssen — Morphology,  Physiology  of  Algae,  Fungi,  etc.  (3  h.) 
Schuster — Hist,  of  Greek  Phil,  down  to  Aristotle;  Interpret,  of  Plato's  Gorgias. 
Furst— (since  deceased)  Isaiah  (3  h.);  Pirke-Aboth  (1  h.) 
Langer — Gen.  Theory  of  Music  (2  h.);  Varieties  of  Musical  Composit.  (2  h.) 

.INCOME  AND   EXPENDITURE    FOR    1873. 

Leipsic  is  one  of  the  few  universities  that  have  property  of  their  own. 

Corporate  Income. 

1.  From  buildings  and  rents  (shops  in  the  city) 57,811 

2.  From  Endowments  nnd  the  Faculty  Fiscus 36,942 

3.  Matriculation  and  other  Fees 8,100 


Thalers...  ..    102,853 


Expenditures. 

1.  Sinking  Fund 15,904 

2.  Expenses  in  carrying  out  terms  of  special  bequests 672 

3.  Salaries  of  Employes 18,618 

4.  Salaries  of  Professors, 

Theological  Faculty 18,189 

Legal 28,308 

Medicul 27,896 

'  Philosophical 83,479 

-  157,863 

5.  Apparatus  of  Instruction  (Lnborntory,  Library,  etc.") 99,773 

6.  General  Expenses,  Printing,  Pensions,  etc 9,582 

7.  Student  Stipend* 2,270 

8.  At  the  disposal  of  the  Ministry  (Contingent  Fund) 10,000 

Thalers 314,682 

State  Appropriation. 

Deducting  the  102,853  of  corporate  income,  there  is  an  annual  deficit  of  211,829  thtilers,  met  by 
appropriations  from  the  state  treasury. 


INDEX  TO  GERMAN  TEACHERS  AND  EDUCATORS. 


A-B-C  Shooters  and  Bacchants,  280. 
Abiturienten,  Final  Exam.,  Gymnasia,  055,683. 
Academic  Statutes,  Wittenberg  in  1545,  281. 

Theological  Faculty,  281. 

Philosophical,  281. 

Medical,  282.  Jurists,  282. 

Latin,  Mathematics,  Astronomy,  2. 
Accomplishments,  255. 
Acting  Latin  Plays,  Sturm,  204, 303. 
Acquaviva,  Claudius.  Memoir,  236. 

Ratio  Studiorum  of  Jesuit  Schools,  236,  267. 
Acquaviva,  Claudius,  General  of  S.  J.,  236. 

Ratio  Studiornm  in  1584,  236 
Abdias,  Reuchlin's  Teacher  of  Hebrew,  88. 
Adalbert  of  Prague,  25. 

Adam,  Rector  of  Edinburgh  High  School,  191. 
Adams.  J.  Q.,  School  Reform  in  Silesia,  609. 
Admission,  to  Gymnasium,  655. 

Universities,  659. 

Advice  on  Studies,  Erasmus,  72,  Agricola,  62. 
Age,  for  Instruction  and  Training,  644, 682. 

Common  Schools— Frederick's  Law,  593. 
Austrian  Law,  633. 

Gymnasium,  556,  University,  556. 
Agricola,  Rudolph,  Memoir,  59-65. 

Studies  at  Paris  and  Ferrara,  59. 

Help  to  Classical  Learning,  64. 
Agriculture,  Schools  for,  456,  671,693. 
Albertus  Muirnus  of  Cologne,  30. 

Published  Works,  31. 

Hallam's  and  Hiimboldt's  Estimate,  32. 
Alcuin,  School  of  York,  and  Charlemagne,  1,5 
Aldric,  Abbot,  pupil  of  Alcuin,  12. 
Algorism,  662. 
Aldhelm,  of  Malmesbury,  4. 
Alphabet,  Method  of  teaching,  324,  611. 
Alsted,  Instructor  of  Comenius,  347. 
Altenstein,  682. 

Alvanus,  Emanuel,  Latin  Grammar,  239. 
Amalthea,  by  Pomey— Jesuit.  239. 
Anatomy,  and  Anatomical  Museum,  286, 664,668 
Ancient  Civilization,  Splendorand  Downfall,  41. 
Andlow,  George,  of  Schlettstadt,  276. 
Angia,  or  Reichenan  Abbey,  39. 
Anglo-Saxon  Students  in  Ireland,  4. 
Anglican  Church  and  Foreign  Missions.  421 
Anhalt,  Scene  of  Ratich's  experiment,  305,682. 

Elementary  Schools,  643, 673. 

Teachers'  Seminaries,  646. 

Secondary  Ins  ruction,  657,  673. 
Anscharius,  of  New  Corby,  18. 
Ansfield,  Count  of  Lorraine,  20. 
Anthropology,  293. 

Apparatus,  and  Material  Appliances,  285, 673. 
Aptness,  Natural,  to  teach,  169. 
Aratus,  Melancthon's  edition,  165,  427. 
Architecture,  Schools  of,  67->,  697. 
Argyropulus,  Greek  teacher  of  Greek,  104 
Aristotle,  165,  662. 
Arithmetic,  SI'S,  393,  482,  533,682. 

Little  taught  in  1580,  293,  393. 
Art  and  Nature,  341. 
Art  of  Instruction,  381. 

Frederick's  legal  recognition,  600 
Artistae— Faculty  of  Arts,  282. 
Artificial  Memory,  337. 
Attendance,  Law  of,  513,  682. 

Age,  633,  683. 
Augsburg,  Early  School,  22. 

School  of  Machinery,  450. 


Austria,  School  Reform  of  Maria  Theresa,  614. 

System  of  Public  Instruction,  643,  657,  673, 
Autobiography,  269,  574.  [682. 

Bach,  John  Sebastian,  523. 
Bache,  A.  D.,  Report  cited,  441,  444. 
Backward  Pupils,  Special  helps, 
Bad  Training  of  Children,  134. 
Baccalaureate  degree  in  14th  year  (1511),  163. 
I  Bacchants,  strolling  teachers,  102,  269. 
I  Bacon,  Francis  Lord,  Instauratio  Magna,  361. 
!  Baden,  Public  Instruction,  683. 

Elementary  and  Secondary,  643,  657. 
!     Superior,  and  Technical,  696. 
!  Bahardt,  Dr.,  486,  503. 

I  Barnard,  H.,  German  Schools  and  Pedagogy,678. 
!     List  of  Educational  Publications,  725. 
Barbarianus,  Correspondence  with  Agricola,  59. 
Basle,  Platter's  experience  as  a  Teacher  at,  279. 

University,  657. 
Bavaria,  Technical  Schools,  447. 

Public  Instruction,  643,  657,  658. 

References,  674,  683,  697. 
Basedow,  Memoir  and  Work,  457,  490. 

Book  for  Fathers  and  Mothers,  458. 

Elementary  Book,  459. 

Philanthropinum,  459,  489. 

Principles,  compared  with  Pestalozzi,  491. 
Bateus,  W.,  Janua  Linguarum,  358,  595. 
Baumgartner,  of  Nuremberg,  168. 
Baumeister,  Rector  at  Gorlitz,  306. 
Beatus  Rheamus,  Bild,  88. 
Beck,  A.,  Life  of  Ernest  the  Pious,  394. 
Beck,  P.,  General  of  the  S.  J..  238. 

Importance  attached  to  Latin,  239. 
Bede,  the  venerable,  cited,  431. 
Bebel,  Henry,  at  Tubingen,  164. 
Beauty,  Perception  of,  99, 112,  272,  317. 
Belief,  in  the  beginning  of  knowledge,  528. 
Benedict,  Biscop,  5. 
Bennon,  Bishop  of  Mesnia,  24. 
Berlin,  Real  School,  Hecker,  444,  596,  625. 

School  Books,  596, 598. 

University,  657,  663. 
Berne,  University,  657. 
Bern  ward,  St.,  of  Hildesheim,  22. 
Berthold,  Archbishop,  Censorship  of  Press,  52. 
Bessarion  and  Pope  Sixtus  at  Paris,  18,  56. 
Beuth,  Organizer  of  Trade  Schools,  453 
Bible  in  the  Vernacular.  .33. 

Growth  of  Popular  Education,  50. 
Bibliander,  Theodore,  277. 
Biblicus,  Candidate  for  first  degree  in  Theo.,120. 
Bild.  Beatus  Rheanus,  86. 
Blackboard  used  in  schools  of  Comenius,  496. 

In  Frederick  II.  law  of  1763,  597. 
Blebillius,  Astronomy  in  1580  294 
Blocius,  M.  J.,  Ratician  Method.  346. 
Boarding  Schools  for  Pedagogical  Students,  563. 
Boerhaave,  Aphorisms  and  Commentaries,  618. 
Bohemian  Brothers'  Schools,  312,  347         [347 
Bohemia,  Expulsion  of  Non-Catholic  families, 

Origin  of  Comenius'  didactical  books,  348. 
Boniface,  St.,  German  Church,  1. 
Bonn,  University,  657. 
Bopp  of  Wurtzburg,  20. 
Botany,  as  treated  by  Albertus  Magnus,  33. 
Botanical  Garden,  Earliest,  286. 
Brassicanus  of  Constance,  164. 
Brentius,  Catechism,  289. 

T15 


674 


INDEX    TO    GERMAN    TEACHERS   AND    EDUCATORS. 


Breelau,  Schools  in  the  15th  Century,  272. 

University,  and  Gymnasia,  657,  658. 
British  Isles— Early  Civilization,  3. 
Brotherhood  of  a  Common  Lift;,  46.  48. 
Brims,  Henry  J.,  teacher  at  Kekalm,  504. 
Bruno,  St.,  at  Cologne,  19. 
Brunswick,  School  order  of  1528, 150. 

Public  Instruction.  674,  684. 
Bucholtz,  and  Haman,  545. 
Buchholtzer,  on  Italian  Ciceronians,  368. 
Budaeus,54;  Suggested  College  of  France,  55. 
Bugenhagen,  John,  school  organization;:,  160. 

Brunswick  Church  order  1528,  160. 

Hamburg  Church  order  1520, 160. 

Denmark  and  Norway  Church  order  1537, 160. 
Building  Schools,  455. 
Bulaeus,  University  of  Paris,  6. 

Charlemagne's  Schools,  6. 
Burgher  Schools  in  Austrian  System,  682, 637. 

Higher  grade  in  Prussia,  452,  644,  657. 
Burmanu's  oration  at  Leydeu,  304. 
Busch,  Hermann,  67,  91. 

Lectures  on  Classics,  69. 
Btisching,  Journey  to  Rekahn,  499. 
Cabala  and  Cabalists,  54,  92. 
Cabinets  of  Natural  Hi*iory,  285. 
Caesarius,  John,  of  Cologne,  67. 
Callenberg,  Pioneer  of  Jewish  Mission,  422. 
Camener,  Timann.  Rector  in  Minister,  67. 
Campe,  Educational  Labors,  478.  487. 

Translations  of  Locke  and  Rousseau,  487. 
Canon  Law,  660,  663. 
Canstein  Bible  Institution,  420. 
Campanella,  Thomas,  the  Dominican,  360. 
Camerarius,  cited,  168. 
Catechism,  Luther's,  &c.,  589,  598,  G84. 
Catherine  Von  Bora,  129. 
Castellio,  as  to  the  Imitation  of  Christ,  49. 
Carlylo,  Thomas,  Frederick  the  Great,  579. 
Cassiodoms,  Tripartite^,  58. 
Caselius  of  Nordhausen,  on  Neander,  227. 
Cato's  Morals,  School  Book,  294. 
Catechetical  Method,  513. 
Catholic  Church  and  Schools,  685. 
Catholic  Schools  in  Silesia,  600. 

Code  of  Frederick  II.,  600. 
Cellarius,  Libellus  Memorialis,  431. 

Use  of  Natural  Objects,  432 
Censorship  of  printed  books,  first  in  1480.  52. 

Faulty  translations  of  the  Scriptures,  53. 
Centurions,  Decnrions,  &c.,  244. 
Chancellor,  in  Loyola's  Constitutions,  267. 
Charlemagne  and  his  Schools,  5 

Stndinm  Generate  at  Paris,  5,  7. 

Episcopal  Seminaries,  5. 

Scholae  Minores,  6,  9 ;  Majores,  6,  9. 
Children's  Friend— Rochow's  School  Book,  501. 
Children,  duties  of  parents,  132. 

Of  such  are  the  kingdom,  543. 
Christian  Schools  and  Teachers,  cited,  7,  35. 
Christian  Schools  in  Germany,  1-40,  510 
Ciceronianus,  or  Classical  Education,  132.  [314. 
Ciceronian  Eloquence,  in  the  16th  century.  Peel., 
Cicero,  in  Schools  of  the  Jesuits,  239  ;  Sturm, 

210:  Comenius,  367;  Wurtemburg,  289. 
Cisio,  Janus.  German  versified  Calendar,  103. 

Used  as  a  School  Book,  103. 
Cities',  Requirements  as  to  Public  Schools,  602. 

School  Systems,  684. 

Civilization  and  Monastic  Institutions,  41. 
Classics  and  Classical  Instruction,  132. 

Jesuit  Schools,  238. 

Eminent  Teachers  in  the  Netherlands,  56. 
Classes  and  Classification,  Jesuit  Schools,  233. 
240;   Sturm's,  196;  Trotzendorf,  186;  Ra- 
tich,  321. 

Claudius  of  Turin,  5. 
Clement,  Successor  of  Alcuin,  5, 10. 


Clergy,  Duty  to  Schools,  Legal,  599,  60S,  684. 
Sunday  Discourse  on  School*,  594. 
Candidates  instructed  in  School  matters,  601. 
Practice  in  Teaching,  555. 
Cloveshoe,  Council  in  747,  2. 
Clinic  for  Physicians,  555. 
Cloister  Schools,  253,  290, 684. 
Clonard,  School  of,  3. 
Cluny,  Monastery,  Life  in  1070, 28.  2. 
Coadjutors,  in  Sock-ty  of  Jesus,  233. 
Cocleuius,  Conrad,  Teacher  of  Sturm.  67. 
Code,  or  Law  for  Schools,  Earliest,  286,  684. 

Austria,  631 ;  Prussia,  593. 
Cole,  John,  Rector  of  Zwoll,  45. 
Colman,  Bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  1. 
Conferences  of  Teachers.  520,  654. 
Congregation  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  245,259. 
Columba,  St.,  and  lona.  3. 
Columbanus,  St.,  and  France,  3,  35. 
Collatian  Brothers  or  Hieronymians,  193. 

Dress,  Occupation,  Educational  System,  193. 
College  of  France,  Established  by  Francis  I.,  54. 
Collegiate  Letters  by  Sturm,  2<)9. 
Comedies,  School,  Object  of,  303. 
Comenius,  J.  A.,  Memoir  and  System,  347.  3S8. 
Birthplace.  Family  Name,  Edu<  atiou.  348, 495. 
Publications— Kiiiirious  and  Educational,348. 
Visit  and  Publications  in  England,  349,  495. 
Work  in  Sweden— Oxenstierna,  349. 
Work  in  Hun-rary— Patak,  350. 
Orbis  Sensualium  Pictus,  Editions,  350.  495. 
Residence  in  Holland— Publication^  351. 
Pedagogical  Work  examined,  352. 
Comnia.  Birthplace  of  Comenius,  347. 
Commemoration  of  Benefactors — Duty,  257. 
Commerce,  Schools  of,  699 
Common  or  German  Schools,  earliest,  287,  685. 
Compulsion,  as  applied  to  moral  culture.  336. 
Compulsory  School  Attendance.  513, 519,  611. 
Confession,  in  Jesuit  schools,  260. 
Conference  of  Teachers,  in  Austria,  635. 

Prussia,  654,  685. 

Conversational  Methods,  321,  685. 
Corby— Old  and  New,  Monasteries,  16,  19. 
!  Corrector  in  Jesuit  Schools,  266. 
:  Country  Schools,  Rochow,  labors  for,  597. 
Councils  of  the  Church,  and   Schools.  Clove- 
shoe,   2;    Mayence,   509;    Vaison,  2,  509: 
Rome.  510  ;  Lateran,  510:  Lyons.  510. 
!  Cottfi,  Madame  Ursula— Luther's  friend,  112. 
|  Crato,  or  Craf'  Hofman,  at  Schlettstadt,  86. 

Crocus,  R.,  Greek  R«-ader  at  Cambridge,  185. 
I  Customary  of  St.  Uric  of  C1iiny.28. 
Cusanus,  or  Nicholas  of  Ctisa.  52. 
!  Customs  and  Traditions  of  Schools,  559. 
j  Daily  Routine.  376.  489.  596,  602.  685. 
Dalberg,  Kammerer.  Bishop  ot  Worms,  59  162. 
I  Danes,  Incursion  into  England,  5. 
;  Dancing  in  Gymnasium.  308. 
!  Dantzic,  Gymnasium,  &c.,  313,  621.  [267. 

Dean  of  a  Faculty,  8.  Loyola's  Constitutions, 
;  Death,  and  last  days  of  Teachers.  191,  387,  423, 
'  Debating  as  a  School  exercise.  260.  [355. 

:  Decuria  in  School  Organization,  288.  294,  313, 
i  Declamations,  and  Discourses,  177,  261. 
i  Demosthenes,  Melancthcn's  lectures  on,  284. 
Descartes,  Opinion  of  Jesuit  Schools,  249. 
Dessau,  Based<-w's  work  at.  439,  457,  685. 
Deventer,  Mother  House  of  Hieronymians,  46. 
Devotional  Exercises— Frederic's  Law,  596. 
Dialectics,  tanjrht  out  of  University,  Platter,  279. 
Dialogic  Method— Wolf.  564. 
Dictator,  in  Jesuit  Schools.  244. 
Didactics,  University  Professors.  513. 
Diemudis,  Nun  of  Wessobrun,  Copyist,  27. 
Differences  and  Resemblances  of  Things,  256. 
Dilucidatipn — Answer   to  Objections  to  Re£ 
ormation  in  Common  Learning,  495. 


INDEX    TO    GERMAN    TEACHERS    AND    EDUCATORS. 


675 


Dinter,  G.  F.,  School  Counselor,  652. 
Discipline,  in  Frederic's  Law,  598,  685. 

Herder,  557 ;  Basedow,  497. 
Disputations,  iti  Jesuit  Schools,  260. 
Dissertations,  Original,  in  Sturm's  School,  205. 
Dissections  in  Medical  instruction,  286. 

Basedow,  bequest  of  body,  479. 
Ditmar.  Saxon  Chronicle,  19. 
Doctrinal,  and  other  School  books.  70,  662. 
Dollinger,  Early  School*  in  Ireland,  3. 

Influence  of  Irish  Scholars,  4. 
Doing  a  Thing,  and  Teaching  it,  380. 
Domestic  Economy  in  Schools,  620. 
Dominicans,  Controversy  with  Reuchlin,  90. 
Donatus,  Latin  Grammar,  276,  662. 
Dramatic  Representation,  School,  302,  375,  473. 
Drawing  in  Elementary  Schools,  644,  685. 
Drinkenberg.  L.,  and  Schlettstadt  School,  85. 
Duelling  at  Wittenberg  in  1615,  286. 
Duhan.  Prince,  one  of  Frederic's  teachers,  579. 
Dungal,  in  Charlemagne's  School,  10. 
Early  Christian  Schools.  1-40. 
Eber,  Paul,  Realism  in  Schools,  427. 
Eberhard,  Duke.  Service  to  Reuchlin,  87. 

Founder  of  Tubingen,  163. 
Ebner  and  Erasmus,  172. 
Ecclesiastics  as  Teachers.  685. 

School  officers.  59'.).  6f)6,  641 
Education,  Ideal,  of  different  Educators. 

Sturm — Piety,  Knowledge,  Eloquence,  212. 

Hieronymians— Piety,  50. 

Comenius— Order  of  Nature,  352,  355. 

Herder,    53. 

Hegius— Godliness.  66. 
Edward,  Monastery  near  Groningen,46. 
Egbert,  School  at  Utrecht,  1,  4. 
Eginhard,  Abbot  of  Selisrenstadt,  12. 
Eichsfeld,  Juvenile  School  in  1574,  311. 
Eighteenth  Century,  Pedagogy,  319.  457. 
Eisenach,  Luther's  experience  at  School,  111. 
Einsidlen,  Monastery  and  School,  22,  40. 

Celebration  of  1000th  Anniversary.  40. 
Elementary  School  Book— Basedow,  458. 

Rochow,  505,  506. 

Elementary  Classes  and  Subjects,  197.  685. 
Elementary  Schools,  Germany,  641,  643,  673. 

Austria,  631,  643;  Prussia,  643. 

Gotha,  389,  643 ;  Silesia,  609 ;  Bohemia,  629. 
Eloquence,  Art  of  fluent  speech,  197. 
Elers,  Franke,  Printer  and  Bookseller,  411. 
Emile,  Rousseau's  Education,  489,  517. 
Emilie,  Basedow's  Daughter,  461. 
Emulation,  Motive  to  Study,  244,  255. 
Endowment  of  Schools,  298. 

Examples  in  Saxony,  294. 
Encouragement,  in  Discipline,  71. 
Encyclopedia  for  Ratich's  Didactics,  345. 
Endter,  Michael,  Designer  for  Comenius,  369. 
Enser,  Jerome,  cited,  24. 
Ephori,  in  Trotzendorf 's  School,  186. 
Epistolae  Obscurorum  Virbrum,  Authors,  91. 
Episcopal  Seminaries.  Charlemagne,  5. 
Epithets  and  Names— Latin  and  Greek,  95. 
Erasmus,  Desiderius,  Choir-boy  of  Utrecht,  53. 

His  Flemish  name  and  early  education.  53,  71. 

Ciceronianus — Attack  on  the  Formalists,  73. 

Method  of  Study— Colloquia,  82. 

Lectures  in  1449,  662. 
Erfurt,  University  and  town,  113,  65. 

Luther's  experience,  1501  and  1508, 115. 

Colleges  for  Residence.  114. 
Eruditio,  in  Jesuit  Schools,  240. 
Ernest,  the  Pious,  Duke  of  Saxe-Gotha,  389^06. 

School  Method  of  Andrew  Reyher,  389. 

School  Reforms,  in  1643,  390. 
Ernest  II.,  Aid  to  Salzmann,  397. 
Ernesti,  J.  A.,  Memoir,  530. 

New  and  old  Pedagogy,  531. 


Ethics,  662 :  Melancthon,  176. 

Euler,  on  Basedow's  Philanthropism,  480. 

Evening  Schools,  644. 

Evangelical  Church  System  of  1528,  169.      [280 

Examinations,  School,    Platter's   Experience 

Austrian,  624.  Prussia,  594. 

Teachers,  520,  595,  653,  685. 

Candidates,  595. 

Certificates  of  Successful,  57?,  596. 
Exclusion  from  School,  404,  685. 
Exegesis,  of  New  Testament, — Erasmus,  283. 

Old  Testament,— Reuchlin,  283. 
Exemptions  in  Military  Service,  520.  645. 
Expression,  Power  and  Felicity  of,  355. 
Eye,  Education  of  the,  355,  380. 
Faber,  'ohn,  Stapulensis,  and  Aristotle,  92. 
Factory  Children  in  Austria,  66,  686. 
Factory  Schools,  644. 
Faculties,  Origin  of,  8,  686,  709. 

Finance  and  Public  Economy,  659. 

Jurisprudence  659,  663,  667. 

Medicine,  661,  664,  667. 

Theology,  660,  663,  667. 
Faith,  520. 

Fags  of  the  Bacchants,  270. 
Fear,  as  a  Motive-Ratich,  336. 
Fees,  University  Lectures,  662. 

Common  Schools,  595,  686. 
Felbiger,  J.  J.  Von,  Memoir,  625. 

School  Reforms  in  Silesia,  610,  625. 

Labors  in  Austria,  617,  626. 
Female  Teachers,  633,  699.  686. 
Ferrieres,  Monastery  and  Schools,  15. 
Feuerlein,  300;  Pictorial  Illustrations,  430. 

Speaking  Latin,  301. 

Fifteenth  Century— Conflict  of  Old  and  New,  93 
Finance,  in  German  Universities,  659. 
Final  Examination,  in  Gymnasia,  655. 
Fine  Arts,  or  Sense  of  the  Beautiful,  558,  699. 
Fines  for  Non-attendance  at  School,  392,  636. 
Finian,  St.,  of  Clonard.  3. 
Firmian,  Count,  Austri  n  Schools,  615. 
Flog  .ring  in  School,  Luther's  experience,  99. 

Platter's,  269:  Hauberle,  479. 
Florentius,  of  Deventer,  46. 
Form,  one  of  Pestalozzi's  principles,  401. 
Formularium  Practicum,  or  Moot  Court,  555. 
Formatus,  in  Theology.  120. 
Forster,  J.  C..  Account  of  Ratich,  316. 
Founders,  and  Benefactors,  Commemora,  257. 
France,  Superior  Instruction.  711. 
Franciscan  School  at  Magdeburg,  in  1497,  108 
Francis  Von  Sickingen,  and  Reuchlin,  91. 
Franke.  Augustus  Hermann,  407-424. 

Familiar  with  School  Method  of  Ernest,  393 

Orphan  House  and  Associated  Schools,  411. 

Teachers'  Seminary.  416. 

German  Burgher  School,  417. 

Paedagogium— Latin  School.  417. 

Botanv,  Botanical  Garden,  Laboratory,  417. 
Frankfort.  313,  672.  [46 

Fratrum  Domus— Hieronymians,  at  Daventer 
Frederick  William.  Gymnasium,  Berlin,  441. 

Education  for  his  Son,  579-598. 

Teachers  and  Special  Masters,  579.          [581 

German  Language  and  History— No  Latin 

Riding— Tactics— Travel,  583. 

Results  of  Teachers'  work,  592. 
Frederick  II.,  the  Great,  579,  593,  686.          [609 

Educational  Reforms  in  Common  School,  593 

General  Regulations  in  1763.  593.  [600 

Ordinance    for  Catholic  Schools  of  Silesia 
Adams'  Account  of  Results,  609. 

Cabinet  order  respecting  classics,  562. 

Berlin  Real  School— Normal  School,  598. 

Tribute  to  Maria  Theresa's  policy,  444,  614. 
Free  Cities,  School  Reforms  in,  160,  686. 
Freiburg  University,  658. 


676 


INDEX  TO  GERMAN  TEACHERS  AND  EDUCATORS. 


French  Language  in  German  Schools,  307,  553. 

Herder,  549:  Goethe,  480;  Raumer,  308,  686. 
Freylinghausen,  Z.  A.,  Director,  419. 
Friars,  the  Begging,  46. 

Assault,  on  Hieronymians,  53. 
Friedberg  in  Hesse,  Gymnasium  in  1631,  297. 
Friedrich  Wilhelm  Gymnasium,  439,  441. 

Real  School  detached  in  1811,  439. 
Fridolin,  Irish  Apostle  on  the  Rhine,  3. 
Fritz's  Journey  to  Dessau,  Schummel,  467. 
Froebel's  Kindergarten,  633. 
Fulda,  Monastery  and  School,  11. 
Fulnek,  Seat  of  the  Bohemian  Brethren,  347. 
Further  Improvement  Schools,  451,  454,  641. 
Frederick's  provision  for,  594. 

Gaza,  Theodore,  and  Guarini,  59, 82. 

Gallitzin,  Piincess,  545. 

Galileans,  Antagonism  to  Romans,  42. 

Gallomania  in  Germany,  552. 

Garden  Culture,  630,  686. 

Gelenius,  Bohemian  Scholar,  168. 

Geography,  as  a  Study  in  1500,  281,  555,  686. 

Albertus  Magnus,  33;  Gesner,  528. 

Herder,  555,  560 ;  Basedow,  483. 

Comenms,  372. 

Geography  and  History.  281,  372,  528. 
Geometry,  Pestalozzi,  492. 

Taught  and  Advocated  by  Hegius,  66. 
Gervinus,  German  Language  in  Schools,  305. 

German  School  Dramas,  304. 
Gerard,  the  Great,  45,  46.  •        [4(5,  47. 

Views  of  Education,  Religious  life  the  Aim, 
Gerard  Zerbolt,  Bible  in  the  Vernacular,  48. 
German  Burgher  School  of  Franke,  417. 
German  Grammar,  taught  in  Latin,  301. 
German  Language,  154,  215,  305,  328,  686. 

Used  in  University  Lectures,  527. 
German  Schools,  so  called.  286. 
Germany,  Primary  Ins.,  509,  641. 

Public,  books  relating  to,  673-714. 
Gerson,  John,  49. 
Gesner,  J.  M.,  Memoir,  521. 

Pedagogical  Publications,  521. 

Work  at  Leipsic  in  Thomas  School,  523. 

Professor  at  Gottingen,  524. 

Real  Studies  in  Gymnasiums,  496,  527,  528. 

Natural  Sciences,  496,  528. 
Gesner,  Rector  of  Rolenburg,  435. 
Gewerbe,  or  Trade  Schools,  453. 
Giessen,  University,  658. 
Glaucha,  Franke' s  pastorate  at,  408. 
Gleim,  and  Rochow— Correspondence,  503. 
God,  Love  and  Fear  of,  544. 
Gcethe,  cited,  566. 
Goldberg  School,  185. 
Gorlitz,  Gymnasium,  185. 
Goswin  of  Harlem,  57. 
Gottingen  University,  658. 

Pedagogical  Seminary,  518. 

Gymnasium,  298. 

Grammar,  taught  in  Mother-tongue,  354. 
Grammatici,  Applied  to  Latinists,  315. 
Gratz,  University,  658.  [346. 

Grawer,  Report  on  Ratich's  System,  341,  343, 
Gregorians.or  Brotherhood  of  Good  Will,  46, 
Groning,  P.,  Endowment  in  1633.  299.         [193. 
Guerike,  Life  of  Franke,  513. 
Greek  and  Trojans  in  Schools.  244. 
Greek  Language  in  Ger.  Schools,  285,  289.     [93. 

Agricola— Erasmus— Reuchlin,    Melancthon, 

Jesuit  Schools,  -240 ;  Wolf's  estimate,  569 
Greeks,  who  taught  in  Italy  and  France,  59,  87. 
Greek,  printed,  first  in  1475,  52. 

First  Professor  in  Paris,  54. 
Gregory,  Pope,  on  the  Fall  of  Rome,  43. 
Gregory  of  Tiferno,  Greek  Professor  at  Paris, 
Greifswalde  University,  658.  [54. 

Grimm,  Rector  at  Mohrungen,  547. 


Gutsmuths,  physical  training,  480. 
Gymnasium,  German,  655,  687. 

Admission,  Studies,  Examinations,  635. 
Gymnastics  and  Athletics,  375. 
Hahn,  J.  F.,  Memoir  and  Labors,  437. 

Tabular  and  Literal  Method,  625. 
Hallam,  cited,  32. 
Haimo,  of  Halberstadt,  15. 
Halberstadt,  Teachers'  Seminary,  507. 
Halle,  School  of  St.  Ulrica,  271. 

University,  658. 

Orphan  Home  of  Franke,  409,513,  515. 
Hamburgh,  School  Organization  in  1520,  160. 
Hamann,  J.  G.,  Memoir,  533-545. 

Experience  as  a  Private  Tutor,  525. 

Reflections  on  his  own  Life,  527. 

Pedagogical  Reflections,  537. 
Hanover, Public  Instruction,  687. 
Hatto  and  Rabanus  at  Fnlda,  11. 
Hauberle,  the  Suabian  Flagellator,  479. 
Haun,  J.  E.  C.,  School  Method  in  Gotha,  398. 
Hebrew  Language,  Study  of,  61, 164,  687. 

Agricola,  61,  63;  Luther,  !&'.  [294. 

Melancthon.  180;  Reuchlin,  t9;  Saxon  Code, 
Hebrew  Literature,  Reuchlin'e  Controversy,  90. 
Hechingen  Latin,  88. 
Hecker,  J.  Julius,  Memoir.  437. 

Real  School  of  Berlin.  437,  452. 

Free  School-German,  Latin  and  Real,  437, 
Heidelberg  University,  in  Melancthon's  Time, 

Statistics  in  1869,  658.  [162. 

Heiric,  Henry  of  Auxerre,  15. 
Helwig,  Prof,  at  Geissen,  on  Ratich.  335,  340. 
Henry  de  Mesmes,  College  Life  in  1545.  55. 

Lectures  by  candlelight  in  the  morning,  55. 
Henzky,  Rector,  Real  School  in  1751,  436. 
Henry  of  Wurtzburg,  21. 
Herder,  J.  G.,  Memoir,  547-560. 

Education— Experience  of  a  Teacher,  548. 

Plan  of  a  School,  549,  556. 

Order  of  Studies— German.  French,  Latin,  549. 
Teachers'  Seminary    Real  School.  554. 

Theological  Students  and  Studies,  555. 

Pedagogical  Views,  556-560. 
Hegius,  Alexander,  Memoir,  65. 

Teacher  of  Erasmus,  65. 
Hermits  of  St.  Hieronymus,  193. 
Hermann,  Contractus,  of  Rrichenau,  £9. 

Author  of  Hymn.  Alma  Redemptwis^  39. 
Herrnhut,  and  Zinzendorf,  516. 
Herrnschmid,  J.  D.,  Franke's  Successor,  419. 
Hesse,  Public  Instruction,  6^7. 
Heyd,  Estimate  of  Melancthon,  165. 
Hieronymus,  Reuchlin's  Teacher  of  Greek,  87. 
Heyue,  Christian  Gottlob,  Memoir.  574. 
Hieronymians,  Teaching  Order,  1373-1600, 193 

Historical  Development,  45-49. 

Supported  by  Handcrafts,  47 ;   Recognized 
at  Rome,  49. 

Christian  Popular  Education,  50,  66. 

Influence  of  Italian  Pedagogy,  51. 
Hilaritv  and  Recreation  to  oe  Encouraged.  136. 
Hildesheim.  School  of,  22. 
Hirshau,  William  of,  28. 
History,  Luther,  155. 

Melancthon's  Chronicon,  177. 
Hochstraten  and  Haverling,  69,  91. 
Holidays,  687 ;  Recess,  376. 
Home,*Examples  of,  98. 
Home  and  its  Surroundings  in  Geography,  5fiO. 

Comenius,  372, 687. 
Home  Training,  Luther,  130. 
Hoole.C.,  English  Edition  of  Orbis  Pictus,499. 
Horn  Book  and  Speller.  393. 
Homer,  Sturm's  use.  206. 

Wolf's  Prolegomena,  566. 
Hoschel,  D.,  Rector  of  Augsburg,  328. 
Horlenius,  Joseph,  Rector  in  Herford,  67. 


INDEX    TO    GERMAN    TEACHERS    AND    EDUCATORS. 


677 


Housekeeping,  in  Austrian  Common  Schools, 

Hucbald,  of  St.  Amand,  16.  [631. 

Humanists,  Humanities,  12,  158. 

Humbolt,  cited,  32. 

Hungary,  Schools,  687. 

Hutten,  Ulric,  aud  Epistolae  Obscurorum,91. 

Hungarius,  John,  Melancthon's  Teacher,  161. 

Idea— Ideatum— Ideaus,  Comenius,  379. 

Ignatius,  St.,  aud  the  Jesuits,  228. 

Ilfield,  Cloister  School  under  Neander,  226. 

Physical  Sciences  and  Geography  taught,  227. 
Imagination,  317  ;  and  Memory,  337. 
Imitation.  Many  things  to  be  taught  by,  356. 
Imitation  of  Christ,  Thomas  a  Kempis,  49. 
Improvement  Schools,  453,  593. 
Industrial  Schools,  687 ;  for  Girls,  505. 
Industrial  Drawing  Schools,  456. 
Ingoldstadt,  Lectures  1472,  662. 
Initia,  School  Book  of  Ernesti,  530. 
Inspruck,  University,  658. 
Inspection,  and  Names,  355,  380,  482. 
Inspection  of  Schools  in  Austria,  626,  638. 

Germany,  520,  6S7. 
Infant  School-*,  644. 
Induction,  33'.}.  , 

Interior  of  Cloister  School,  12. 
Intuition,  and  Intuitional  Method,  318,482. 
Ireland,  Early  Christian  Schools,  3. 

Influence  on  England  and  Continent,  3, 4, 29. 
Irish  Dungall,  5. 
Irish  John  of  Pavia,  5. 
Irishman  Maildus,  at  Malmesbury,  4. 
Irish  Missionaries  in  Scotland.  4. 
Irish  Scholars  in  Germany,  1,  29. 
Isagoge,  Pedagogical  experience  of  Gesner,  524. 
Iso,  Master  of  Schools  at  St.  Gall,  37. 
Italy,  Revival  of  Classic  Studies,  50.711. 

Influence  on  German  Scholars,  51,  87. 
Jacototand  Herder,  Contrasted,  558. 
Janua,  Methodicus  NovissiniaofComenius,365. 
Janua  Linguarum,  Bateus,  495. 
Janua  Reserasa  Linguarura.  Comenius,  495. 
Jena  University,  in  1869,  658. 
Jerome,  Monk,"  Great  Copyist,  27. 
Jesus,  Society  of,  230. 
Jesuits  and  their  Schools,  229,  236. 

History  of  the  Order,  230;  Authorities,  256. 

Internal  Organization,  232. 

Constitution  for  Instructions,  257-267. 

Activity  in  Establishing  Schools,  231. 

Educational  Institutes,  236. 

Studies— Latin— Text-books,  23S. 

Houses,  Colleges,  Universities,  263. 

Colleges,  237  ;  Characteristic  Features,  243. 

Universities— Admission— Studies,  265. 

Estimate  of  their  work  as  Teachers,  248. 
Protestant  and  Catholic,  248. 

Generals  of  the  Order,  235  ;  Schools,  236,  238. 

Classification  of  Members— Professors— Coad- 
jutors, 233,  257. 

Suppression  and  Renovation,  232. 

Conditions  of  receiving  a  College,  237. 

Course  for  Membership,  258. 

Remuneration  for  Instruction,  261.  [263. 

Rector— Chancellor— Corrector— Corrector, 
Jews,  Interest  in  Basedow's  Schools,  465. 

Literature— Renchlin's  judgment,  90. 
Jodoctis,  of  Eisenach,  Lathers  Teacher,  123. 
John  Scotu*  Erigena,  10. 
Johnson,  Dr.,  Tribute  to  Dr.  Watts,  612. 
Jourdain,  cited,  32 
Josquin,  in  Saxon  School  Code,  294. 
Joseph  II,  of  Austria,  627. 

Address  of  Basedow  in  1776,  463. 
Journals  of  Education,  in  Austrian  Law,  334. 
Julius,  Dr.,  Prussian  Schools  as  they  were,  651. 
Jungius,  Rector  at  Hamburg,  340. 


Jurisprudence,  German,  Education  in,  659. 
Faculty,  at  Berlin  and  Leipsic,  658,  663,  667. 

Kant,  Emanuel,  Hopes  from  Basedow,  474. 
Kaplitz,  Scene  of  Kindermann's  Labors,  628. 
Kelper,  of  St.  Gall,  interview  with  Luther,  127 
Kempis,  Thomas-a,  48. 

Krachenberger,  John,  and  change  of  Names,  95 
Knoewell,  Master  Wolfgang,  ofZurich,  275. 
Kinderfreund,  of  Rochow,  505. 
Kindergarten,  attached  to  Normal  Schools  for 

Females,  633. 
Kindennann,  Ferdinand,  Memoir,  628. 

School  Reforms  in  Bohemia— Kaplitz,  628. 

Industrial  Element  in  Popular  Schools,  630. 
Kinner,  Cyprian,  Way  and  Method  of  Teaching 
Komensky.  See  Comenius,  495.  [495 

Kortholdt,  Prof,  at  Kiel,  407. 
KSthen,  Ratich's  Experimental  School,  321. 
Klosterbergen,  Teachers'  Seminary,  502,  518. 
Kromayer,  School  System,  325,  333. 
Kuhner,  Definition  of  Grammar,  175. 
Lange,  Rudolph.  Memoir,  53,  68, 123. 
Language,  used  for  Instruction,  631,  688. 

Mother  Tongue,  317, 552. 

Latin,  for  German  and  Greek.  342. 
Languages,  not  learned  by  Grammar  only,  154. 

Basedow,  492;  Pestalozzi,  492. 

Comenius,  376 ;  Ratich,342. 
Lascaris,  Teacher  of  Greek,  54. 
Last  Hours  of  Eminent  Teachers  and  Educators 

—Adam,  191;  Gesner.  529;   Hamann,  545; 

Trotzendorf,  191 ;  Rohcow,  508;  Franke,  423. 
Latin  Language,  Importance  attached  to,  302, 

Schools  of  the  Jesuits,  236,  242,  26.  [559. 

Sturm,  217;  Trotzendorf,  188;  Ratich,  327. 

In  Gymnasiums,  688 ;  Comenius,  376. 

Real  Schools.  688. 

Latin,  ceased  to  be  necessary  for  Courts,  Diplo- 
macy, etc.,  300,  439. 
Latin,  Taught  as  Living  Language,  376,  400. 

Sturm,  217;  Jesuits,  249,  261;  Ratich,  324; 

Kromayer,  327 

Latin  Debates  in  Trotzendorf  s  School,  186. 
Latin  Plays,  302,  305,  375. 
Latin  Grammars— Alvarus,  239. 

Melancthon.  172. 
Editions  by  Camerarius,  173,  184. 

By  Neander,  174. 
Lauenberg,  Public  School,  668. 
Lauingen,  Gymnasium,  209. 
Lavater,  Goethe's  description,  460. 
Law,  Faculty  and  Lectures,  663,  667. 
Laws  respecting  Common  Schools,  287,  403, 

512,  593,  619. 
Lectures,  University,  Language.  167. 

Programmes,  662,  665,  667.  [544. 

Leonard  and  Gertrude,  Hamann's  Estimate 
Leopold  Frederick  Franz,  Prince  of  Anhalt 
Lesson  Plans.  688.  [459. 

Libraries,  Monastic,  11,  26,  36. 

Universities,  285. 
Licentiate  in  Theology,  121. 
Liegnitz,  School  for  Princes,  299. 
Leipsic,  Schools  and  Education,  688,  699. 

University,  Statistics,  657. 

Lectures,  667. 

Income  and  Expenditures  in  1872,  670. 
Life  and  Earnestness  in  Teacher,  316. 
Lindermann,  Margaret,  Luther's  Mother,  97. 
Lippe  Detmold,  643,  657, 688. 
Lisba,  St.  Bischoffsheim,  2. 
Lissa,  School  of  concerning  in  1631,  348. 
Locality,  Influence  on  Education,  35,  99, 110. 
Loefller,  School  Reader,  379. 
Logic  as  a  Study,  175,  204.  [517. 

Locke,  John,  Thoughts  published  in  Germany, 


678 


INDEX  TO  GERMAN  TEACHERS  AND  EDUCATORS. 


Lorraine,  Dukedom  of  Bruno,  20. 

Love  and  Reverence,  as  Motives,  191,  336. 

Loyola,  Ignatius  Von,  Memoir,  229. 

Society  of  Jesus,  230. 

Activity  in  developing  Schools,  231. 

Constitutions  respecting  Instruction,  251. 
Ludwig,  Prince  of  Anhalt  Kothen,  and  Ratich, 
Luidger,  Bishop  of  Munster,  1.  [320. 

Lupus  of  Ferrieres,  12,  15. 
Luther's  Catechism,  688;  Fred'k's  Law,  598. 
Luther's  German  Bible,  510.  [07-1(50. 

Luther,  Martin,  Life  and  Educational  Work, 

Memoir  and  School  Education,  97. 

Trivial  Schools  at  that  period— Flogging,  100. 

Knowledge  of,  and  Attachment  to  the  Poor, 

Gymnasium,  and  University  Life,  114.     [106. 

Residence  and  Labors  at  Wittenberg,  117. 

Relations  to  Melancthon,  125,  167. 

Domestic  Life— Letter  to  his  son  Johnny,  130. 

Views  on  Home  Education — Children,  131. 

Address  to  Conn  oilmen  of  Towns,  139,  511. 

Compulsory  School  Attendance,  150. 

University  Reform,  512. 

Bible  to  be  more  read,  153. 

Languages— Natural  Science— History,  155. 

Logic — Rhetoric — Mathemat  ics — Music,  157. 

School  Organizations  under  his  direction,  160. 
Luxemburg,  Pub.  Ins. ,688. 
Magdeburg,  Schools  of.  25, 108,  688. 
Mailduf.  Founder  of  Malmesbury,  4. 
Magistracy  in  Schools,  186. 376. 
Maluden,  of  Liinorges,  Private  Tutor,  55. 
Mammotrectns,  Doctrinal,  etc.,  94. 
Mansfield,  School?  in  Luther's  Time,  100. 
Manual  Labor  in  Schools,  402,  439,  452,  629. 
Marburg,  University,  658. 
Maria  Theresa,  Empress,  Memoir,  613,  688. 

School  Reforms,  614-7. 

Military  Schools-Higher  Education.  614,707. 

Primary  Schools— Special  Schools,  615, 695. 
Marianus  Scotus,  29. 
Marsilius,  Picus  di  Mirandola,  92. 
Martial,  cited.  527. 
Mathematics,  variously  estimated— Wolf,  561. 

At  Wittenberg  about  1550.  283. 

None  in  Gymnasiums  in  1735,  531. 

In  Military  Schools,  705. 

Matheshis,  Miners  in  Luther's  Time,  106.  [463. 
Mechanical  School,  proposed  by  Semler  in  1706, 
Mecklenberg,  Public  Instruction,  643,  676. 
Medicine,  Faculty  of.  661,  658 

Lectures  in  Berlin  and  Leipsic,  665,  668. 
Meinrad  of  Reichenau,  39. 
Meierotto,  Joachimsthal  Gymnasium,  488. 
Meinwerc.  St.  of  Paderborn,  25. 
Melancthon,  Philip  Schwarzerd,  161-184. 

Birthplace  and  School  Education,  161. 

Residence  at  Heidelberg,  162. 

Labors  at  Tubingen.  163:  Wittenberer,  167. 

School  Plan,  169;  Manuals.  172. 

Realistic  Drift  of  his  Pedagogy,  426,  429. 
Memory,  Cultivation.  380,491. 

Repetition,  243;  Logical  Arrangement,  63. 

Vividness  of  Impressions,  496. 

May  be  too  much  tasked,  534. 
Mental  Arithmetic,  683 
Montz,  Archbishop  of,  2. 
Meemes,  Henry  de,  College  Life,  55. 
Messner,  J  ,  Rector,  etc.,  Vienna,  615. 
Metellus,  of  Tegernsee,  26. 
Method,  Simultaneous,  626. 

Catechetic— Spener,  513. 

Dialogic— Wolf.  504. 

Heundic,  or  Inventive,  559. 

Conversational,  500. 

Monitorial,  512. 
Military  Schools,  614, 705. 
Mining  Academy,  and  Schools,  455,  699. 


Mirabeau,  Discourse  on  National  Education, 
Misnia,  School  of,  24.  [507. 

Missions,  of  Lutheran  Church.  170(5,  422. 
Modern  Languages — Jesuit  Schools,  240. 
Monastery,  and  Monastic  Life,  28,  35,  41. 

Painted  by  St.  Ulric  in  his  Customary,  28. 
Monks,  Occupation  of  the,  11,  23.  26.  28.     [419 
Monitorial,  or  Pupil  Teacher  System — Franke^ 
Monitors  of  Order  and  Instruction,  186,  288, 

Comenius'  System,  "55.  [313. 

Morhof,  Professor  at  .Kiel.  313,  407. 
;  Moravians,  or  United  Brethren.  516. 
I  Mosaic  Work  in  Monasteries,  23. 
!  Mo«ellanus,  of  Leipsic,  125, 126, 185. 
Mother  Tongue  of  Pupils,  317,  343,  354. 
1     Neglected,  821,  335. 

Jesuit  Schools,  240. 

Sturm  and  Trotzendorf,  188,  216.  220. 

Medium  of  Instruction  and  Training,  552. 

Real  Schools,  343.  439. 

Necessary  to  Eloquence,  222. 
Motives  and  Expect,-  tions,  101,  336,  534. 

Attractiveness  of  Subjects,  316,  354,  692. 
Mount  St.  Agnes,  Monastery  of  Hieronymians, 
Muncer,  and  Peasants'  War,  109.  [49 

Munich,  Polytechnic  Schools,  440,  697. 

University,  657. 
Munster,  School  and  Bishop,  1. 

Teachers'  Seminary  in  1757,  518. 
Murmellius,  John,  on  Alexander  Hegius,  67. 
Mailer,  Rector  of  Zittau.  306. 
Music  in  Monastic  Sch'  ols,  17,  18. 

Cultivated  for  Utilitarian  Purposes,  317,  689. 

Luther's  Attention  to,  113, 158. 

Comenius — daily  by  all.  375. 
Mutianus,  and  Luther.  124. 
Myconius  of  Gotha,  104,  169,  278. 
Names,  German,  Latinized.  95. 
Nassau,  Duchy,  Public  Instruction,  643,  676. 
Nations,  in  Universities,  7,  8,  689,  709. 
National  Systems  of  Education.  673. 725. 
Native  Language,  Culture  of,  306,  689. 
Nature  and  Art,  341,  496. 
Nature,  Laws  of,  in  Education,  316,324,  491. 
Natural  Sciences,  Albert's  time,  31,  43. 

Loyola,  265,  266  ;  Gesner,  528. 

Luther,  155. 

Navigation,  Schools  for.  456,  671,  689. 
Naucler,  at  Tubingen.  1(14. 

History  of  the  World.  1(55. 
Neubauer,  George  Henry,  and  Franke,  F15. 
Neander,  Michael,  Memoir  and  Work,  225. 

Family  Name — Home  Training — Schools,  225. 

School — School  Manuals,  2£6. 
Needlework  for  Girls,  in   Austrian  Common 

Schools,  631,  632.  689. 

Neglected  Children,  141.  689.  [52,  56. 

Netherlands,  Eminent  Teachers,  1300  to  1500. 
Newman  ;  Rise  and  Progress  of  Universities.  5. 

Monastic  Institutions  and  Civilization,  41. 
Newspapers,  or  Current  Intelligence,  as  School 

Reading,  375. 

Niemeyer,  Programme  on  Ratich,  346. 
Notes  to  Lectures,  555. 
Notker,  the  Blessed,  at  St.  Gall.  37,39. 
Novices,  in  Society  of  Jesus,  233. 
Nuremberg,  School  of  Art,  ideal  and  useful, 

Gymnasium,  168.  [447,  450,  697. 

Nutscell,  Monastery  and  School.  1. 
Nobles,  in  SturmVScliooi,  307. 

Special  Schools  f<>r.  309. 
Non-Attendance  at  School,  595,  689. 
Nordhausen,GymnasiumTAssoriations,110,561. 
Normal,  earliest  use  of  term.  617,  689. 
Normal  Schools,  Pattern  or  Model.  512, 619, 689. 

Kaplitz,  629;  Sagan,  625:  Halle.  516. 
Normal  Schools,  List  of  German,  in  1869,  646. 

Barnard's  Treatise  on,  645. 


INDEX    TO    GERMAN    TEACHERS    AND    EDUCATORS. 


679 


Objects  themselves,  or  Pictures  of  Real,  355 
Objects  and  Object  Lessons,  Semler  1738,  434. 

Books  used  only  for  reviews,  434. 

Ascent  from  the  created  to  the  Creator,  435. 
Obedience,  to  a  Superior,  Implicit,  234. 

Luther's  Comments,  139. 

Doctrine  and  Practice  of  Jesuits.  -2:35. 
Oberlin,  on  Basedow's  Work,  475. 
Obligatory  Attendance,  150.  519,  689.^ 
Observatory,  Astronomical,  286. 
Observing,  Art  of,  492. 
Object  Teaching,  and  Pictures,  390,  495,  689. 
Oecouomi,  in  Goldberg  School.  186. 
Offense  to  Children  in  Scriptural  Sense,  136. 
Old  and  New  in  the  Fifteenth  Century,  45,  96, 
Oldenburg,  Public  Schools,  643,  657,  689.     [178. 
Olivier  at  Dessau,  480. 
Old  and  New,  Corby,  16. 
One  thing  at  a  time,  334,  380. 
Oporinus,  Dr.,  at  Basle,  278, 
Oral  teaching— Hamann,  538. 
Oral  Examinations,  656,  689. 
Oratory  in  School  Education,  240. 
Orbis  Pictus,  English  Edition,  369,  495. 
Oratory  and  Poetry — Sturm,  204. 
Order  of  Studies— each  in  its  order,  334 
Oriental  Studies  for  Missionaries  at  Halle,  416. 
Organizers  of  Public  Instruction,  287. 

Ernest,  the  Pious,  Saxe-Gotha,  389. 

Duke  Christopher— Wurtemburg,  287. 

Elector  Augustus— Saxony,  293.' 

Frederick  II.— Prussia,  578. 

Maria  Theresa— Austria,  613. 
Orphan  House,  690 ;  at  Halle,  411,  5"3. 
Orphans  of  Teachers,  69n. 
Otfried,  of  Weissemburg,  Tudesque  Dialect,  13. 

Charlemagne's  German  Grammar,  13. 
Otheric,  Master  of  School  at  Magdeburg,  25. 
Othlonus  of  St.  Emmerau,  26. 
Otho,  the  Great.  20;  Otho  II.,  22. 
Out  of  School,  and  on  their  way  home — Chil- 
dren, 597,  690. 

Outside  Occupation  for  T.-achers,  277,  596,  690. 
Oxenstierna,  Interest  in  Ratich's  Views,323,346. 

Comenius,  Interview  with,  349. 

Didactica  Magna,  378. 
Paderborn,  Schools  of,  25. 
Paedagogium,  Franke's,  410,  690. 
Paedagogium  of  Berlin  under  Silberschlag,  439. 

Friederich  Wilhelm's  Gymnasium,  439. 
Pagan  Authors  in  Christian  Schools,  17. 
Palatinus,  Ekkehard  of  St.  Gall,  38. 
Parental    Duty,  as  to  School   Attendance  of 
Children,  519.  604,  633,  699. 

Luther's  enforcement,  140,  146. 

Hamann,  533,  539. 

Austrian  Law,  622. 

Parental  Solicitude,  539 ;  Legal  Obligation,  641. 
Paris,  Charlemagne's  Schoolat,  5.  7 

University,  710.  711 ;  Polytechnic  School,  701. 

Special  Schools  of  Science,  701. 
Parochial  and  Popular  School,  Origin,  510,690. 
Paschasius  Radpert,  16. 

Manner  of  life  at  Corby,  17. 

Attention  to  Music,  17. 
Patience,  in  Teaching,  542. 
Paul  Scriptoris  at  Tubingen.  164.  [521 . 

Pedagogical  Seminary— Buddeus  and  Gesner, 
Pedagogy,  Professor  at  Halle,  562,  690. 

Requirements  of  Wolf,  562. 

Treatises  on  National,  2.  [690. 

Pensions  for  Superannuated  Teachers,  520,  636, 
Pensions  or  Boarding  Schools,  238. 
Perceptive  Faculties,  354,  690. 
Pestalozzi,  General  Principles,  491,  690,  714. 

Defects  of  character,  494. 

Influence  on  German  Education,  491,  517. 

Hamann,  544. 


Pestalozzianism,  714. 

Pfeft'erkorn.  John.  Controversy  with  Reuchlin. 

Peterson,  Dr.,  400.  [90 

Pepin  aud  Charlemagne,  2. 

Philanthropic  Archives,  by  Basedow,  463. 

Philological  Seminaries,  661,  690. 

Philosophical  Faculty,  in  Wittenberg,  282. 

Classes  and  Schools,  661,  690. 
Philanthropinum,  and  the  Philanthropists,  456. 

Estimate  by  Goethe.  459.  [464,  467 

Hamann,  539 ;  Herder,  539;  Gedike,  488. 

Kant,  474;  Oberlin,  ^75. 

Interior  Arrangement,  489. 
Physics,  of  Aristotle,  commentary  on,  31. 

Melancthon's  Manual,  176. 
Pelagianism,  Development  of  the  Good,  318. 
Physical  Science,  31,  155,  265. 
Physical  Education— Basedow,  317,  480,  489. 
Picus  di  Mirandola,  92. 
Piarists,  690. 

Pietists,  and  their  Pedagogy,  414.  419. 
Piety  before  Scholarship,  50,  66,  67. 
Pictorial  Illustrations.  Scaliger.  496;  Basedow 

482;  Comenius,  495 :  Woodward,  496. 
Plays  and  Gymnastics,  317,  375. 

Dramatic  Entertainments,  302,  305 
;  Platter,  Thomas,  School  lile  about  1500,  269-80. 

Experience  as  a  fag,  270.  .  [276. 

Acquisition  of  Hebrew,  and  rope  making, 
Pleasure,  associated  with  Study,  627.      [94,  95. 
Poets  name  given  to  Champions  of  the  Classics 

Jurists,  Theologians,  and  Artists,  94. 
Poetry,  Value  of  the  Study  of,  317,  571. 
Poland,  Early  Schools  in,  312,  347, 690. 
Polytechnic  Schools,  695 ;  in  Bavaria,  447.    [160. 
PomtTania,  Church  and  School  Order  in  1535, 

Schools  for  Girls  as  well  as  for  Boys,  160. 
Pomey,  Amalthea,  a  Miscellany,  239  F52. 

Poor  Clerks,  or  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life, 
Popular  Education  in  Germany — Dev't,  509,673. 
Prague,  University,  Lectures  hi  1366,  662. 

Kinderman's  Normal  School,  629. 
Prayer,  at  opening  of  morning  session,  596,  690. 
Primary  Public  Instruction,  519,  641,  673,  691. 
Printing,  Art  of.  52,  510. 

Influence  on  Popular  Education,  510. 

First  Greek  type  and  press,  52. 
Praxis,  Ratich's,  334,  345. 
Precocity,  381. 

Private  Seminaries  in  Austria,  637. 
Private  Tutor,  Trials,  535.  [294. 

Private  or  Select  Schools  in  Saxon  Code,  292, 
Privileges,  Academic,  9. 
Prizes  as  a  motive  to  study,  244.  [245. 

Ceremony  of  distribution  in  Jesuit  Schools, 
Prodromus  of  Comenius,  349. 
Procurator  of  Nation  in  Universities,  7. 
Proctors,  Universities.  Agency,  8. 
Promotion  by  Merit,  520. 
Professed,  in  the  Society  of  Jesus,  263. 
Progressives  of  17th  century,  311-318. 

Summary  of  Principles,  315. 

Mother  Tongue  and  Real  Objects,  317. 

Learning  with  understanding  and  pleasure, 

Music  and  Drawing,  317.  [317. 

Provincial  in  Society  of  Jesus.  233. 
Public  and  Private  Schools.  559,  691. 
Purity  of  thought  and  style,  15. 
Pupil's  Self- Activity,  401 . 
Pupil  teacher,  system  of  Franke,  419. 
Prussia,  Public  Instruction,  651,  673,  691. 
Elementary  Schools,  593.  6*1,643. 

Teachers'  Seminaries,  64b. 
Secondary  Schools,  655,  657. 
Superior  Instruction,  659,  709. 
Technical  Schools,  451.  672,  695. 
SundHv  and  Improvement  Schools,  451,  641. 
Pythagoras,  Golden  Lines,  294,  338. 


6  S3 


iv>    GERMAN    TEACHERS    AND    EDUCATORS. 


Qnadrivium,  6,  9,  374. 
Quaestor,  in  Trotzendorf's  School,  186. 
Qualification?  of  a  good  Teacher,  600. 
Frederic  II.,  595;  How  ascertained,  595. 

Details  of  Law  for  Silesia,  600. 
Herder's  views,  558. 
Hamann,  534,  538,  543. 

Rabanus  Maurus,  Scholar  and  Teacher,  13,  4. 
Radbod,  of  Oriesland,  19. 
Radewin's  Fiorentius,  Canon  of  Utrecht,  46. 
Radpert,  Paschasius,  of  Old  Corby,  16. 
Ragnor  Lodbrog,  5. 

Rambalt,  Pedagogic  Lectures  at  Jena,  517. 
Rank,  Social,  in  School,  307,  691. 
KatgerofFulda,  20. 
Itatpert,  of  St.  Gall,  37. 
Ratich,  Memoir  and  Work,  319-346. 
Instruction  in  Latin,  324. 
General  Principles  of  Education,  334. 
Works  relating  to,  345. 
Rathmelsigi  Monastery,  1. 
Ratio  Studiorum,  Manual  of  Jesuit  Schools,  236. 
Ratisbon,  School  and  School  room,  29,  31. 
Raumer,  Karl,  Chapters  of,  56-96, 131-228. 
heading  and  Writing,  taught  together,  335. 
Real  Schools,  474,  691. 
Realism,  Verbal  and  Real,  429,  431. 
Progressive  Developments,  431,  441. 
Realistic  Studies  in  Austria,  618. 
In  Gymnasiums.  526,691. 
Sturm's  Class  Books,  432. 
Semler's  first  use  ot  the  term  Real,  433. 
Schottgen— Hecker— Halm,  437. 
Sandrart,  Scarrar  and  others  in  Pavaria,  447. 
Rector,  in  Schools  of  the  Jesuits,  237. 
Recreation,  Necessity  for.  415,  330. 
Register  of  Attendance  and  Proficiency,  622. 

Prussian  Law,  595. 

Reyher,  Andrew,  School  Method  of,  1942,  389. 
Rehearsal  from  memory,  Sturm,  203. 
Reichnau,  Monastery,  i3,  39. 
Reimarus,  Teacher  o    Basedow,  457. 
Reinhold,  Mathematics  and  Astronomy.  283. 
Rekahn,  Scene  of  Rochow's  Labors,  499. 
Ritmaun's  Description  of  the  Schools,  507. 
Rudolph's  testimony  as  to  Results,  508. 
Religious  Instruction,'  46,  215. 
Schools  of  the  Je-uits,  241. 
Basedow,  464;  Rochow's  Plan,  502. 
Austrian  Common  Schools,  620. 
Reformation,  Labors  of  Erasmus,  Reuchlin, 

Luther,  92 

Influence  on  Schools  and  Education,  93. 
Popular  Schools,  Utf;  Grammar  Schools- 
Gymnasia,  96. 
Universities,  281. 
Prussian,  596. 

Retrant>lation  from  Latin  to  Greek,  &c.,  203. 
Remigius  of  Auxerre,  16. 
Repetition  of  Lessons,  243,  335,  381. 
Repetition,  Courses  for  Teachers,  654. 
Repetition — frequent  and  accurate,  198.  335. 
Repetition  or  Sup:  lementary  Schools  of  Fred- 
eric II,  593,  691. 

Reuchlinists,  League  of  German  Scholars,  90. 
Reuchlin.  John,  Memoir,  87. 
Educational  Advantages — Good  teachers  and 

travel,  87. 

Controversies  with  Jews,  and  Dominican  j.  89. 
Services  to  study  of  Greek  Literature  and 

Hebrew.  93. 

Reuse— Public  Instruction.  643.  680. 
Reverence  to  Childhood,  557,  543. 
Rheims.  School  of.  16. 
Rhenish  Society  of  Literature.  54,  163. 
Rhenius,  John,  and  Ratich, 328,  345. 
Rhetoric  as  a  study,  176  [203. 

Melancthon,  176.  Jesuit  Schools,  240.  Sturm, 


I  Rhodomannus,  Laurentius,  on  Neander,  227. 
|  Ritter  Academy,  457,  497,  614. 
Roothaan,  General  of  the  Society  of  J.,  237. 
Rochow,  Frederic  Eberhard,  Memoir,  497-508. 
Ignorance  and  Superstition  01  his  Tenant,  497. 
School  Books— Competent  Teachers,  499. 
Local  School  Reforms,  504. 
Educational  Publications,  506. 
Roman  Chant.  29. 
Roman  Catholic  Church  and  Schools,  1-40,  310 

Theological  Faculty,  660. 
Roman  Empire,  Downfall,  41.  43. 

Influence  on  Spread  of  Christianity.  42. 
Rope-making,  or  Hemp  Spinning  and  Twist- 
ing, 277. 

Scholars'  Side  Occupation,  276. 
Rossleben,  Cloister  School,  110. 
Rote,  Learning  by,  337,  689,  691. 
Roucoulles,  Madame  de,  Governness  of  Young 

Frederick,  579. 
Rousseau,  Influence  on  German  Educators  479 

Herder,  549  ;  Basedow,  475. 
Routine,  Daily  School,  Jesuit  Schools,  242. 
Basedow,  489 ;  Prussian  Common  Schools. 
Royal  Schools  in  Saxon  Code,  294.  [596. 

Rudiger  Rescius,  Professor  at  Louvain,  193. 
Rules,  Developed,  out  of  Examples,  339. 
Ruthard,  of  Hirsange,  T2. 
Ruysbro3ck,  Prior  of  Grunthal,  45. 
Saalfield,  Gymnasium  and  Melancthon,  691. 
Sacrabusto,  John,  on  the  sphere,  208,  692. 
!  Sacristans,  as  Teachers  of  Common  Schools, 

593,595,691. 

Sagan,  Felbiger's  Normal  School.  625,  691. 
Salaries,  of  Professors,  284.  670,  691. 
Paid  partly  by  fees,  285,  590. 
Teachers  Under  Duke  Ernest,  394. 
Salzwedel  Gymnasium,  302. 
Salzmann  Chaplin  at  Philanthropinum,  477. 

Institution  at  Schnepfenthal,  488,  397. 
Sandrart,  Trade  School  of  Nuremberg,  447. 
j  Sapidus,  John,  Rector  of  Gymnasium,  86,  274. 
Satire,  Influence  on  young  minds,  84. 
Saturday,  Special  exercises  for,  598,  691. 
Saxe-t  otha,  School  reforms,  389,  406,  681. 
Reyher's  Manual  of  1643,  389. 
Programme  of  1863.  400. 
Saxony  in  Luther's  time.  120;  1869,  680. 
School  Code  of  1580,  293. 
Primary  Schools  in  1865,  403,  643,  692. 

Teachers'  Seminaries,  650. 
Secondary  Schools,  657. 
Superior  Instruction ,  671. 
Technical  Schools.  672. 
Saxony,  Reigning  Family  about  1500,  120. 
j  Scalliger,  Value  of  Pictures,  4%. 
1  Scharrer,  Technical  Schools  of  Nuremberg,  447. 
Schepfenthal,  Salzman.  69. 
Schlettstadt  School  in  Alsace,  and  the  Classics, 
Platter's  account,  274.  [85. 

Scheurl  of  Nuremberg,  126. 
School,  Names  given  to.  60,  559,  662. 
School  Books,  Mediaeval,  94. 
Improvements  in,  by  Rochow,  500. 
Austrian  Law,  621,  626:  Prussian,  5<»8. 
Schools  as  they  were  in  the  Sixteenth  and  Sev- 
enteenth century,  479,  692. 
Silesia.  600:  Bohemia,  628;  Suabia,  479. 
School  Plan,  Luther,  and  Melancthon,  169,  511. 

For  Grammar  Schools,  170. 
School-houses.Austrian  Law,  621;  Prussian,  601 . 
School-master,  Agricola  Views,  60;  Herder,  558. 
Scholae,  Minores,  9  :  Majores,  9. 
Schuppius.  Balthazar.  German  Grammar,  301. 
Schweinfurt  Gymnasium,  fcv,K.. 
Schottgen,  Rector  in  Dresden,  1742,  435. 
Schools  and  Universities,  their  Relations,  570. 
Scholastics,  in  Society  of  Jesus,  233. 


INDEX    TO    GERMAN   TEACHERS   AND    EDUCATORS. 


681 


Schleswig-Holstein,  Public  Schools,  692. 
Schulz,  Otto,  Latin  Grammar,  175. 

Indebtedness  to  Rochovv,  506. 
Schrdder  of  Dantzig,  313. 
Scriptorium  in  Ancient  Monasteries,  11,  27,  36. 
Schwarzburg,  Public  Schools,  643,  650, 657, 692. 
Schwarz,  Franke's  Missionary,  421. 
Schwarzerd,  Melancthou's  family  name,  162. 
Science  and  the  Church— Melaucthon,  178. 
Scott,  Michael,  cited,  33. 
Secondary  Schools  in  Germany,  655,  657,  673. 

Admission,  Studies,  Examinations,  655, 692. 
Self-governing  Schools,  376.  [433. 

Semfer,  Christopher,  Plan  of  Real  Schools,  1739, 

Non  Scholae,  Sed  Vitae  discendum,  433. 

Anticipator  of  Rousseau  and  Pestalozzi,  433. 
Seminaries,  Episcopal,  5;  Theological,  555. 

Teachers  of  Common  Schools,  German,  517, 
Austria,  633,  646.  [646. 

Prussia,  600,  64S. 
Seminaries,  Pedagogical  in  Universities,  660. 

Philosophical  and  Mathematical,  660. 
Senanus,  St.,  of  Cork,  3 
Sententiarius,  in  Theology,  120. 
Seventeenth  Century— Pedagogy,  289-310,  311. 
Seven  Liberal  Arts,  7,  9, 374. 
Seven  Years'  War,  615. 
Severity  in  Discipline.  337,  479.    ' 
Sewing  and  Knitting,  304. 
Shelly,  cited.  Sadness  in  Music,  17. 
Sickengen,  Francis  Von,  and  Reuchlia,  91,  92. 
Sighart,  Life  of  Albertus  Magnus,  32. 
Silberschlag,  Pupil  of  Frank!,  435 
Silence  in  th«  School  Room,  338,  555. 
Silesia,  Frederick  II..  Reforms,  600,  611. 

Felbiger's  Labors,  6-25. 
Silkworm  Culture,  Kinderman,  630. 
Simler,  George,  at  Pforzheim  and  Tubingen, 
Singing  in  Schools,  692.  [86, 162,  166. 

Sixteenth  Century  Pedagogy,  114  269-295. 
Sleidanus,  Pupil  of  Hieronymians,  193. 
Sleep,  how  Scholars  produce,  276. 
Society  of  Jesus,  or  Jesuits,  229-262. 

History  and  Organization.  230. 

Constitutions  respecting  Instruction,  257. 

Development  of  Colleges.  231,  232. 
Sophistry,  distinguished  from  love  and  trust, 
Spangel,* Pallas,  at  Heidelberg,  163.  [177. 

Spalatin,  and  Luther,  114,  167. 
Special  Technical  Schools,  452,  697. 

Military  Schools,  705. 
Sphere,  Lectures  on,  in  1559,  291,  294. 
Spelling  neglected,  415 ;  by  Dictation,  603. 
Spengler,  Lazarus,  168. 
Spener,  Philip  J.,  Memoir,  408,  413. 

Catechetical  Method.  513. 
Spilleke,  Real  School  of  Berlin,  440. 
Stadian,  Francis,  165. 
Standonch,  J..  Hieronymians  in  France,  52. 

Statutes  su  'gest  the  Rule  of  St.  Ignatius,  52. 
Staupitz,  John  Von,  Memoir,  117. 
Stargard,  Endowed  School,  299. 

Dramatic  Performances,  303. 
State,  Duty  of  Education,  692. 

Austria,  619:  Prussia,  606. 
Strasburg  Gymnasium,  193.  209. 

College— Schedule  and  Lectures  in  1578,  209. 
Stein,  EUelwolf,  and  Hutten,  86,  96. 
Steinmetz,  at  Klosterbergen,  516,  692. 
Stephen  of  Wurtzberg,  31. 
Stettin,  Teacher's  Seminary  in  1735,  518. 
Strabo,  Walafrid.  12. 

Strobel,  Contributions  to  Literature,  281. 
Students'  Life  about  1700.  »t  Halle,  414. 

Wittenberg  about  1533. 119,  285. 

Eighteenth  Century,  709;  Nineteenth  711. 
Studium  Ge"ne"rale,  4,  7,  709. 

Conspiring  Causes  in  Establishment,  7,31. 


Studies  and  Conduct— General  Principles,  117. 

Erasmus,  81 ;  Loyola,  257. 

Wimpheling,   Adolescentia,  Integritate—86, 

Agricola,  de  formando  Studio,  62. 
Sturm,  Abbot  of  Fulda,  14. 
i  r*turm,  John  Christopher,  Class-book  in  Math- 
ematics, 432. 

Use  of  the  Compass,  Square,  Rod,  etc.,  432. 
\  Sturm,  John,  Life  and  Educational  Work,  193 

Parentage  and  Education,  193.  [223 

I     Aim  of  all  high  culture,  195,  212. 
j     Recitations  and  Text-Books  from  6  to  15, 195 

Lectures  from  6  to  21,  195,  212. 

Influence  on  German  Schools,  313. 
St.  Elizabeth,  in  Thunngia,  102. 

College  for  Swiss  at  Breelau,  272. 
St.  Emeran,  Monastery  and  School,  at  Ratisbon, 
St.  Gall,  Abbey  and  School,  22,  35.  126. 

Subjects  of  Elementary  Schools,  644. 

Secondary,  655,  692;  Superior,  662,  663. 
Suffering  and  Want,  Lessons  from,  111,  280. 

Luther's,  112. 

Summermatter,  Paul,  and  Thomas  Platter,  269. 
Sunday-school  in  Germany,  451,  692. 

Law  of  Frederick  II.,  594. 

Pupil's  walk  with  Teacher  to  Church,  599. 
Superior  Instructio    in  Germany,  659-672. 

Contents  of  Special  Treatise,  709. 
Support  of  Elen.entary  Schools,  693. 

Fees,  per  child,  694. 

Funds,  636,  686. 

Government.  636. 

Style,  Attendance  to,  by  Sturm,  199,  205. 
Supervision  and  Inspection  of  Schools,  641, 655. 

Law  of  Frederick  II.,  599. 

Maria  Theresa  623. 
Supplementary  Schools,  644,  686, 693. 
Sweiten,  Gerard  Van,  Memoir,  618. 

Imperial  Librarian,  618. 
Swiss,  School  Life  in  15th  Century,  269. 

Thomas  Platter  of  Canton  Valais,  269. 
Syntax,  and  Style,  289. 

Tangmar,  of  Hildesheim,  23. 
Taubman,  Verbalist  and  Renlist,  430. 
Teaching,  Dignity  and  Delicacy  of  the  Office. 

Value  in  Learning  a  Subject,  548,  555.      [543. 
Teacher,  Estimate  of  a  good,  693. 

Agricola,  60;  Hamanri,  543. 

Evils  of  Frequent  Changes.  419  [416,  645,  693. 
Teachers'  Seminary,  Historical  Development, 

Franke's  Efforts,  316,  418,  576. 

Herder  in  1787,  554. 
Technical  Instruction  and  Real  Schools,  447- 

Statistics  for  Germany,  672,  697.        [456,  597. 
Tegernsee.  Monastery  and  School  of,  26. 
Teronce,  Utilized  in  Speaking  Latin,  83. 

UPC  in  Schools  of  the  Seventeenth  Century, 
Tertullian.on  Roman  Civilization,  42.  [327-334. 
Tetto,of  Reichneti,  13. 
Tetzel  and  Luther,  124. 
Text-books,  Rules  of  Loyola,  265  ;  Rochow's, 

Melancthon.  172;  Neander,  227.  [597. 

Theodore  of  Tarsus,  5. 
Theology,  Requirement  for.  120, 179,  660. 

Loyola's  Constitutions,  266. 
Theolosrical  Seminary,  Herder's  plan,  555. 
Theophania.  Greek  Princess,  and  Otho  II.,  22. 
Things  and  Words,  tansrht  together,  353. 
Thirty  Years'  War,  1618-48,  513. 

Influence  on  Schools  and  Society,  297. 
Thiemon,  Monk,  Bishop  and  Painter,  28. 
;  Thomas-a-Kempis,  Memoir,  48. 
Thomasius,  Jacob,  528. 
Thomasius,  Christian.  304,  433,  523. 
Thomas,  School  at  Leipsic,  523. 

Laws  drawn  at  Gerner,  523. 
Thorn,  Gymnasium.  302. 
Thuringia,  in  Luther's  Boyhood,  103, 107. 


682 


INDEX    TO    GERMAN    TEACHERS    AND    EDUCATORS. 


Tigernach,  Irish  Scholar,  29. 
Tours,  School  of,  15. 
Trade  School,  Earliest,  447,  697. 
Training  for  Teachers,  237,  515,  645. 
Trapp,  Champion  of  Basedow,  476,  562. 

Professor  of  Pedagogy  at  Halle,  562. 
Translations,  Oral  and  Written,  20. 
Trent,  Council,  and  Episcopal  Seminaries,  5. 
Treves,  Brother's  House  and  School,  311. 

Jesuit  School  in  1566,  312. 
Trivial  Schools  in  Luther's  Time,  100. 

Platter's  Autobiography,  101. 

Austrian,  619. 

Trivium,  and  Quadrivium,  6,  9, 
Trotzendorf,  Valentine  Friedland,  185. 

Family  Name— School  and  University,  185. 

Rectorship  of  Goldberg  Gymnasium,  185. 

German  School  Regulations,  186. 

School  Magistracy— Nomenclature,  185. 
Tubingen  University,  Melancthon's  time,  163. 

Scholarship,  291 ;  Statistics  in  1869,  658. 
Tudesque,  dialect,  38. 
Tuition,  paid,  698. 
Tutilo,  of  St.  Gall,  37. 
Udalric,  St.  of  Augsburgh,  22. 
Ulric,  St.  of  Cluny,  28;  of  Engeltrecht,  34. 
Ulrich,  Duke  of  Wurtemberg,  92. 
Ulrich,  Von  Hutten,  91. 128. 
Universities,  281,  659,  709. 

Rise  of,  Newman,  5. 

Wittenberg,  21-281. 

Halle,— State  of  Preparatory  Schools,  415. 

Statistics  of  German,  in  1869,  658. 
Utrecht,  Early  Christian  Seminary,  1, 19. 
Understanding  and  Speech,  359. 
Usefulness  of  Society,  in  1620,  306. 
Uniformity  of  School  Books,  698. 
University  Lectures,  Language  used,  304. 

As  they  were  in  the  Fourteenth  Century,  662. 
Sixteenth  Century,  282. 
Nineteenth  Century,  663,  667,  709. 
University,  Manners  and  Morals,  about  1533, 

Apparatus  and  Libraries,  285.  [285. 

Vacations,  694. 

Variety,  as  well  as  Repetition,  335. 
Verbalist  and  Realist,  430. 
Verbal  Realism,  425. 

Erasmus,  the  Pioneer,  425. 

Things  studied  for  better  Understanding  of 
Words,  425. 

Melancthon  and  Eber,  427. 
Vermin,  Schools  infested  with,  272. 
Vernacular  Language,  12,  306,  694. 
Village  Schools,  Prussia,  599,  694. 
Visitor  of  Studies,  or  Syndic,  in  Jesuit  Schools, 
Vienna,  First  Jesuit  School.  811.  [261. 

Scheme  of  Institutions,  640,  694. 

Lectures,  in  1389.  664. 
Vispach,  Platter's  Experience,  269,  273. 
Vives.  Ludovicns.  379 

Vow,  of  the  Professor.  &c.— Jesuits,  259,278. 
Von  Schulstein,  See  Kindermann,  630. 
Voice,  Living,  and  Artificial,  538. 
Von  Zedlitz  syid  Rochow,  501. 


Vocal  Music,  Comenius,  375. 

Basedow,  492. 

Pestalozzi,  492. 

Luther,  158. 
Von  Sybel,  310. 

Voight,  Scientific  Text-book,  398. 
Vestibulum,  of  Comenius,  362. 
Wagenseil,  C.,  Vocabulary,  and  Style,  300. 
Walafrid,  Strabo,  12. 

Waldeck,  Public  Instruction,  643,  657,  694. 
Welburga,  St.,  Hildesheim,  2. 
Watts,  Isaac,  Dr.  Johnson's  Tribute.  612. 
Weaving  and  Dyeing,  Schools  for,  455,  701. 
Wessel,  John,  Memoir,  56,  57. 
Widows  of  Teachers,  645,  694. 
Wiese,  High  Schools  of  Prussia,  656. 
Weimar,  Duchess  Dorothea,  305. 
Westphalia,  Peace  of,  300 
Wigger,  Teacher  at  Misnia,  24. . 
Wilfred-Wilbald-Wilibrord,  1. 
William,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  and  Reuchlin,  92. 
William  of  Herschau.  28. 
Willing  Study,— Wolf,  571. 
Wimpheling,  Pupil  of  Schlettstadt  School,  85. 
Winbert  Abbot.  1. 

Windesheim,  Mother  House  of  Hieronymans. 
Winfred,  St.  Boniface,  1.  [48. 

Winkler,  G.  Pastor  of  Goldberg,  324. 

Teacher  at  Leipsic,  523. 

Winshemius,  Eulogy  on  Melancthon,  161.  [104. 
Witches,  Popular  belief  in  Luther's  boyhood. 
Wittenberg  University  in  Luther's  time,  119. 

Melancthon  Statutes,  281-285. 
Witz.  John  Sapidus,  87. 
Woodward,  Hezekiah,  Gate  of  Sciences,  496. 
Workshops,  in  Monasteries,  24,  35. 
Wolf,  H.,  Rector  of  Ausrsburg,  419. 
Wolf,  F.  A.,  Memoir,  561. 

Professor  of  Pedagogy  at  Halle,  562. 

Influence  of  his  criticism.  567. 

Scholars  of  his  Tuition,  568. 

Examples  of  his  Pedagogy,  569. 

Professorship  at  Berlin,  573. 
Wolfgang  of  WTurtzburg,  21,  26. 
\V61ke,  Basdow's  principal  teacher,  461. 

Mode  of  instructing  Emilie,  462. 
Writing  in  Schools,  695. 
Writing  and  Reading,  694. 
Writing,  and  transcription  in  Monasteries,  27. 
Written  Examinations,  650. 
Wnrtzburg.  School  of,  20. 

University,  658. 
Wurtemberg,  School  Code  of  1559,  289. 

Elementary  Schools,  643,  694. 

Secondary 'Schools,  656. 

Universities,  657. 

Technical,  671,  700. 
Year.  School,  633,  644,  694. 
Young  Children,  644,  694. 
Zedlitz,  and  Rochow,  501,  994. 
Zinzendorf,  Count,  422,  518. 
Zurich,  Frauenminster  School,  275. 

University,  658 ;  Polytechnic,  704. 
Zwoll,  Monastery  of  Hieronymians,  48. 


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